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Myth of Multitasking

The Myth of Multitasking

 

           An article by Forbes staff writer Sarah Sparks uncovered some general misconceptions about multitasking.  One point made was that individuals between the ages thirteen and eighteen use on average six different types of social media, and its importance to the topic is that these individuals tend to believe being active on multiple social media sites at once qualifies as multitasking.  However, scrolling through a Twitter feed and pausing to occasionally tag friends tag friends in Facebook posts while trying to direct message a potential significant other on Instagram is not multitasking in any way shape or form.  And on top of it all, surrendering one's attention in small bursts to many pointless social media tasks over a long period of time has been proven to affect an individual’s ability to focus on a single thing for an extended period of time.  Another common misconception to the already established misconception of multitasking is that this so called multitasking is efficient.  That cannot be further from the truth according to this article.  If someone dedicates their focus to one task at a time, that person can finish all of their commitments sooner than opening and closing their attention to multiple tasks at once.  An example they gave was reading a passage and stopping to answer a text massage.  Most would think it just takes a split second to look down at your device formulate a response and your back at your reading. But the reality of the situation is that person has to stop their entire train of thought they had on the passage and mark where they leave off, then that person would have to open up their mind to an unrelated topic to think of their answer, then try to resume the same train of thought they were in when initially reading the passage.  So in essence you are not doing two things at once, but giving away precious time by creating a distraction from your train of thought (Sparks).  Why do you think people can surf between multiple social media for hours upon hours? The answer is because it is such an inefficient use of time! If the average social media user sat down and said, “I am going to one by one visit my regular social media sites and attend to my notifications as usual but one at a time and look through all the news feeds without interruption” there would be no need to commit hours of attention to social medias because you would be finished looking through whatever it is people like doing on those in fifteen minutes tops.  Students who claim to be successful multitaskers were also proven to be more easily distracted and preformed worse on memory and attention tests.  In conclusion to my summary, I would like to discuss the marshmallow test.  The essence of this test was that if a child could wait fifteen minutes on eating a marshmallow placed in front of them they would receive two at the end of the fifteen minute period.  Less than one-third of the kids could hold off on eating the initial marshmallow.  Those who managed to hold off for the fifteen minutes also showed superior academic and social skills in the years that followed.  The same trend is present in those who mix texting with academics, truly eye-opening facts.

       Why do you think people can surf between multiple social media for hours upon hours? The answer is because it is such an inefficient use of time! If the average social media user sat down and said, “I am going to one by one visit my regular social media sites and attend to my notifications as usual but one at a time and look through all the news feeds without interruption” there would be no need to commit hours of attention to social medias because you would be finished looking through whatever it is people like doing on those in fifteen minutes tops.

 

Works Cited

 

Sparks, Sarah. “Studies of Multitasking Highlights of Self-Control.” Education

         Week. 12 . May. 2012. Web. 20 November. 2015

 

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/05/16/31multitasking_ep.h31.html?tkn=PTWFGpBwR5o7bKrnCvQZswL8Vr%2BlUoJB%2B62c&cmp=clp-edweek

 

 

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