Some Thoughts on Coffee

Is it really necessary? Probably. Maybe?

By: David Ma

Coffee has become an inescapable part of our lives. But despite our disproportionate reliance on the beverage, few people stop to reflect on it. So let's think about it, at least for a few hundred words. 

Overall, caffeine is probably unnecessary; I know plenty of people who are successful without needing its psychoactive influence. It also comes with a bevy of harms: costs, sleep disruption, and fundamentally needing an extrinsic force to be productive.

Why, then, is coffee considered an indisputable given? It’s almost certainly due to the overemphasis on productivity that pervades our culture. Tiredness is your body telling you that you need rest. Unfortunately, being unconscious isn’t conducive to getting sh*t done. Caffeine beats back sleep deprivation, at least temporarily, which makes it rather useful for working more than you probably should. And everyone’s supposed to do more, right? Learn new skills, make more money, write more articles, etc. There's no time to stop and smell the roses in the face of the omnipresent grind. Unfortunately, this tunnel vision on accomplishment isn’t necessarily a good thing, a fact that sometimes crosses my mind when I’m making an 8 p.m. cup of coffee as a final hope to finish homework.

Caffeine overuse only leads to more sleep deprivation down the line, of course. But who cares? Just wear that sleep dep as a badge of honor; exult in the shock of your friends as you reveal how little you slept last night. Health is overrated anyways. 

Maybe that was too harsh, but hey—I doubt this “reflection” is going to change anything. When I mentioned the topic to my sister, she responded rather succinctly. "Everyone has a caffeine dependency now. If you don't, you're not cool." Besides—without coffee, you might not have gotten this article.