The weirdness of The Dirty Tissue Problem

Let’s say you walk into a public restroom.

And there’s a dirty tissue on the counter.

Do you touch it?

No, of course you don’t, because you have no idea what was in it. Do you clean it up? Maybe, but doing so requires extra care, because you have no idea what was in it. Did the person who left it blow their nose into it? Did they use it to wipe their glasses?

You have no idea what was in it.

This piece needed a photo and my search thinks this is a tissue. Could be bacon in there.

Now let’s say you made the tissue dirty. Maybe you blew your nose into it, maybe you used it to wipe your glasses. If you dispose of it properly, it doesn’t matter, but if you leave it on the counter for the next person, you’ve now erased the knowledge of HOW to dispose of it properly.

Let’s set aside for now whether you’re more or less comfortable with touching other people’s boogers vs. your own. You didn’t just leave a dirty tissue for them, you left them uncertainty. It isn’t just that you left a mess for someone to clean up, you left a mess that now takes an order of magnitude more effort to fix by someone who doesn’t know the circumstances around what the mess is.

This is only one way public spaces and shared resources get spoiled, but it’s a pretty insidious one. Clean up your tissues. (This isn’t just about tissues.)

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