I read this essay on "structured procrastination" in hopes that it would enlighten me in a way relevant to de-cluttering, as well as justify my incessant habit of procrastinating. (The latest task I'm dreading: a 10-page synthesis of my school observations and readings in a class about the sociology of education... due Thursday, nothing written, and the outline is pitiful. My F will be such a surprise.)
But sadly... I think it's missing a few things. Maybe turning "marginally useful things" into structured to-do lists with the real, important stuff at the end of the chain works for some people, but that's some people. The author, John Perry, makes sweeping statements about "procrastinators," but I think he might be forgetting the theory-defying new generation of procrastinators who don't do anything useful while they put off their lives. Today's skilled youth procrastinators don't really pretend Facebook is an immediately "more important" task that is just leading up to later real tasks... No, the smart ones actually realize that Facebook is unimportant. They simply dread doing real work at one point or another, and the Internet is there to soothe them with its warm, motherly bosom of vapidness.
These young people can accomplish an amazing slew of awesome things. To wit: brains at MIT change the world. And I can guarantee you that a good percentage of those kids spent some highly useless time online or on their iPhones buying stupid apps while they made their way to stardom. They had no delusions about the uselessness of their activities, but they knew how to manage their time. They're procrastinators - definitely structured procrastinators by Perry's definition - but they don't really fit the mold.
Maybe I'm wrong. (Lord knows the Internet has shown its wrath when I've had an "incendiary opinion" before.) Maybe these electronic brain-cell killers popular with the youth actually do have some "marginally useful" quality to them. Since you're probably procrastinating right now, I'm sure you can tell me what you think of this whole question. But you're probably more interested in going on your dimly lit interwebby way... Facebook calls, after all.
2 comments:
oh alex, facebook is useful! let me count the ways! 1. there's a group for all the UC kids and we use it to plan outings and compare notes on how to clean the crap catchers in our apts 2. it's the easiest way ever to share pictures that you know you want to see (have you seen my monkey pix yet?!) 3. it makes iteasy to share articles, like how someone shared the one on structured procrastination... on facebook... i'm chuckling on the inside
You make some great points Emma, but I think we have different ideas of what "useful" is. In my post, I meant that Facebook is not an essential, productive tool for our adult lives. It has useful properties, like you said, but Facebook in itself, as a whole, is not really getting us anywhere that we couldn't already be in our own personal development.
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