The Science of Highlighting.

This is probably the hundredth time I have observed the phenomenon, so I figure it is about time I documented my findings… especially since it is, once again, taking place directly across from me here at the mega-bookstore coffeeshop right now.
There she is, obviously a student of something-or-other… in her early twenties, a photocopied brick of paper balanced on her knee. She leans back against the wall, she is sideways in her chair, with her two feet propped into another chair, to get the right… highlighting angle!
As her eyes skim across the page… so does that highlighter of hers… today it is a fluorescent pink color being used. Yellow is very popular too.
But it intrigues me to no end, as I glance up at her from the pages of my own book, in hopes that she does not see me doing so… this highlighting thing intrigues me, and here is the issue…
I can see how emphasizing one or two points on a page could be helpful… a phrase here… a phrase there... a way of noting what is important to re-read later, when one is back in the dorm-room, the lamplight focused on those danged pages which are now augmented with pizza-grease …. and you realize it is late, late, late, and you have to know this stuff for tomorrow’s exam etc.
I mean, ultimately, when all is said and done… highlighting should simply mean… “more important than the other stuff” right? Later on, you may only have time (and energy) to re-digest those previously highlighted points.
But, for the life of me, I cannot see what the benefit is… of highlighting EVERYTHING ON THE PAGE….. page after page of indiscriminate highlighting! Is this some Hansel-and-Gretelish equivalent of dropping crumbs… something left behind so that later you can say to yourself… “Oh, I must have read that, because look. It’s all highlighted?”
I just don’t get it!
This girl is highlighting every single word on the page…. Page after stapled-together page of it. I want her to stop, I really want her to stop.
And this is, like I’ve said, not unique to today’s coffee-time… this is truly about the hundredth time I’ve observed such behavior.

Now granted, when I was in college, I was known as a bigtime highlighter. Oh yes… I had a SYSTEM. When taking notes in class, I would use a certain color for main headings, another for sub-headings… still another for sub-points within the sub-heading. People used to borrow my notes when they missed a class, and they’d return them saying stuff like… “Dude, you should write a book on highlighting because your notes are like, so easy to follow.”
And once, this one babe’s gorgeous mane of hair fell across my desk, and I even took a few moments to grab little wisps of it and color them pink… yellow… blue.
All of this kind of SERIOUS highlighting I can totally understand.

In my day, we had highlighting down to a science.
But what the kids are doing nowadays. No, I’m sorry… it’s just not right.