Toilet tumult

Social media is not only disrupting home life as family dinners turn cold when members become detached from each other as they tinker with their smartphones. Getting glued on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter now threatens the corporate world with workers spending too much time swiping touchscreens.

According to British toilet bowl maker StandardToilet, employees spend extra time inside the toilet during breaks, costing local industry and commerce £4 million per year. The habit is also to blame for hemorrhoids and the weakening of pelvic muscles.

The company took up the cudgels for businesses by coming up with a tilting toilet which makes sitting too long on the toilet bowl discomforting by giving the sitter that sliding feel. StandardToilet claims in its website that its bowl designed by Mahabir Gill “offers the ability to increase business efficiency and profits through reductions in social media usage.”

“The sloping design could save industry billions in wasted hours,” according to the company.

Initial reactions from netizens were not good though, with one saying the StandardToilet can harm people with back and knee problems.

But the British Toilet Association is supporting StandardToilet.

There was an attempt 108 years ago by bathroom fittings firm Twyfords to introduce such a toilet bowl but was unsuccessful.

Blogger Terry Woolliscroft said the StandardToilet will not appeal to the public.

Woolliscroft also doubts that social media is to blame for the extended toilet break.

“If social media and mobiles didn’t exist, then people would still spend time in the loo, probably reading the newspaper,” BBC quoted him as saying.