Dreams of the Overworked

We're all familiar with the pressure to be the best and to do it all. Professionals are expected to be at-the-ready; parents are told to be ever-present; and everyone is exhorted to sleep enough, eat well, and carve out 'me time.' And underwriting all of these narratives is the American myth of rugged individualism, now amplified unlike ever before by the presence and use of smart devices that seem to literally give us the power to do it all alone. Through vivid, engaging stories, The Dreams of Overworked Americans brings us into the lives of nine Southern Californian families working to manage these cultural visions. The authors argue that we must strive to live by a new metric - one that prioritizes the pleasure, necessity, and deep gratification of human (and not technological) connection--