Selective Germophobia
See the title of this post? I now proudly proclaim it as my own contribution to the field of pop-psychology.
What is it? here is my best attempt to describe it:
Selective Germophobia = the tendency of many people* to attempt to protect themselves from disease-inducing germs** without giving a lick of thought to how internally inconsistent*** their efforts are.
(yes, yes, this post will be somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Like, when do I ever not do that?)
Instead of going into a long diatribe which will bore you to tears, let me instead take you through a couple of examples that will clearly illustrate the concept.
Exhibit number 1 - the office Espresso machine
Have you ever noticed how people will give you strange looks if you don't wipe off the nozzle that steams the milk after making yourself an espresso? actually, there is good reason to wipe it off, but it is not the one that these folks generally care about. For them, it's all about the germs, or in the truly deranged cases, the idea that an itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny drop of half-and-half will contaminate their no-fat coffee (no matter that the caloric gain is so miniscule it would not even be put on a food label as anything other than 0).
The point I'm actually getting at is that as industrious as they are to make the damn thing literally shine before they sink it into the next pot of milk - even if it is the same kind of milk! - they never, ever, ever, bother with the most important action: let air through the nozzle for a quick second. That clears it so it doesn't get clogged. Don't believe me? go observe Baristas at Starbucks for a while. They don't bother with the "shiny" wiping, plus they use rags that probably collect more germs than you would care to think about if you are that sort. But they sure do blow air through those nozzles. You might note that they also blow a bit of air before starting to clear any water in the line.
But hey, I suppose imaginary actions befit imaginary germs. Right?
Exhibit 2 - the coffee mixers
Next, I urge you to spend a bit of time in Coffee Bean, or Starbucks, or Pete's or whatever you folks have over on the east coast. Look at the condiments section. Observe people's behavior. Notice how some are so worried about germs that they will literally replace the cover of their coffee cup if it happens to, say, fall on the counter briefly as they add sweetener to their coffee. They look intently to see whether your hand may have passed within a couple inches of it and replace it again if it did. It would be amusing if it wasn't so sad.
And then... they grab a mixer (one of those wooden sticks) from the mixer cup to mix their coffee. Have you ever noticed how mixers tend to be stuffed together? have you noticed that to pry one out, you are going to inevitably touch a bunch of others?
dot, dot, dot
There's tons of other every day examples for this phenomenon (I've recently had the pleasure of having someone use a wipe to clean the steering wheel of the rental I drove earlier in the day - after shaking my hand several times during the previous meeting and thinking nothing of it).
Aren't we lucky to live in a world where these are things our minds can fixate on?
----------------
* in the US, mostly
** oddly enough, these people seem to also believe that germs carry diseases***
*** that is, silly
What is it? here is my best attempt to describe it:
Selective Germophobia = the tendency of many people* to attempt to protect themselves from disease-inducing germs** without giving a lick of thought to how internally inconsistent*** their efforts are.
(yes, yes, this post will be somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Like, when do I ever not do that?)
Instead of going into a long diatribe which will bore you to tears, let me instead take you through a couple of examples that will clearly illustrate the concept.
Exhibit number 1 - the office Espresso machine
Have you ever noticed how people will give you strange looks if you don't wipe off the nozzle that steams the milk after making yourself an espresso? actually, there is good reason to wipe it off, but it is not the one that these folks generally care about. For them, it's all about the germs, or in the truly deranged cases, the idea that an itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny drop of half-and-half will contaminate their no-fat coffee (no matter that the caloric gain is so miniscule it would not even be put on a food label as anything other than 0).
The point I'm actually getting at is that as industrious as they are to make the damn thing literally shine before they sink it into the next pot of milk - even if it is the same kind of milk! - they never, ever, ever, bother with the most important action: let air through the nozzle for a quick second. That clears it so it doesn't get clogged. Don't believe me? go observe Baristas at Starbucks for a while. They don't bother with the "shiny" wiping, plus they use rags that probably collect more germs than you would care to think about if you are that sort. But they sure do blow air through those nozzles. You might note that they also blow a bit of air before starting to clear any water in the line.
But hey, I suppose imaginary actions befit imaginary germs. Right?
Exhibit 2 - the coffee mixers
Next, I urge you to spend a bit of time in Coffee Bean, or Starbucks, or Pete's or whatever you folks have over on the east coast. Look at the condiments section. Observe people's behavior. Notice how some are so worried about germs that they will literally replace the cover of their coffee cup if it happens to, say, fall on the counter briefly as they add sweetener to their coffee. They look intently to see whether your hand may have passed within a couple inches of it and replace it again if it did. It would be amusing if it wasn't so sad.
And then... they grab a mixer (one of those wooden sticks) from the mixer cup to mix their coffee. Have you ever noticed how mixers tend to be stuffed together? have you noticed that to pry one out, you are going to inevitably touch a bunch of others?
dot, dot, dot
There's tons of other every day examples for this phenomenon (I've recently had the pleasure of having someone use a wipe to clean the steering wheel of the rental I drove earlier in the day - after shaking my hand several times during the previous meeting and thinking nothing of it).
Aren't we lucky to live in a world where these are things our minds can fixate on?
----------------
* in the US, mostly
** oddly enough, these people seem to also believe that germs carry diseases***
*** that is, silly
posted by Blinkered at 8:46 AM
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