I Think I Have ADD Because- Squirrel!

     Right now, I'm multitasking. I am; writing this paper, listening to my favorite Pandora radio station, chatting with friends on Skype, Facebook creeping, looking up movie reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and texting 3 of my “closest” friends. I am your average Generation Y-er. I do all of these things simultaneously, and am convinced that I am doing them all well. I just checked Facebook again.

     This is the problem with my generation- we've given ourselves ADD. Generation Y has created a trap through the internet, and we willfully ensnare ourselves in that trap daily; but, with a little discretion, we can wriggle our way out of our trap.

     Science has proven that we can't do more than one thing at a time and do it well, yet if our focus is on one thing alone, we get bored. How many times have you been sitting in front of the TV, half-watching a show, felt bored, and decided to get out your laptop and creep around on Facebook? Don't lie. I know you creep. So now you have the TV on and Facebook open. Your brain is on a constant quest for entertainment, amusement, and satisfaction. And because we can't seem to do just one thing at a time, we do nothing to the best of our abilities. I just tweeted that.

     We like to think that all of this multitasking is good training for us- that someday, because we were once technology-obsessed, we're going to enter the workforce and be capable of completing thirteen projects at a time, all the while texting our boss . Oh, us Generation Y-ers, we're wishful thinkers, aren't we? But, alas, as I mentioned before, we can't actually do more than one thing at a time. At least, we can't do it well. Scientific studies, such as that conducted by psychologist and scholar David Myer, Ph.D (I always wondered what that stood for. I'll have to Google it) show that multitasking in the office world really isn't all that beneficial.

     According to Meyer, (who is a Doctor of Philosophy, according to Google's explanation of Ph.D) if we were to jump around from word processing, to answering phones, to talking with the boss, and back again, we would decrease in efficiency for our employer by anywhere from 20 to 40 percent. Meyer puts it in layman's terms for us here; “In effect, you've got writer's block briefly as you go from one task to another”. So, as we switch tasks, we hit a bit of a road block when refocusing on a different task. Think about it; how many times have you checked Facebook halfway through an essay, came back, and realized you had no idea what you had been typing about? Guess what I just did. Anyways, it makes sense, doesn't it? We can't focus on more than one thing at a time, we've all experienced it. So much for our attempted wishful-thinking.

     Maybe instead we ought to attempt to steer clear of the trap that we've created for ourselves. Think about the internet; between YouTube, Skype, Google and Myspace (okay not myspace, we all know that's for middle schoolers) we hardly have time for anything else. Let's look at the Big Kahuna of the internet; Facebook. How many times do you check yours per day? How often do you go a whole day without checking it at all? For many of us, it's almost like we're addicts. Only, we can stop any time we want to... right?

     Wrong. I always thought that I could stop whenever I wanted. In fact, when approaching this essay, I decided I would forgo Facebook for a day and then discuss how it improved my quality of life. Had I gone through with it, I expect I would have spent the whole day outside, dancing in the rain, running through wildflowers, and riding a horse up and down the beach. Or something of equal outdoorsy extravagance. But, sadly, I did not go through with it. In fact, I found that I could not, even if I tried. It has become so second-nature to check my notifications that I just can't seem to stop. When I attempted to avoid it, I couldn't help but wonder if anyone had commented on that cute picture I uploaded of my dog asleep in my bed last night. It was torture- pure torture, I tell you!

     Okay, maybe that's a little melodramatic, and maybe I'm a wee bit more addicted than your average Generation Y-er, but I think my sheer inability to resist Facebook says something about all of us; we have created a trap for ourselves. It seems that we have become enslaved, in a sense, to the feeling of accomplishment we get when that little red number in the upper left hand corner is higher than five. We are slaves to our notifications.

     On the other hand, we all know there are many upsides to Facebook. We can; connect with friends who live far away, maintain long-distance relationships, dig up old friendships from the past, update our friends on our lives, and keep tabs on our boyfriend/girlfriend! (Or is that just me?) Not to mention those 75 birthday wishes we receive once a year. Now all we need is a “dislike” button.

     So, it comes down to a matter of making sure we don't have too much of a good thing. There's nothing wrong with the occasional mobile upload of that female Justin Bieber lookalike you saw at the mall; but we all need to take a break and go horseback riding on the beach sometimes. Generation Y, we can get ourselves out of this trap we've fallen into, one task at a time. I know that statement is true because, so far, six of my Facebook friends have liked it.

Distinctions.

Are You Ill?

      Let's take a trip down Hypothetical Lane to a different world.

      This world isn't all so different from our own- there are people who believe in right and wrong, there are roads and cities and buildings, jobs and families, and the people here look like us, too. But, the key difference is, this world has a different definition of “normal” than we do.

      For them, normal is seeing things that most others don't, hearing voices others can't hear, believing in things that others do not, and acting on their emotions in outbursts. When they speak, it always comes out in a stream of consciousness. They do not all believe in one single definition of reality; they all see and hear different things, and as far as they're concerned, that's how it should be. This seems so strange to us, but the majority of them live with these things every day. In fact, they not only live with them, but they enjoy them and take delight in the way that each individual perceives reality. In this world, so different from our own, this is how the vast majority lives.

      But there are others- a select few, like us, who don't hear voices or see images, don't act on emotion, and think that we all ought to see things the same. This is our place in this society. The rest of the world doesn't like us- they say it's “unnatural” to speak about one subject at a time, rather than lapsing into streams of consciousness. People like us are deemed “mentally ill”.

      They evict us from our homes when we lose our jobs for being unable to function “properly” in this world's workplace. Most of us live on the street. Our few personal items are stowed safely away in retired shopping carts. There's almost nothing we can do. Almost.

      There are a “lucky” few of us who find “help”. We get checked into mental hospitals, where they lock us in white rooms and pretend to try to “understand” what we think and feel. They force-feed us hallucinogens until we are satisfactorily seeing images and hearing voices. Then they throw us back into society with our bottle of drugs and expect us to know how to live. We get along okay- some people try to accept us because we “sought help”; others refuse to acknowledge us because we “just aren't normal”. Society thinks we're better off now that we have our “medications” pumping through our systems, and now that they can accept us into the general public, but we feel out of control. We miss the way life used to be- when the voices didn't distract our minds and we spoke by topic, not by thought. Society can't understand this. Why can't they see that we could function perfectly, without medication, if only they would accept our differences?

      This is the life of a “mentally ill” person in our own, real, society. This is the life of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, and others like him. Society does not accept them and their differences- instead, it tries to medicate them into not being different at all. We try to make everyone the same. “Mentally ill” people shouldn't have to change their view of reality; rather, society should learn to accept the way others view reality instead of labeling them as “ill”.

      The very fact that we label people as mentally “ill” shows that we think there is something wrong with them- and that it needs to be remedied. How do we know that there's something wrong? In many instances, these people are comforted by their hallucinations and delusions. To many, their “symptoms” are their comfort, and in their eyes there's nothing wrong with it. In the film version of The Soloist, a female resident at LAMP (who is an actual resident, not an actress) explains that she doesn't like taking Lithium because it makes “the voices” go away, but the voices comfort her. This is how many mentally “ill” people feel- in fact, some don't feel ill at all.

      Society should no longer refer to this group of people as “ill”. In The Soloist, Nathaniel reacts terribly to being called mentally ill, and adamantly states that he is not ill and does not need to be hospitalized or treated (Lopez, 257). A kinder, and more accurate, description for them would be “mentally distinct”. This term is more accurate because these people are not ill- they simply see reality in a different way than we do. It is kinder to refer to them as distinct because “ill” has such a negative connotation. Changing the word to “distinct” would make it more politically correct.

      But this change in terminology should not be merely about political correctness- it should be about valuing people for who they are and how they view reality. It shouldn't be just what we call them- it should be how we perceive them. Viewing them as distinct shows appreciation for the original perspective that they bring to the table. Think about how it would feel, in that other world we visited, to be constantly referred to as “ill”. Think about how Nathaniel Anthony Ayers must have felt, being a mentally “ill” outcast. “Mr. Ayers and millions of others have been defined by labels and socially ostracized because of them” (Lopez, 288). This is the truth of what negative terms and labels will do to people.

      Simply regarding someone with a more respectful title, and viewing them as equals, can aid the distinct in meshing with society more successfully. Mr. Ayers finds frustration in being viewed as ill, and as a lesser person, and bursts out, “I am not going to have any more of this Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel. I'm Nathaniel and you're Mr. Lopez, and there is not going to be any more of that” (Lopez, 258). This is a clear representation of how detrimental it is to others when we, as a society, view the mentally distinct as lesser than us, rather than as our equals- and this is clearly a step we have to take.

     There is a slew other avenues that we must travel in order to build the necessary bridges between the mentally distinct and the rest of society. Many steps must be taken, and it will be a long process, to bring our world and the one down Hypothetical Lane to balance in harmony. But this, the simple change of perspective and tweak of terminology, is a solid first step down Literal Lane to bring our own society to unity.