Farting, burping, and picking your nose; what do all these things have in common? Well let's see, they're all inappropriate conducts in public. They all involve something coming out of your body. Oh right, and they're all perfectly healthy! Just because something is frowned upon socially, doesn't mean it's not good. Just as peeing involves getting rid of toxins from your body, and farting involves getting rid of excess gas, picking your nose involves getting rid of a buildup of dust and germs.

What are boogers?

Having boogers/snot in your nose means your nose functionally active. While you breath, many things would go up your nose that you don't want up there. This includes dust, bugs, tiny particles of germs and bacteria floating around in the air, and many other such allergens. Your nose is layered with a wet and sticky substance called mucus, along with hair. The hair functions as a filter and blocks things from getting too far up your nose, while the mucus coats and solidifies these so that they can eventually fall out of your nose. The key point here being out of your nose.

Boogers are not supposed to stay in your nose, they 're supposed to come out. Usually when you blow your nose or sneeze or something, they fall out. Sometimes you even rub your nose or subconsciously play with it a bit to get rid of the booger. All of these things are perfectly normal, so if you happen to casually pick your nose and people tell you that you should stop, don't.

Pick your nose, and encourage others to as well.

Chances are, the people telling you to pick your nose do so as well, several times a day. Like you, they may or may not know they consciously do it either. What you should do is consciously start picking your nose. Just find a time when you're alone, and pick at it. Get whatever is up there out of your nostrils and get on with your day. You'll even feel better afterwards. Sometimes when there's a huge booger stuck up there it can be quite uncomfortable, and it's really a great feeling when you get rid of that stuffiness. I like to pick my nose on the toilet (as tempting as it is you shouldn't flicker it on the wall), before I sleep, or in the shower. Those are some really nice private times to perform the act. You'll feel cleaner, and you'll sleep better.

If you are a parent, don't discourage your child from picking his or her nose. Your child is just doing something that comes naturally to them. They're programmed to do that, and telling them not to do that will only frustrate them. As you can see from this video, nose picking comes from our evolutionary heritage: