AEE 290: Get Off the Hamster Wheel! The Epidemic of "Busy" in the United States

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Are you busy?

In your home culture, is it considered “cool” to be busy?

In American culture everyone is busy and it’s almost in style to be busy.

We think that’s crazy! Today we are going to give our opinion on this article from the Washington Post called Exhaustion Is Not a Status Symbol.

In American culture, especially in large cities like New York and Boston, things move fast and we often define ourselves based on the things that we do.

We also measure our worth based on what we achieve.

We end up valuing perfectionism and accomplishing things over just living.

Americans don’t take much time off for vacation while in other cultures people take much more vacation time.

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How do we know that this is a problem? People in the US always say:

• “I’ve been crazy busy.”
• “I have so much going on.”

What can we do about this?

• Avoid checking emails every three minutes
• When you complete a task, sit back and reflect, get feedback (this was a suggestion from the article)
• Take more vacation time

What do you think?

Is being busy considered cool in your culture?

Let us know in the comments.

Come back to http://www.allearsenglish.com/290 to have a conversation with Lindsay and Michelle