I’m enjoying the sweet feeling of vindication: new research shows that multitaskers are worse at everything. They can’t focus as well (even when they want to), they can’t think as well, they get less done, … not only that, they’re worse at multitasking than the non-multitaskers.They do think that they’re better at multitasking and at getting things done, though, so we can add suffering from delusion to their list of woes.
Read all about it here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/interviews/nass.html
Sydney
Alan Schmierer
…found this info very interesting, and it confirmed some of my thoughts as well. I work in a multitasking environment and am not as productive as I was before our office had email and internet at our fingertips. I had attributed my reduced productivity to age…perhaps that is not the case. There are multiple screens to search through at warp speed before completing a transaction or simply to sign up for a training session, multiple phone functions to use when trying to find a number, making a conference call, redirecting calls…ad nauseum – and all the while email notices plus meeting screens continually pop up.
Only when I was forced to withdraw from multitasking while visiting your house did I enjoy the rewards of almost single-focused activity and read book after book to my heart’s content.
I wonder how the brains of upcoming generations will be rewired to cope with the technology world?