The Multitasking Superheroes

It’s that time of the year again, when stressed-out faces outnumber happy ones, and sleep becomes unnecessary. For four days, the high school kids become superheroes, surviving on little to no sleep, and accomplishing impossible feats, like actually passing their Honors Chemistry midterm. This is not a desirable time to be one of us. And if your household is lucky enough to be graced with one of these student-superheroes, or maybe two, you’ve started to hate midterms about as much as we do.

All of this aside, I was sitting around yesterday, numb after my second test of the day, needing something to do. Now, this wasn’t just a need, it was more of a scratch I couldn’t itch, a desperate ache for something to do. At this point I would have settled for my English homework. That’s when it hit me, why is it that I find it impossible to sit still for 20 minutes and think about things? Why do I have to be 100 percent stimulated all the time?

Even when I’m doing my homework, I’m listening to music, texting and checking facebook obsessively. Why can’t I just focus on one thing at a time? And it’s not just me, it’s my entire generation. We are the most efficient multitaskers you have ever seen in your life. Our parents yell at us about it, explaining that we “simply can’t focus” when we are practicing the piano, studying for the Spanish midterm and talking on the phone at the same time. Silly parents, what do they know?

Actually, sorry to say for those agreeing with me right now, your parents have a point. I’m positive you’d get a 90 on your math midterm instead of a 75 if you just turned some things off. You can listen to music later, and it’s not like your friends are going anywhere.

Then again, what if it’s the adults who are misinformed? Sure, it seems like us teenagers have the attention span of a gnat and have to be doing a thousand things at any given time. But, needless to say, we are all functioning members of society, all still in school, and able to manage some level of coherent conversation. What if we are just learning different skills then the older generation? That our brains have become able to adapt to so many distractions?

“The young always have the same problem - how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another.” ~ Quentin Crisp

Something to think about!

Rachel