I've always been an approach junky!!! for me, sitting in the fish bowl watching planes all day got a bit much and I couldn't wait to get to a radar position.
I think Scooby hit the nail on the head as well with "If you like keeping the planes apart, go area. If you like getting them as close together as legally possible, go approach!".
I do a fair number of presentations to schools for recruiting purposes, and always use the following analogy.
Approach is like controlling the traffic in the CBD of a city. To make a somewhat smaller airspace work at maximum efficiency, you need to get them as close as possible without getting them too close (winning you a two week holiday and and all expenses paid trip to the tape room). The great thing is they're only on your frequency for relatively short period, then they're done!
Area can be related to the highways between two major cities. Controlling traffic over a larger airspace means you have to be able to think way ahead of the game for all aircraft concerned to try and ensure that you'll have the minimum amount of congestion trying to get into the TMA. You'll also keep the traffic for longer periods...
I know it's not the most technical of descriptions but I hope it helps