In a compelling article in The New Atlantis, Christine Rosen
discusses what she
calls the "myth of multitasking" -- namely, the notion that
emerged beginning in the early 1990's that multitasking is an essential twenty-first
century "life skill". In fact, she argues, a growing body of
cognitive research is showing that there are real liabilities associated with
this practice. FMRI imaging has shown that "task switching" is
a cognitively-intensive activity, and that there is evidence of a
"response selection bottleneck" associated with attending to multiple
tasks. In fact, some psychiatrists go so far as to liken the negative
effects of multitasking to attention deficit-related disorders. Human
brains are essentially sequential rather than parallel processing devices, so
goes the argument. We can fool ourselves into thinking we are
"multitasking", but in fact, we are switching our attention
selectively amongst multiple tasks. This switching comes at a cognitive
cost, and at the cost of lost focus on each of the tasks.
This argument jibes with my own experiences. As I write this, I am
sitting in a meeting. As much as I want to believe I am paying
attention to the conversation at the same time as I am writing this post, the
fact is I am selectively switching my attention between the two.
I also deeply believe from working with students (and parenting my children)
that the constant competition for their attention has resulted in a diminished
capacity for focusing deeply for sustained periods of time. This is why,
inveterate multitasker that I am, I believe that encouraging children to get
engrossed in a good book may be one of the most important things we can achieve
as parents and educators.
I'm curious what you think. Is multitasking a new, essential life skill,
or a pernicious influence in our increasingly fractured lives?
Let me know your thoughts please!