Multitasking

Sarah Sparks wrote a wonderful piece for Education Weekly back in 2012, about the prevalence of multitasking in younger generations of students and its (lack of) viability. Many teens use upwards of five or six different media services at once. There’s Facebook and YouTube and Twitter of course, but there’s also Kik, Snapchat, Instagram, Tumblr, Steam, and so on. Distractions abound.

As much as we humans insist that we’re fantastic at multitasking, all the evidence that Sparks presents suggests otherwise. Researchers have found that it’s simply not possible for the mind to give equal focus to two tasks at once. In fact, switching between two tasks tends to cause each task to be completed more slowly than if they were done one after the other (Sparks).

Part of the issue is the mental energy it takes to disengage one’s self from the current task and get settled into the new one (Sparks). Much time and effort is wasted by the brain finding where it left off, and what it’s supposed to be doing.

In one particular study on multitasking, college students who allowed themselves to be interrupted by texts during a lecture were found to score consistently lower than their classmates who waited several minutes before responding (Sparks). In another, young children who refrained from eating right away a marshmallow they were given tended to do better in school throughout the next few years. Presumably, this was because the children were able to focus and not be distracted by sugary temptations.

What can be taken away then, is that humans are not so much multitaskers as they are togglers – switching rapidly between tasks. To say that one can multitask effectively is a bold-faced lie, and it is not a feat that should be encouraged. Rather, students should be taught to focus and to manage time effectively.

I, personally, have a terrible habit of attempting to multitask while in class. “Oh, I already know this,” I’ll innocently think to myself as I begin sketching on the back of my notes, or pull out my phone to not-at-all-discreetly check my instant messages. “She’s walking through an assignment at the speed of a sleeping snail, I’ve got time to chat to people while the class catches up”.

It’s a terrible thing, really, thinking that one is capable of multi-tasking. I ended up constantly lost in class, often staring into space while my brain seemed to freeze, stuck between two tasks but never fully committing to one or the other. I lost a lot of productivity in those classes, and yet, I continued to insist to myself that the next day would be different. I don’t know why I lacked the willpower to leave my distractions in the backpack during class. Perhaps it was just nice to be able to chat to friends while stuck in the middle of a dreary class.

Multitasking, of the delusion of it, is a terrible habit that must be broken. It’s a symptom of a larger problem, of an inability to prioritize and focus, and that is detrimental to the working culture.

Works Cited

Shute, Nancy. "If You Think You're Good At Multitasking, You Probably Aren't." 25 January 2013. NPR.
Sparks, Sarah D. "Studies on Multitasking Highlight Value of Self-Control." 15 May 2015. Education Weekly. <http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/05/16/31multitasking_ep.h31.html>.