Danger Of Multitasking

How many times have we been told that multitasking is not an efficient way to accomplish tasks? For many of us the answer is multiple, yet somehow we still find ourselves doing homework with the TV on or cooking dinner while talking on the phone. For some reason multitasking just seems unavoidable when faced with the countless tasks we need to get done. We tend to forget that trying to juggle all of our tasks at once can actually cause us to lose 40 percent of our productivity (What are the Cognitive…). But how can something that seems like a great way to get everything done at once cause us to accomplish nothing? Our brains cannot process and encode two different pieces of information, making it impossible to efficiently multitask. When asked to evaluate ourselves on how well we

multitask, most of us would probably say we do it fairly well. But according to all of the studies done on multitasking, we aren’t as good at it as we may think. Multitasking not only causes us to lose drastic amounts of productivity, it has some serious health risks involved as well.
If we are told over and over again the dangers of multitasking, why do we still find ourselves trying to do everything at once?

The danger with multitasking is that from the outside it looks like a productive way to accomplish tasks. When we see someone watching their favorite TV show while doing homework, or sending emails while in a work meeting we envy them for being able to get so much done at one time. Assistant professor of communications at Ohio state university, Zhen Wang, says “[people who multitask] are not being more productive they just feel more emotionally satisfied from their work” (What multitasking does to our brains). When we are doing multiple tasks at once we feel like we are accomplishing a lot, but when we look back we realize that nothing really was achieved. With all the technology now-a-days multitasking is becoming easier and easier. Most new computers have a split screen feature where you can jump back and forth between pages, making switching from task to task as easy as clicking a button. With everything becoming so fast paced, society as a whole has grown impatient. Juggling multiple tasks keeps us from sitting around and waiting for one thing to

finish.
With all of these reasons to multitask, why are we being told we shouldn’t? Multitasking forces your brain to try to split in half in order to process the two different sets of information. Eventually our brains become worse at filtering irrelevant information that we don’t need to complete the tasks at hand. According to researchers Meyers, Evans, and Rubinstein there are two stages of executive control processes, which is where multitasking is managed (12 reasons to stop…). Goal shifting, deciding to do one thing instead of another, and role activation, changing from the rules of the previous task to the rules of the new task. Switching between the two, really only takes a few seconds but when multitasking becomes part of our everyday lives those seconds add up. Guy Winch, author of “Emotional First Aid…” says that “when it comes to attention and productivity, our brains have a finite amount.”
A study done by Robert Rogers and Stephen Monsell shows that participants were slower when they had to switch between tasks rather than repeating the same task. In 2008 the University of Utah discovered that drivers took longer to reach their destinations when they talked on cell phones. Not only does multitasking cause us to be less productive, it is shown to be linked with stress as well. University of California Irvine researchers measured heart rates of employees with and without constant access to their office emails. The group with constant access was always in “high alert” mode and had higher heart rates. Meanwhile the group without access had less stress that was linked with multitasking. As we all know, stress and depression seem to be closely linked and it seems that multitasking is just adding to both. “The unique association between media multitasking and these measures of psychosocial dysfunction suggests that the growing trend of multitasking with media may represent a unique risk factor for mental health problems related to mood and anxiety”. Multitasking also causes us to pay less attention to our surroundings, and eventually can cause memory loss. ”Dr. David Meter, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, agrees with another UD psychologist Dr. John Arden, that when humans multitask too much, they can experience short-term memory problems or difficulty concentrating.” In 2009 Western Washington University concluded that 75 percent of college students talking on the phone while walking on campus did not notice a clown riding a unicycle by them. (Impacts of multitasking)
Although listening to music while working may seem like multitasking, it actually isn’t. Stanford professor Clifford Nass says, “In the case of music, it’s a little different. We have a special part of our brain for music, so we can listen to music while we do other things.”
Avoiding multitasking is simple. Slow down, and deal with one thing at a time. No matter how alluring it may seem, the efficiency of multitasking is simply an illusion. It doesn’t allow us to accomplish more things and it has serious mental and physical repercussions. So next time you are in a work meeting, wait to send an email and pause your favorite TV show until after you finish your homework.