Wasting Time

Do you know any young people? I mean, 15-25 year olds. If so, I'd love to hear what they think is a "good use of time" or a "waste of time."

I'm interested because our lives are made up of the things we spend time on; different ways of valuing activities means living different lives. We've all heard that young people spend their time differently (not watching as much TV, not reading newspapers) but I'd love to hear about what they do and don't value in their own words.

Thanks.

Comments

[Tom]

Tom,
Hang around www.stickam.com for a while. Lots of young people there who, to me at least, are "wasting time". It would be interesting to hear what they consider hours of chatting on the internet to be - is it a "waste of time" or a "good use of time"?
Tom

[EJTower]

Tom,

Like every other generation we have our slackers and our nose to the grindstone folks. I sort of fancy myself somewhere between the two sides. Like a lot of young people that I know I experiment in every form of media that I can get my hands on. We can afford to purchase most of the stuff required to create content such as computers, digital cameras, microphones, and video cameras. Many older people I have spoken with about our use of computers seem to believe that all we do is spend our time on the internet doing nothing.

We spend a lot of time on the net, yes, but while we are on there we are connecting to our global network of friends. We exchange various medias that are both incredibly hilarious (perhaps idiotic) and sometimes insightful. In a sense we are using the net to learn about each other in ways that past generations have been unable to learn about each other. We are using these tools to interconnect with one another, and organize social life for us. Sometimes you don't know things about your friends that you find out about them on things like myspace. I mean, when was the last time you asked your friend to list every musician they like? Or have them write out a list of things that interest them? Probably never. With things like myspace you can review what your friend likes and dislikes. I have personally found that it can enrich conversations and offer plausible things to do together.

When do I feel like I am wasting my time? I feel that I am wasting my time when I am not interacting with people in someway or not working on a project of some sort. I have no problem being alone, as long as I am working towards something. I have no problem with just hanging out and drinking with my friends, but I like to feel like something has been accomplished. Meeting new people, trying new drinks, etc. Days that I consider a great waste are days where I have not had time to work on my personal projects, have not learned something, or have not "connected"

Writing things like this are actually not listed as a waste of time in my book. Though leaving comments on all of my friends myspace profiles would be considered a waste of time to me. Others my age will spend hours dropping comments on myspace profiles, because it increases their connectivity with those people, and in a sense that is their goal.

We do things that get us the type of attention that we like to get. For me, its intellectual attention. Others might create videos in which they do a strip tease, because they want sexual attention. Attention has value and that is what we are doing here, creating value for ourselves.

~EJTower