One misconception that students may have about their multitasking is that they are saving time. One student named Mike Lutz, for example, claims that he gets much more work done when he multitasks (as cited in Hamilton, 2008). Some say that they feel they get more done in a shorter amount of time, but they are actually not doing two things at once. They are switching from one task to another, and constant task switching takes more time. Gloria Mark of the University of California, Irvine, conducted a study in which business workers were interrupted while working on a project. Each time, it took them about 25 minutes to return their attention to the original project (Rosen, 2008). In study terms, if you interrupt yourself to check your e-mail, a chapter that would take thirty minutes to read straight through could take much longer.
What happens when people shift from one demanding task to another? David Meyer, a professor at University of Michigan, found that when you switch to a new task, the parts of the brain that are no longer being used “start shutting things down—like neural connections to important information.” If a student is studying French and stops to shop online, the neural connections to the French homework start to shut down. To restore full understanding, Meyer says the students “will have to repeat much of the process that created [the connections] in the first place” (as cited in Jarmon, 2008, p.30). This frequent reconnecting to prior levels of focus and understanding is a waste of time. It is time lost that could be used more efficiently. If students eliminated technological distractions during study time, they would be able to complete more work in a shorter amount of time with greater understanding. There is always time to socialize after homework and studying has been completed.
Another misconception is that multitasking prepares you for the business world. According to businessman Alan Greene (2011), “Able to multitask” used to be considered a positive on employee resumes. However, in a study by Tungend (2008), the researchers found that “extreme multitasking—information overload—costs the U.S. economy $655 billion a years in lost productivity” (p.45). Furthermore, a study conducted at the University of London found that “workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.” Employers, therefore, do not value multitasking. Now, according to the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education, businesses want an employee who “selects goal-relevant activities, ranks them, allocates time, and prepares and follows schedules” (Rosen, 2008, p. 75). If multitasking is difficult and harmful in the business world, it has no place in university work either.
Besides wasted time and money, another unfortunate effect of multitasking is serious damage to students’ ability to learn. Studies by psychology professor Russell Poldrack show that multitasking makes “learning…less flexible and more specialized, so you cannot retrieve the information as easily.” Studies of blood flow in the brain show why. When people are task-switching, they use the “striatum, a region of the brain involved in learning new skills.” In contrast, people who are not multitasking “show activity in the hippocampus, a region involved in storing and recalling information” (as cited in Rosen, 2008, p.79). Amy Jarmon (2008), Dean of Texas Tech’s School of Law, recalls a study comparing two groups of students in a large lecture class. One group of students was allowed to use laptops in class; they performed much more poorly on a memory quiz of lecture content than students not permitted to use laptops. Students who checked their e-mail and updated their Web pages during class did not recall information well because they were not using the hippocampus.
Finally, if students get into the habit of multitasking, they could miss out on developing a trait prized by highly successful people. Christine Rosen (2008) calls the trait “a finely honed skill for paying attention” (p.23). The great British scientist Sir Isaac Newton said his discoveries owed “more to patient attention than to any other talent (as cited in Tugend, 2008, p.19). The American psychologist William James wrote that the ability to pay attention marked the difference between a mature and an immature person: “The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again … is the root of judgment, character, and will” (as cited in Tugend, 2008, p.20). Maturity means recognizing that there is a time and place for everything. When I go to the library to study, I leave my computer behind so that I will not be tempted to multitask. After an hour of focused work, I have accomplished a great deal.
Multitasking is now part of every student’s life. The facts indicate that we need to resist it more. It is not as helpful as many people think, and its very appeal is part of the problem. It is inefficient, reduces intelligence, and impairs recall. To think deeply rather than shallowly, we need to concentrate. Therefore, the best approach is to divide study time from social time. Focusing on one thing at a time will produce better outcomes now and in the future.
WORKS CITED
Hamilton,Jon. “Multitasking Teens May be Muddling Their
Brains.” NPR. National Public Radio, 9 0ct. 2008. Web
7 Apr 2009.
Jarmon, Amy L. “Multitasking: Helpful or Harmful?
Multitasking Has Been Shown to Slow Learning and
Reduce Efficiency.” Student Lawyer 36.8 (April 2008):
30(S). Academic OneFile. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.
Rosen, Christine. “The Myth of Multitasking.” The New
Atlantis 20 (spring 2008) 105-110. Print.
“Skills and Competencies Needed to Succeed in Today’s
Workplace.” North Central Regional Education
Laboratory, Learning Point Associates. N.d. Web. 7
April 2009.
Tugend, Alina. “Multitasking Can Make You Lose…Um…Focus.”
The New York Times, 25 Oct. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.
Greene, Alan, interview, 2011.
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