It’s not an uncommon dialogue between passing friends:
“Hihowareyou?” The approaching friend asks in one overly-rehearsed slur.
“Fine, how are you? How was your day?” the other friend responds, mimicking the memorized tone.
“Good! I was productive!” The inflection departs from the previously scripted nature of the interaction, indicating a change from what is usual or expected.Not only does this demonstrate the monotony of our interactions in passing—a topic I could write an entirely separate article on—but, moreover, it illuminates the apparent weight the term “productive” wields. Productivity has become a defining characteristic of our daily lives that, in reflection, serves as a criterion of evaluation for our days and selves. However, labeling and classifying the level of productivity is an artificial concept merely constructed based on social ideals. While this may be a general commentary on society today, I have personally noticed this trend as a heavily pervasive one on college campuses.
Naturally, college students are ruled by productivity. Ensnared in a haphazard array of deadlines, assignments, and more deadlines, college students are forced to optimize productivity. For this reason, the ability to be more productive than the rest is a valued and highly esteemed trait. However, this general atmosphere on campus built around productivity seeps into our social lives, making it increasingly inescapable. Studying together becomes a natural social activity, and thoughts of work and productivity lace our everyday interactions. One friend once told me earlier this year that he wishes the dinner and lunch table discussion topics would depart—for once—from talk on school work and assignments.
Why does this climate consume college students? As I mentioned, the natural element of being a student and having assignments forces us—and with good intentions—to strive for productivity. However, more than this, college students live at school. This is one aspect of the freshman learning curve that I felt firsthand. The shift from living at home, where closing my textbooks and stuffing them in my bookbag for the night symbolically removed the presence of school and work, to living on campus all the time affected my viewpoint towards productivity. Since we cannot isolate ourselves from academics physically, we must be able to shut down that academic mindset.
If not, we become encumbered with unceasing thoughts of productivity. And there are issues that arise from this mindset. With an overwhelming need to optimize every moment in the most productive way possible, free time becomes obsolete and guilt arises from activities artificially labeled “unproductive.” The most troubling consequence appears in the scene beginning this article: when students place significant worth and happiness on this arbitrary concept of productivity.