The cover story in Time magazine this week, entitled "Too Wired For Their Own Good?", condemns the youth of the nation as gadget-obsessed, perennially multitasking, social failures who can't really get into anything important or even relax. The article brings up example upon example of dysfunctional teenagers and their equally disjointed families. Take for example the Cox twins, Bronte and Piers:

"I usually finish my homework at school," he explains to a visitor, "but if not, I pop a book open on my lap in my room, and while the computer is loading, I'll do a problem or write a sentence. Then, while mail is loading, I do more. I get it done a little bit at a time." "You just multitask," she explains. "My parents always tell me I can't do homework while listening to music, but they don't understand that it helps me concentrate."

So far things don't sound too bad—just two kids doing what kids have always done, getting some entertainment into their busy lives and managing a packed schedule to the best of their abilities. If that was all, no harm, no foul. But the litany of errors goes on. The article notes that notebooks in college classrooms (now WiFi enabled more often than not) aren't used for notetaking anymore, but for IMing your friends about how boring the lecture is and for collecting Keira Knightley pics in your blog.

When class rings out, a roomful of teens reach for their cell phones to call or SMS buddies down the hall, or even in the same room. Every waking moment is filled with something, but it's all in small doses. Thanks to the way the human brain processes multiple simultaneous activities, it's apparently becoming rare to really delve deeply into any one subject or relationship, so while the kids are collecting information about a really wide range of topics, the depth just isn't there anymore.

The article says that "[t]eenagers who fill every quiet moment with a phone call or some kind of e-stimulation may not be getting that needed reprieve. Habitual multitasking may condition their brain to an overexcited state, making it difficult to focus even when they want to." That extends to social interaction as well, and the parents can be intimidated by their teenagers' scattered focus:

"[When the father came home from work,] About half the time the kids ignored him or didn't stop what they were doing, multitasking and monitoring their various electronic gadgets," said anthropologist Elinor Ochs, director of UCLA's Center on Everyday Lives of Families. "We also saw how difficult it was for parents to penetrate the child's universe. We have so many videotapes of parents actually backing away, retreating from kids who are absorbed by whatever they're doing."

In all fairness, parents today can be afflicted with the same syndrome to some degree. How many teens are addicted to their BlackBerrys? That's mostly an adult scourge, and it has the same effects. But it doesn't have to be gadgetry. For some families, it's an excess of activities—extracurricular or not—that leads to a numb family life. Take me, for instance. If I count up the number of things I do to bring in some bacon, the total comes to eight. It takes real effort to combine that kind of schedule with being a meaningful part of a family.

"You are not having family dinner, you are not having conversations, you are not debating whether to go out with a boy who wants to have sex on the first date, you are not going on a family ski trip or taking time just to veg," says psychiatrist Edward Hallowell, author of a recent book on brain overload. "It's not so much that the video game is going to rot your brain, it's what you are not doing that's going to rot your life."

No wonder why energy drinks sell so well, or why half our gadgets have something to do with time management. Some people could use a couple extra hours of time, every day. But it's not all bad. Though the quality might not be what it used to, the multitaskers of today do get more work done. And all this technology gives the teens ample opportunity to get quite tech savvy. The Cox twins both "make these fancy PowerPoint presentations about what they want for Christmas," for instance. So that's good.