multitasking madness

Why am I so uncomfortable with silence? I don't mind it when people talk and laugh around me but I have a problem when everything is so quiet. Whenever that happens, I make some noise by cracking jokes or bringing a topic up just to break the monotony. If all else fails, I whip out my cellphone and fiddle with it, stick earphones in my ears or look for a computer to surf the internet.

I think the trouble is that we were trained to always be on the go. We always have to be busy with something even if it's something that is not necessarily worthwhile. In fact, it's almost like we can't do just one thing - we always insist on multitasking. Even when doing our homework or reviewing our notes, we have to have the television on or talk to somebody on the phone. Sometimes I even catch myself texting someone while talking to another person which is something I used to consider very rude.

In this day and age, it does feel like we are encouraged to engage ourselves in many different pursuits at any given time. However, in doing so, it's like we spread ourselves too thin and are unable to give every task the attention and the effort it deserves. Now when we go online we have so many windows and tabs open, along with the online messenger and we get so distracted that we don't notice that we've spent HOURS online doing nothing.

Now whenever we talk to somebody, our mind is on something else and worse, our fingers are frantically dancing our cellphone's keypad or computer keyboard. Sure, telephones and internet has helped bridge gaps between great distances but on a smaller scale, instead of being means of communicating, these innovative gadgets have put up an invisible forcefield between us and the people that we are actually with.