Multitasking

Wallis, C. (2006, March 27). Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1174696-1,00.html

In the article "genM: The Multitasking Generation," by Claudia Wallis, she suggests that multitasking (mainly in the form of technology) is ruining the quality of work in schools and the structure in family relationships. Wallis gives the instance of the Cox family, where they all live in the same house, but practically live in their own separate little universe. Between their son in his room doing many things on his computer while claiming to "do homework," and his sister doing similar in the living room, their parents have a hard time grasping how they get anything done. With their attention span being sliced into many different directions, their ability to learn, reason, socialize, be creative, and understand the world is changing, Wallis says. Researchers have found that multitasking is rapid toggling of focus rather than simultaneous processing, which, though it may feel like you're getting more done, is actually less efficient. There are some things that we do simultaneously without much effort; walking while talking,  cooking dinner and watching television, and others. She argues that even though generations are becoming more adapt and believe that they will just get more efficient at multitasking to no end, that just like the human body cannot run a one minute mile, the human brain has limits.

I have to agree with Wallis that multitasking is making us much more unproductive workers, but not in all cases. Social media websites, especially ones like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are all sites that can easily distract us from our work. You may use them as resources at times for your goal, but you can easily waste time by giving your attention to everything on the side, whether it be a sophisticated article unrelated to your work, all the way to funny pictures or videos that will only take a moment-- until you end up watching five of them. However, even with all of this distracting us from our main goal, I would argue that some good comes out of it, if you use it properly. Multitasking can give you the skill to focus on multiple things at once, which is a good thing, but you don't want to focus on things with unrelated goals. If everything you are doing simultaneously are to reach the same goal, it will be a very good skill to have. If you are trying to work, but doing other things that would be considered a distraction, it can be called a "bad habit." Many people will find listening to music while reading very distracting, but possibly helpful while working on something else, like math. There are many jobs that require you to multitask, or focus on many things at once. From something like babysitting, making sure the baby doesn't eat their toy while the toddler doesn't get their hands on the fragile vase, to being a pilot, where you need to pay attention to every single thing in front of you and make sure nothing is wrong. Ultimately, multitasking can be a very good or a very bad thing, it all depends on  what you are simultaneously doing.