We live in an age of multi-tasking. Instead of just doing homework, talking to someone on the phone, eating a snack, listening to music, or watching TV, we do them all together.

Maybe this is a result of society’s pressure to stay busy at all times. If we aren’t maximizing our time or we’re not being productive, we feel unsuccessful. I can no longer sit down and watch TV or read a book without feeling like I’m wasting time. For some reason I must be doing 10 different things at once in order to feel productive. This could be a consequence of being overbooked. There never seems to be enough time to do everything, so we cram it all together in order to get it done.

A problem with this is that we often end up getting less done when our concentration is divided. A lot of times, for me anyway, I’ll take out some homework I should be working on just to make myself feel like I’m being productive. Quite often I won’t even touch that work, but it will take away some of the guilt I’m feeling for not being “productive.” I can’t even remember a time when I was able to do something I enjoy that wasn’t school related without constantly worrying about how I shouldn’t be enjoying myself before all my work was done.

I once heard a quote from Bertrand Russell: “The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” This seems pretty accurate to me. Why should I feel bad about doing something I enjoy just because it’s not directly related to school? A lot of human development takes place outside the realm of traditional education: communication skills for instance.

Older generations always seem to be making fun of the amount of time kids and teens spend communicating with one another. Sure, maybe sometimes it gets to be a bit ridiculous. I’ll admit I’ve been on AIM, Facebook, and my e-mail account while talking to someone on one phone and texting a handful of other people on another. My friend told me a story about how her mom made fun of her for the amount she texts. She told her mom: “This is like what talking used to be for you. Taking away my texting would be like taking away your mouth.” While this is a bit exaggerated I really see her point.

With the intense schedules we entertain these days there really isn’t much time to see our friends, especially on school days. When you watch those cheesy high school movies from 30 or 40 years ago you see that teenagers had plenty of free time to see each other after school. Now the only time we have is during those extracurriculars that prevent us from seeing our friends, and during these times we don’t really get to talk to our friends.

So while it may seem excessive and fruitless to talk to our friends so much “digitally,” it’s really the only way we get to. And it’s certainly not a waste of time. Without some way to unwind from the crazy schedules most teenagers have, they would go crazy. I know I would at least. I need that "contact" with other people to stay sane.

The problem isn’t that we talk to our friends too much, it’s that we don’t have enough time to talk to them. That’s why we try to do everything at once. It doesn’t mean we’re slackers, it just means that we need a little time to do what we like.