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Although many people believe that multitasking is a positive characteristic trait to possess, some do not believe the hype. We tend to perceive multi-tasking as being a skill to have when trying to get things done on a quick and easy manner. Yet, sometimes we think that we are accomplishing a lot, when really we are not. Furthermore, in many ways, multitasking negatively affects our learning.
According to Rosen (2008) “When we talk about multitasking, we are really talking about attention: the art of paying attention, the ability to shift our attention, and, more broadly, to exercise judgment about what objects are worthy of our attention” (p. 109). It is commonly known that a major part of the effectiveness for learning is attention. Information has to be in an individual’s focal attention in order for information to process and store in his or her brain. In addition, once information is included in our focus, we are then able to efficiently develop memory.
In the article entitled “How does Multitasking Affect Memory,” Josh Clark mentions how multitasking affects memory. For example, if an individual is watching an interesting sitcom on television and reading an article about information processing, when it comes time to recall the information, it is not located where it needs to be. Therefore, information was put into the brain, but was not learned (Clark, 2010).
More research concerning the negative effects of multitasking continues to evolve in mainstream research. Multitasking not only affects memory, but Rosen (2008) mentions that it also can negatively affect the economy. She describes a study saying,
“One study by researchers at the University of California at Irvine monitored interruptions among office workers; they found that workers took an average of twenty-five minutes to recover from interruptions such as phone calls or answering e-mail and return to their original task” (p. 106).
Many people believe that their mind is able to do many tasks at once, when in actuality, everyone should leave that ability to computers. In our society, students at school and employees at the workplace are being treated as robots who are supposedly able to produce various outcomes simultaneously as machines. Even a doctor is not able to perform surgery on one patient and perform a yearly check-up on another. Therefore, according to James (1899/2001), it is crucial to teach students good habits, the habit of time management and other self-regulatory learning strategies that will help them succeed at learning. Therefore, how can we teach our students to not multitask when it is encouraged throughout our society?
References
Clark, J. (2010, April 27). How does multitasking affect memory? Retrieved from
James, W. (1899/2001). Talks to teachers on psychology and to students on some of life's ideals.
Mineola, NY: Dover.
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