There are a million distractions out there, calling to me. I'm a student, a volunteer, an athlete, a blogger, a daughter, friend, girlfriend, dog mom, so who knows when I might get an important email, right? So Gmail often hangs out open on my computer, just in case. With Gmail comes the awful temptation of Gchat. And then there's Twitter, which I can justify as a source of news and information, as I do follow a ton of public health and government agencies that are legitimately relevant to my job. I'm taking a couple of online classes this semester, and I sometimes do homework over lunch--but of course then I sneak a little peek at the discussion boards now and then to see if anyone's responded to my posts. And the list goes on.

Don't get me wrong--I get my work done, well, on time. I would never sacrifice the quality or promptness of my work so I could shop for shoes online.

And, please, employers, don't get upset with me for saying this, but I actually think taking a few minutes here and there for non-work-related stuff makes me more productive. I swear. My brain honest to god burns out after staring at the same page for an hour. If I take three minutes to check my email and Twitter and then go back to it, I'm usually way better off than if I'd powered through with a drained brain.

So my question: Is this a Gen Y thing? We've grown up with the technology of distraction, and we're used to multitasking and juggling and wrapping together work and play until we don't even know what's what anymore.

But, in a generally "older" workplace, I sometimes feel like the young, dumb, slacker intern who can't do her work because she's checking to see if maybe, just maybe, IT screwed something up and accidentally unblocked Facebook for the day. Or maybe I just don't know what everyone else is up to when they appear to be working feverishly for eight hours straight.