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.