Multitasking: It's Not Just Rude, It's Ruining Your Brain

Mother Jones:

Is it rude to be constantly checking messages while you're socializing with someone else? That's a matter of opinion. But a professor friend emails to remind me that rudeness is actually the least of the problems with the perpetual multitasking of the smartphone generation

Read the whole story: Mother Jones

Comments

[ZenCrusader]

01:26 PM on 04/23/2011

Multi-tasking entered our vocabulary when corporations downsized and fewer people had to do all the work. There is no such thing as mulit-tasking as we can only concentrate on one thing at at time. This is BS from Corporations looking to hire slaves.

[DennyCrane]

09:46 AM on 04/25/2011

Exactly. It's one of those buzzwords you find in job descriptions and consequently has become something people put on their resume because they know employers value it so much. But anytime I see it in a job posting, I immediately recognize it for it what it really means. "I'm too cheap to hire more than person so I want you to do the job of several people."

[William Anderson LMHC]

06:22 PM on 04/22/2011

When hospitals started cutting off the wrong legs and killing people by transfusing the wrong blood type, they started thinking, "Maybe multitasking isn't such a good idea". Prior to that, our romance with computers led us to think we would be better if we were more like them. "Multitasking" is a word that originally referred to the ability of a computer to run two programs at the same time, though slower than one-at-a-time. We thought that was pretty cool, so we tried to copy them and even corporately regarded it as an admirable skill. In hospitals and agencies I worked in, it was encouraged and even taught! I was even "written up" in 2001 for "poor multitasking", and tried to defend myself, claiming that driving and talking on the cell phone was dangerous, but I was chastised for such anti-corporate talk. That was before hospital staff started rear-ending others at high rates and cutting off the wrong legs. After the lawsuits, very quickly, "multitasking" disappeared from the corporate manuals and culture. It became officially a dirty word though most of those in love with multitasking clung to the practice, claiming they were superior to the unitaskers. I'm glad this info is out, additional proof of the defectiveness and danger in multitasking. I've left the hospital, agency and corporate multitasking environment, now a committed unitasker. See my current work and contact me at www.TheAndersonMethod.com

[rdk70816]

04:01 PM on 04/22/2011

Put away your smartphone. Allow yourself to be dumb. Pretend you are a Democrat.

[DennyCrane]

05:05 PM on 04/22/2011

If they wanted to be dumb, they could just go on believing free markets are efficient, that climate change isn't real, and that the theory of evolution isn't true. Oh wait, there's a name for such people. It starts with an R.

[FirstNation]

03:50 PM on 04/22/2011

Multitasking is a myth. The research in neuroscience tells us that the more tasks you take on, the more efficiency suffers in performing specific tasks results.

[BlackYowe]

02:02 PM on 04/22/2011

Multitasking for me is eating while I watch a movie.

[DennyCrane]

09:22 AM on 04/22/2011

It's always funny to read job postings and see "the ability to multitask" listed as one of the qualities an applicant must possess. I've met plenty of people over the years who claim to be good multitaskers. But you know what I noticed? In almost all of those cases, the person didn't excel at any one thing, appeared overwhelmed and stressed, and rarely completed all the things they were working on. I would much rather give something my undivided attention than try and juggle 10 different things. When will employers realize that multitasking isn't great, but actually counterproductive?

[LearnMe]

11:07 PM on 04/21/2011

Is that why I always get a headache when multi tasking? What's the other option, writing lists? www.learnmeproject.com

[llisa]

07:59 PM on 04/21/2011

I never could even listen to music and do homework or read. One of my daughters calls me and then checks email messages while talking to me. I know when she is doing this, though she is always surprised that I know. There are long periods of silence, some uh huhs, and then she will tell me something totally unrelated to what we had been talking about.

When I want her to know something important, I email her. At least I know she will have it in writing to check later.

And yes, it is rude. Always.

[frank day]

08:01 PM on 04/21/2011

Rude?
The world is changing. Try to keep up.

[llisa]

09:17 PM on 04/21/2011

The world is getting ruder. I'd rather not.

[qthedancer]

02:47 PM on 04/22/2011

If that's the kind of behavior which is no longer seen as rude, I'd prefer not to keep up, thank you.

[nikanj]

11:02 PM on 04/21/2011

And yet I was the most productive and did my best work surrounded by the constant
interruptions of small children. Perhaps because I had to 1) prioritize and 2) arrange
projects so that they could be stopped and started again on short notice.

My daughter is probably reading her Kindle (which she loves) while talking to me on the phone. I don't care. The only 'multitasking' I am adamantly opposed to is talking on cell
phones or engaging in other distracting activities while driving.

(We were following a woman down a fast, dangerous two-lane road a few days ago and wondering why her pickup truck was wandering. Turned out she was putting on her work face in the rearview mirror. I doubt if she even realized how bad her driving was. Scary.)

[llisa]

12:58 AM on 04/22/2011

Yeah, I once saw a man (before cell phones and ipads) reading a paperback while driving all over the road. I'd rather people would do nothing at all but drive when behind the wheel.

I did seem to get more done when I was working and had small children, but I think it was a matter of organization and energy. I can't believe that I also made most foods from scratch, ran a youth club, and did craft, art and science projects with my kids and the neighborhood. Also volunteered a lot more.

Geez, wears me out just thinking about it!