Overworking Culture

Address the stress Students overwork themselves with activities as a way of distraction Malak Samara samarmal000@hsestudents.org Avery Roe roeave000@hsestudents.org

Calendar filled with events to showcase overworking culture. Design by Malak Samara and Avery Roe. Background photo by Malak Samara. March After a long day of school, work or practice, teenagers start to feel overwhelmed with the amount of physical and mental pressure they undergo. As a result of this, instead of focusing on their responsibilities or issues, they indulge themselves in extra work or hobbies they enjoy as a way to ignore their problems. “We definitely are an overworked, overtired culture,” psychology teacher Susan Huppenthal said. “I know students come to school and then they go to their job at night and then they’re playing sports or doing band. A lot of things require a lot of time, and that’s difficult.” According to Psychology Today, teens who are often overworked or dealing with personal problems usually end up emotionally distressed. However, this also causes them to behaviorally shift towards activities or thoughts that make them happier. “I feel that distraction culture has arisen as a response to people being overworked,” freshman Jakob Polly says. “In that sense, I feel that it is generally helpful, but given that people weren’t working to the point that they are today, a distraction culture wouldn’t need to exist.” When people endure an issue that may be mentally straining, they tend to turn to distraction as a form of putting their feelings aside. Ignoring their problems and hyper-focusing on an activity or overworking themselves helps numb the negative emotions they may be feeling, according to Psychology Today. “I think I [distract myself with work] because I think that I’m doing something important and that it matters more than confronting what I’m avoiding,” sophomore Addyson Brown said. “In some weird way, I think that if I work hard enough, my problem will just disappear or it just doesn’t exist.” Once the COVID pandemic began, teens increasingly felt the need to overwork and distract themselves from how much it negatively affected their mental health. Although distraction culture is not a new concept, the pandemic popularized and normalized it. “I think especially during quarantine, people started to overwork themselves because it just felt like the workflow just increased,” junior Gracelyn Druelinger said. “I feel like [distraction culture] is becoming more popular.” A defining factor of distraction and overworking culture includes situations that produce a substantial amount of stress. For Druelinger, she mainly involves herself in the culture because of school and extracurriculars. Druelinger said she would rather focus on cleaning her room than think about all the assignments she has to do. “I feel like I find myself overworking myself the most when I’m with my parents because I feel a constant need to impress them as much as I can,” Brown said. Distraction culture is often seen as a way to cope with problems. For Brown,

she sees it as an opportunity to be free from her problems because she does not have to worry about anything besides what she is working on. Furthermore, it can help teens find healthy activities that keep them calm. “People come to distract themselves as a means of coping, often because of the amount of work that they have to do,” Polly said. “I think the fact that [distraction culture] may help you cope with whatever issue you may have is often a benefit.” On the other hand, those who participate in distraction culture can oftentimes experience negative mental effects. The most prevalent one is the fact that the problems teens try to avoid do not go away, rather they are just briefly forgotten. Instead, they procrastinate about solving the problem and ignore their emotions. “My problem doesn’t go away; it’s still there, no matter what I try to tell myself,” Brown said. “For me, personally, I think [distraction culture] is very hurtful, because even though I’m being productive, I’m still just avoiding things.” Avoiding problems causes mental strain on teens because there is a constant thought in the back of their heads about how they will need to deal with their complications later on. Additionally, Healthline says that it causes teens to suppress their feelings, which leads to their frustration being stored up and inflicted onto others unintentionally. “The idea is, if you don’t like something, you need to just do it,” Huppenthal said. “The longer you wait, the more unhappy you are because you fixate on [the issue], but you’re not doing it. So it’s this idea that if we could just buckle down, it is so much healthier than worrying about it and not doing it for so long.” Not only does distraction culture prevent teens from fully processing their emotions, like Brown, but it also contributes to bad habits. This can include overworking to the point of burnout, not realizing when to take breaks and negative effects on personal relationships. “I found that, oftentimes, distracting yourself from work too much can alienate yourself from others,” Polly said. “I especially recognize [the unhealthiness of distraction culture] when I feel that what I am doing is alienating me from others. I might not talk to people as much as I should for long periods of time, and that can become unhealthy.” While overworking to avoid difficulties can be negative and ineffective, taking breaks is strongly encouraged. According to Psychology Today, breaks prevent fatigue and allow for the restoration of motivation so that there is more preparedness for difficulties needed to be dealt with. “It’s the refocus that’s tough for a lot of people,” Huppenthal said. “I don’t know if I’d say binge-watch a couple of episodes when you should be working on your homework. I definitely think a quick throw [of a ball] with your dog, petting your dog, serotonin booster, get outside, call a friend and then get at it.” According to Huppenthal, teens constantly overworking to avoid a problem is redundant because it does not stabilize the worries they endure. However, there are healthier alternatives to help teens cope with their problems while still acknowledging their feelings. “The healthiest [alternative] would be to move, exercise, burn some calories,” Huppenthal said. “All those tips we used for final exam week, like meditating. We know it rewires the brain. It makes you smarter, more attentive, those kinds of things.”