Bathroom Study 'Flushes' Out America's Cell-Phone Addiction

If you use your cell phone in the bathroom, you’re not alone. A new study from marketing agency 11mark says three quarters of Americans do so.

In fact, one quarter of the people surveyed said they don’t go to the toilet without their phone. The study, called “IT in the Toilet” some things are just too wacky to make up shows that people are texting, emailing, surfing the Web and making calls when they’re in the john.

The writing is on the stall” is how Nicole Burdette, a principal at 11mark, so aptly put it. “… The mobile-everywhere phenomenon is flushing out a host of new opportunities for savvy communicators.” Groan.

The survey shows that our addiction is pretty even between genders. Seventy-four percent of men and 76 percent of women report they have used their mobile phone in the bathroom. Almost two-thirds (63 percent) have answered a phone call and 41 percent have initiated one. Two thirds have read a text, and 38 percent have surfed the Internet.

Other survey results show:

The 11mark survey was done online and gathered responses from 1,000 Americans.

This study probably doesn’t come as a huge surprise to you if you’re one of the majority of iPhone users surveyed last year who said they would pull their phone out of a public toilet if they accidentally dropped it in one.