I remember reading any text i found while beeing on toilette when i was a kid(even shampoo ingredients).
Ah, the panic of having to use the bathroom so severely you can’t make it to your book or magazine in time. Oh look, I wonder what Methyllaurelsulfate does?
I always thought the bathroom reader books were tacky and stupid, then a I got a couple and they came in clutch so many times.
Now that I have a phone, I think it’s kinda gross to have items out for everyone to touch while using the toilet. Weird how perception changes.
I mean, if you want an answer to that you could just stop using your smartphone for a few weeks and see what your brain comes up with. Here’s a short list of some examples that were popular when I was a kid and smartphones did not exist yet:
Magazines, the daily newspaper, books, going out and exploring, shopping at malls, doing a hobby or craft, personal projects, television, chit-chatting with friends or even strangers, video games, puzzles, play with your pets, exercise, play sports, sitting quietly and being alone with your thoughts.
For toilet time there was riveting reading material such as: Shampoo ingredients. Hand soap ingredients. Bodywash ingredients. The latter two assuming it wasn’t bar soap.
Maybe someone was around to bring you a magazine… or tell you to hurry up and finish and get it yourself.
Clearly I don’t read even now, as my comment is a more or less the same as others here, and a day late.
I was getting my vehicle worked over recently. At the time I was listening to a podcast. A couple other people, probably early 50s were chatting. The old dude in the corner, likely around 70-80 was just sitting there hands empty, looking around, reading nothing like some kind of psychopath.
For 40 minutes.
He did nothing.
It was honestly rather impressive.
Read.
- Watch tv.
- Read a book.
- Play single-player pc games.
- Literally go outside and touch grass.
There’s something to be said for browsing TV. Having favorites channels and recalling between two different shows between commercials. Sucks if commercials were synced.
Like, some films I wouldn’t put on voluntarily but I’d watch if I caught it on you know? Also found a lot of new stuff I wouldn’t have otherwise seen.
It’s interesting how some movies suck you in even though they’re definitely aren’t your thing.
Back in the 80s TV where I lived used to show Bollywood films at about 1am, which was when I got home from work. So I started watching this film, which was apparently a romance. Sparky career woman rejects advances of handsome fellow. Everyone starts singing and dancing. Ok, a musical then. Thugs burst in and shoot the place up. Woman’s father is killed, she swears vengeance. Uh ok… Local politician tries to shut down newspaper our heroine has just inherited, handsome fellow intervenes. More singing and dancing, ending in fireworks! which is apparently Bollywood for hot sex. Plot twist, handsome fellow is actually a baddie! I had to stop watching at 4am, no idea how it ended up.
