Polls discover which is better: scrunching or folding!

Yes that's right. The big news is as usual, a very important topic. One we all have a view on, but one which we particularly don't want to view. Scrunching versus folding. Yes one of the most ponderous yet satisfying habits of humankind has revealed that, in the UK at least, more people prefer scrunching to folding, according to the research, 68% fold their toilet paper before wiping and only 15% of us scrunch it. Holy one-ply!

There were other startling examples of toilet loves and abuses in the study this author found, for example:  Men like to have something to read on the loo, 59% compared to just 43% of women.
REALLY?! Does there really have to be a survey about that? Any magazine or newspaper reading male could tell you that a nice piece of highbrow literature in the loo is great for the constitution!

 In the ideal world there would be a variety of reading material available, men and women's magazines of all descriptions from many different sources... A joyous and steamy convergence of habits and preferences.

Which just goes to show that you can please most people all of the time as long as your one, two, or if you can afford it, GASP-three ply doesn't rip! The media is similar in this vein. Whether your bag is radio, print, television or online media, it's fair to say that there are many tastes and requirements. Henry Jenkins has this to say about convergence, although it could also be used for toilet tissue too:

 "We are living in an age when changes in communications, storytelling and information technologies are reshaping almost every aspect of contemporary life -- including how we create, consume, learn, and interact with each other. A whole range of new technologies enable consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media content and in the process, these technologies have altered the ways that consumers interact with core institutions of government, education, and commerce."

Changes. This is an important word, things are changing, constantly. There is now something called electronic paper , an extremely flexible electronic screen that is light, easy to read, cheap and importantly for the producers, cheap to make. But is this amazing breakthrough really a good thing? Look at the picture above and ask yourself 'would this room be just as comfortable without all that reading material'? The answer would be a resounding no! One small tube apparently, is what the future of reading may be, something that would be kept in your pocket (to slowly cook genitalia is a serious question to be raised!), and would be connected to digital technology, giving the owner an instant dose of news, views and information:

This document reader will be used for e-mail, the Internet, books downloaded from a global digital library that is currently under construction, technical manuals, newspapers (perhaps in larger format), magazines, and so forth, anywhere on the planet. It will cost less than $100, and nearly everyone will have one!

Hmmm... call me skeptical, call me a folder, but don't call me these guys just yet because I don't know if I really want one. For a start. This sort of tech comes with a number of prices aside from the dollar value. There is the labor issue. There would be no doubt that until robots can replace low cost labour, people in developing countries will still be utilized, thus keeping them in their cycle of poverty. E-paper... no good for some but amazing, a revolution for others, is this right? Try telling the scrunchers they are wrong. Oh just to show the absurdidty of toilet paper and tech, 'and nearly everyone will have one' or ' the re-launch of the Shades toilet paper across all UK stores which is calling it's "best ever toilet roll'. What's the problem here? Sure nearly everyone might have one (a paper thin e-reader), but millions won't. Of the worlds 7 billion population, probably two thirds might be able to afford it. The rest will have to make it. As for the 'best' toilet paper... well the stores involved have just been found out. In order to make the 'best' paper, to scrunch or fold, they have reduced the width. You actually get less for your money! The whole point of the blog? What is 'best' or 'revoloutionary' might not actualy be, convergence of the media is the same, jump on the bandwagon, integrate then suffer the profit and skill loss... Ah what price happiness?

Pic: Applianceonline.