In 2008, the Pew Research Center conducted a series of surveys to predict the future of the Internet in order to attempt to determine how technology would reshape society circa 2020. The report included different scenarios, one of which examined the evolving concepts of time dedicated for work and leisure. Researchers hypothesized that emerging technology would cause a coalescence of work and play, essentially doing away with a separation between office and recreation. With mobile technology, the belief was that work lives would eventually impose on social lives via email pings at dinner, quick calls to a coworker while at a bar, and nights cut short in order to meet a new and pressing deadline.

According to the report, “In 2020, well-connected knowledge workers in more-developed nations have willingly eliminated the industrial-age boundaries between work hours and personal time. Outside of formally scheduled activities, work and play are seamlessly integrated in most of these workers’ lives.”

It’s no secret that our culture today prides itself on the amount of work we put into our jobs. We work to an excessive degree as if there’s a competition to impress people by our willingness to take our work everywhere.

But why?

A new study sheds light on what seems to be an American obsession with being overworked and stressed out.

This is a modal window. The media could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported. Researchers from Harvard University, Georgetown University and Columbia Business School presented research participants with two fictional scenarios. The first scenario presented a hypothetical man called Jeff who “works long hours and his calendar is always full.” The second scenario presented another version of Jeff, this time he “does not work and has a leisurely lifestyle.” The first scenario seems realistic, whereas the second seems like a lovely daydream.

According to the report published in Harvard Business Review, the busy person was perceived by participants to have higher status than the one with free time. The research team presented other scenarios and found people are more impressed by someone who shops online for groceries compared to people who did their shopping at Trader Joe’s, in terms of elevated social class. Additionally, a person wearing a Bluetooth headset on the street was deemed more impressive than someone wearing headphones.

Americans seem to be obsessed with overworking ourselves in an effort to gain social esteem. When the study was conducted on Italian participants, the opposite was found: Italians perceived the person with a life of leisure as high-status.