The Myth of Multitasking

The Myth of Multitasking

The concept of multitasking has been a bone of contentment for a prolonged period. While some people identify multitasking as a positive feature and refer it as an ability that is possessed by only a limited number of individuals, the opponents argue that multitasking is a negative attribute and people should refrain from engaging in different tasks at the same time. Both the proponents and opponents give different reasons in support of their argument. While people who tend to multitask activities argue that it helps them to achieve higher goals within a limited scope of time, their opponents, on the other hand, counter such comments by claiming that multitasking is not an ability but instead, it is just the engagement in different activities simultaneously, which causes a person to put more focus on one area or activity thereby giving negative results in the other area of involvement. According to the findings presented by various scientists, multitasking affects the quality of the final results by making an individual less concentrated in one activity (Strayer, David &Jason, 2012). Studies have identified that the human mind is only able to focus on one thing at a time and any time a person tries to multitask, such attention and concentration cannot be divided equally into the two different fields of engagement. By considering such an important fact, mindfulness, not multitasking, should be our goal.

To start with, the myth of multitasking has been passed down various generations thereby making people believe that multitasking is a positive value and ability that every person should desire to possess. In the current generation, most people share the illusion that being able to engage in different things at the same time is a skill that one should be proud of as it helps one to accomplish more. The widespread of such a myth has resulted in many adverse implications in our society today. Some of the most common adverse effects of multitasking as witnessed in every part of the world today include an increase in the number of road accidents as drivers try to engage in other minor activities such as taking phone calls and using their phones to reply to simple messages sent to them by their friends while they are still driving(Strayer, David & Jason, 2012). The consequences of engagement have often made the drivers to lose their concentration in their core activity which is driving, thereby causing accidents that cost many lives and injuries. Digital distractions such as phones are some of the leading elements that cause people to multitask and eventually affect the quality of the final results in a negative way.

The members of society today should be encouraged to embrace mindfulness instead of multitasking several things at the same time. Having known that a people cannot be able to divide their attention between and or amongst different entities, they should be ready to devote their total focus in the specific things that they want to get good results. When the brain is engaged in several things simultaneously, the significant compromise arises because an individual is forced to keep shifting their attention between the different things (Konnikova, 2012). The final result is that such a person is eventually unable to give their maximum attention to either activity and as a result, they only achieve below their potential. To make it worse, by engaging in a variety of things at the same time, multitasking makes individuals to get worn out easily and their brain is subjected to stress which in turn affects even more essential functions as decision making.

However, individuals who are continually multitasking things narrate a number of benefits that people who are more concerned with mindfulness miss. Among the main positive suggestions that have been given include the assertion that such people are less likely to procrastinate things and activities. They are also able to save time and the costs related to it(Strayer, David & Jason, 2012). Even though multitasking is a negative character that people should stop to appraise, there are some circumstances where an individual will benefit significantly by multitasking as compared to carrying out a single activity at a time.

In conclusion, mindfulness and concentration should be advocated and encouraged by people in the current generation. While most people praise multitasking due to lack of knowledge, they should understand the working of the human brain whereby attention cannot be divided equally between or among several things, and multitasking, therefore, makes individuals unable to give out their best since their concentration is divided between the various activities they undertake simultaneously. By refraining from such distractions as digital technologies like phones, people should learn to focus on specific activities at any given time as that would enable them to devote all their energy and give the best out of themselves thereby posting positive results.

 

Works Cited

Konnikova, Maria. “The power of concentration.” The New York Times (2012).

Strayer, David L., and Jason M. Watson. “Supertaskers and the multitasking brain.” Scientific American Mind 23.1 (2012): 22-29.

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