Corr [Neuroenhancers in college, lack of focus] = 1

This article by Margaret Talbot from the New Yorker about neuroenchancers – primarily Ritalin and Adderall – has received a fair amount of play in the blogosphere.  I think it is a well-written, thorough account of its subject, and I agree with one of its primary arguments, namely that such drugs do more to turn the mediocre slightly less mediocre than the mediocre into superstars.

As a recent graduate of one of the country’s most competitive research universities, I am the demographic Talbot profiles.  And I think her analysis of the college trend is correct: smart, well-adjusted people without AD(H)D do not pop neuroenhancing drugs (caffeine excepted).  The people who do are the drinking like a fish Greek kids with poor time management skills; I had plenty of Greek friends who led an active academic and extracurricular life, but they did not drink to stumbling frequently.  I double majored, wrote a 100 page thesis, was president of the Model UN team, wrote a column for the student paper, and was in two clubs; I also had a 10 hr/week job.  I went out with friends on the weekend, occasionally got sloshed, and sometimes lit up, but I did it all with nothing more than coffee and a normal sleep schedule.  (Normal in college being 3-9 a.m.)

My roommate freshman year was much different.  He had much more innate intelligence than me, so he spent more time partying, less time in class, and less time studying.  Instead, he would pop Adderall the day before an exam and cram.  Sometimes this worked, sometimes it didn’t; he sometimes went to the exam groggy because he had trouble falling asleep, and he received As and Cs.  Another friend also utilised neuroenhancers because he spent most of his evenings and nights playing online poker; his grades were fine but not stellar.

Plenty of my friends also wrote theses and partook in extracurriculars: one ran my school’s political magazine, another ran the YMCA, others debated, some ran their own clubs, and they led a moderated social life.  We don’t feel like we missed out on our youth, unless by youth you mean puking in bathrooms, going high to class, or having random sex you don’t remember the next morning. 

Any frequenter of a school’s library knows what an annoyance exam time is.  We have been in the library all semester studying and respecting library etiquette, yet, for one week each semester, in traipse Ugg boots, Seven jeans, athletic sweatshirts, matching sweatpants, and aviator sunglasses.  The cafe gets more crowded, and no computers are ever available; when they are, the poseur before you has forgotten to log out of facebook.  Aside from the overpriced costume, the easiest tell is that this crowd spends more time complaining about how much work they have than actually completing it.  “God, last night was so much fun.  I can’t believe what Carl said!  Shit man, I really need to cram for this exam and finish this paper, and they’re both due tomorrow evening.  Thank God I came to the library to focus.”  Those people, those are the ones who use the pharmacological crutches; the others, those who roll their eyes in mutual annoyance, those are the ones who know how to balance their lives.