Jason Fitzpatrick
Do we want you to stop talking to your friends and loved ones during a pandemic? Absolutely not. Do we want to stop seeing everyone in public with their phones mashed right up against their faces? Yes, we do.
Thanks to the coronavirus outbreak, it’s been impossible to not be hyperaware of things like people coughing on everything, how dirty public things like door handles and subway poles are, and how important it is we stop touching our faces to transmit pathogens right to the place on our body that’s most vulnerable to them.
But here’s one thing that most of us likely aren’t even thinking about: there’s no point in avoiding scratching an itch on your cheek if you’re just going to answer your phone and mash it (which is filthy) and your hands (which are likely also filthy) right against your face. And then, worse yet, hold said phone and hands there for the duration of a phone call. In terms of risk and transfer time, that’s exponentially worse than just scratching a quick itch.
So what do you do? If you know you’ve been out in public touching this, that, and the other thing, make a concerted effort to use your phone’s speakerphone (when appropriate) or send a text instead. If you’ve never used the phone function on your Bluetooth headphones, now might be the time to check the manual and figure out how it works.
Once you’re at home and you’ve had a chance to disinfect your smartphone and wash your hands, it’s a perfect time to settle in and give your friends (and, hey, maybe your grandma too) a call to see how they are doing.
And, if you’d like to decrease how much time you’re touching your face with your hands and phone even within the comfort of your home then it’s a perfect time to invest in a nice Bluetooth speaker with integrated speakerphone functionality so you can take those work calls and catch up with friends without all the hand-to-face contact.
