My younger friends – and at my advanced age virtually everyone is younger – particularly Generation Xers (born 1965-79) and the millennials (born 1980-2000) – complain about being over-scheduled and over-committed. “Crazy busy” or “insanely busy” is the constant complaint.
If people are not busy at work, they are busy in left-over time with entertaining or being entertained or preparing to be even busier or keeping their children busy. Spare moments may be welcome in theory but in actual fact they make the younger generation strangely uneasy. Every passing hour must be filled with unrelenting activity. If ever there is any time for reflection – organising one’s thoughts for better results – as there may be, for example, waiting for an appointment, the latest mobile device comes to the rescue!
With all this in mind, take a look at an article published in the journal Science four years ago but more relevant than ever. It shows how far people will go to avoid introspection – thinking for thinking’s sake:
