“Extracurricular activities.” Those words are said by parents, teachers and friends to encourage you to get involved in your school and community. According to a survey done by USA Today, 59% out of 1000 teenagers report that managing their time to balance all activities is a very significant stressor.

Personally, I haven’t wanted to get into extracurricular activities because of all the stress. I’m not very good at multitasking. When there is an option on doing sports or staying at home to study, I would stay home. Having to focus on more than one thing at a time (multitasking) is sientififcly proven to not work. Humans can’t multitask. According to NPR “Humans, they say, don’t do lots of things simultaneously. Instead, we switch our attention from task to task extremely quickly.”

Due to sports and hobbies, students might not have time to do the homework or be able to come in after school to ask for help when they don’t understand something in class.

Many practices for upcoming sports start early and end really late making doing homework, a once easy task, now incredibly hard.

Even though having extracurricular activities on your college application is a great way to stand out, it could be ruining everyone’s mental health.

According to Daily Mail “Pupils with more than 10 extracurricular activities a week had a four percent lower grade average than normal and even achieved worse results than school friends who had no organized pursuits outside of school.”

No one has come to understand where the line is on how much is too much.

“As a general principle, there is a line between a highly enriched, interesting, growth-promoting childhood and an overscheduled childhood,” Tompson said “And nobody knows where that line is.” Michael Thompson, a clinical psychologist and the author of “The Pressured Child” states.

Teenagers aren’t the best at time management now matter how hard they try, their day never works out the way they planned. So try throwing in an entire school day, let alone a whole week, and then an activity that can take anywhere from one day or all five school days.

That would mean that there isn’t much time to complete homework. Teachers try to be understanding about it, but it’s their job to make sure that you pass their class. However, they will tell you that you have an extra day to finish it, but you have to go to practice again. But the teachers can’t keep extending the date that homework is due. At one point they just have to give up and put a zero in the grade book.

Nothing more dreaded than a zero. But what are students supposed to do when they’ve been told by everyone that they must do an activity, that without it they will be unnoticed by college.

According to a survey done by USA Today, 40% say they neglected responsibilities at home because of stress, 21% say they neglected work or school because of stress and 26% report snapping at or being short with classmates or teammates when under stress.

Extracurriculars can cause great stress not just for the student but everyone around them.  

Stress doesn’t just neglect school work. It neglects all aspects of student life even home life. Parents will feel the aftermath during a stressful day or week. They might feel like they’re being pushed away and not want to connect with their child anymore because they might always catch the student at a bad time and feel compelled to leave them alone.

Extracurriculars are pushed down your throat since day one of school. Teachers will sit everyone down to tell you how you should get involved, parents will do the same. But stress a big factor to take into consideration. Although some people may believe that extracurriculars can be beneficial there are several downsides to these activities.