Hea

By Vanessa (Age 13.5, St. Paul's Convent)

Hong Kong teenagers are very extreme. One moment we are efficiently going through projects and homework, and the next, we're "hea-ing". Basically, "hea" is the new found name of just being plain lazy and the term "hea" can be translated as "killing time" in English. Although there is no official Chinese word for "hea", it is one of the most widely-used terms by Hong Kong citizens, especially teenagers.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

"Hea" is not an official word, and thus means differently to different people. It is practically anything that we're doing apart from working or studying. Hea-ing, in other words, is doing nothing seriously. As a teen, I really have to say this: we are obsessed with hea. We literally do that everyday without fail, especially during the holidays. Any student who didn't hea during holidays are automatically demoted to the "goody-two-shoes" category. Yes, "demoted", because no one really bothers knowing you if you don't "have a life." Anyway, what we do during "hea-ing" is practically nothing, or nothing meaningful to be more precise. Yep, you didn't hear me wrong. We teenagers just laze around aimlessly or SMS with anyone else who may also be hea-ing at the time. Stalking people on Facebook, MSN, chat is also what we love to waste our time on.

It is actually very obvious that "hea-ing" is a serious misuse of our time. We never get anything achieved during those few hours we spend except for expensive phone bills and loads of emails from Facebook spamming our mail. However, teenagers don't seem to mind that. To them, "hea-ing" is wonderful: an activity that they would always look forward to. Yet, they seem oblivious to the downfalls of letting "hea" control their life.

"Hea-ing" is not exactly bad. After all, it is reasonable for teenagers to want to take a rest from all their work from time to time and just laze around. However, it seems that they do not understand one bit just how wasteful this activity is. They spend hours on Facebook stalking or just commenting on someone's status. They build up huge phone bills by texting at least three people at once for two straight hours. They fritter all their free time by randomly surfing the net. They neglect their homework and go find funny videos on YouTube. If this continues, we are all going to become a bunch of soulless robots who don't have a life.

Take my cousin as an example. He is addicted to the net and his iPhone, and spends at least four hours a day facing his computer. He is what people call "home boys", males who just stay at home doing nothing meaningful. He is a very good example of what will happen to the rest of us teenagers in Hong Kong if we don't start to spend our time wisely. I'm sure that none of them out there would want to marry their computer in their future, though I'm sure if may be seen as a potential partner, seeing as they spend so much time together.

Another example is that "hea" has taken up such a big part of our lives that we are starting to unconsciously apply it as our life motto. Teenagers have become lazier over the years. They do not put much effort into their work. To them, scraping a pass on a test is already a big achievement. It never seems to occur to them that they might get a B or even an A if they just work harder. Also, they seem to prefer spending time with their computers over real people. When my friends and I eat out, we all take out our phones and start texting or playing games. We interact less than we used to, which in truth, in actually breaking my heart. Another case is that I remember seeing a girl telling her boyfriend to confess to her by texting his confession. Yes, isn't it crazy? If this goes on, I'm sure that "hea-ing" is going to be the downfall of us Hong Kong teenagers, so we really should get off our sorry butts and actually start doing something meaningful.