Preview

Effects of Chronic Multitasking

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
845 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Effects of Chronic Multitasking
Chronic Multitasking
In a world of multitasking and constant distractions, most human beings feel a certain satisfaction from accomplishing tasks at a faster rate; however, in actuality, multitasking can cause stress and result in poor quality of work. From a young age we continue to develop tactics to improve everyday tasks such as homework, chores, and socializing. Most live by the sayings, “life is short” and “live life to the fullest,” so as a result multitasking has created a psychological need to put efficiency over quality (Nhan).
Although many believe multitasking can ease workload, it actually prolongs tasks while adding unneeded anxiety. “Human beings tend to differ from one another in their capacities to do things” and it depends on the individual to determine whether or not multitasking is beneficial or detrimental (Kim). Multitasking, to an extent, allows for a quicker method of completing tasks; however, it is more efficient to work on tasks one by one, which causes an individual to be less stressed, minimize distraction, and prefect the quality of a specific task.
“Multitasking for the most part is detrimental” and working on tasks one by one can prevent mistakes and diminish the time needed to finish a task (Nhan). Although “it does not hurt to do multiple things at once,” people tend to have a lower retention rate when multitasking (Mah). This causes forgetfulness, lost in train of thought, and mostly mistakes. The negative effects of multitasking prolong tasks and increase stress. Multitasking does not make an individual more productive and is often mistaken with time management.
Many people believe “multitasking is efficient and comes naturally,” but it can cause a large workload (Mah). The psychology of multitasking is that it can help an individual accomplish more tasks quickly and makes it a desirable skill. When in a time crunch, individuals tend to multitask more often. Anything related to work or school, where the need to excel has



Cited: Kim, Josh. Personal Interview. College Station. June 22, 2013. Mah, Kacy. Personal Interview. Houston. June 21, 2013. Nhan, Vy. Personal Interview. College Station. June 22, 2013.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Multitasking can be beneficial or just a waste of time. In “How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking Peter Bregman and “In Defense of Multitasking” David Silverman, both bloggers explain their points of view on multitasking. Bregman explains the reasons why multitasking is bad “I will not deny that single-minded devotion often produces high quality. Nor will I attempt to join the misguided (and scientifically discredited) many who say “Yeah, other people can’t do it, but I am super awesome at doing ten things at once” (656) he explained. Silverman strongly believes that as human beings we have the habit of always trying to do as many tasks or get more time out of a 24 hour day.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hooked On Gadgets

    • 119 Words
    • 1 Page

    In the article “Hooked on Gadgets and Paying a Mental Price” by Matt Richtel, we learn about the effects of being consumed by technology as well as multitasking. In the article, Richtel provides us with a real life example of the Campbell’s, and how Mr. Campbell’s addiction almost cost him a lucrative contract for his startup company. Also, we learn about how he could not even enjoy a family vacation without having his technological fix. Richtel also gives us hard scientific facts about the effects of technology and multitasking, such as the fact that multitaskers are less likely to be able to sort out irrelevant information and that multitaskers do worse when trying to juggle between tasks.…

    • 119 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In today’s world, are their any viable options to multitasking? We have become quite adept at juggling projects, emails, phone calls, and social media in our daily lives. Much research has been conducted, and many studies have come to the conclusion that multitasking lessens one’s overall effectiveness. David Silverman, in his essay “In Defense of Multitasking” presents and opposing side to this contention. Silverman, a Harvard Business Review blogger, goes so far as to likening our seemingly primal need to multitask to our necessity to breathe air (539). While it may not prove to be as vital as oxygen, Silverman demonstrates how crucial it is for the workplace.…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Day in, Day out we all start our day doing more than one thing at a time. The morning starts with ironing our clothes while we listen to the news, delegating tasks to our family members to get our day going in what we call a productive manner, or better yet, “killing two birds with one stone.” We are all guilty of some form of multi-tasking. The article written by Alina Tugend gives an outlook on the art of multi-tasking and the effects.…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Multitasking is something that most teens do in their everyday life. Whether it is during studying time, hangout time, or even family time, teens tend to engage in multiple tasks at the same time. Rebecca A. Clay, the author of Mini-Multitaskers, also agrees with this concept. Her overall main point throughout the article is that Multitasking prevents teens form learning and retaining information. In the article, it is made evident of where she stands. Clay makes it blatantly obvious that she feels as though multitasking has a negative effect on the brain as well as the learning development. Clay uses statistics such as “…According to a 2006 Kaiser Family Foundation…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Multitasking is working on multiple things at one time. Researchers say that when a person works on one thing at a time, also known as monotasking, the two frontal lobe's work together for this one task, but when there are two tasks each frontal lobe works…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Multitasking Hurts Performances but Makes You Feel Better, the title says it all. The authors’ main reason for this article is to share the truth about multitasking with the public. The article talks about studies taken on individual students over a period of time and their urge for multitasking. The students who multitasked seem to think that when they are studying and listening to music, watching television, texting, or on the internet that it makes them more productive. In reality the students are only obtaining an emotional boost from doing so. The author argues that when juggling too many tasks that you will perform poorly so you should refrain from doing so. They also claim that if you are a victim of multitasking now, you will most likely continue this trend and make it a habit. “It is critical that we carefully examine the long-term influence of media multitasking on how we perform on cognitive tasks.”…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    We live in a world today where we almost never perform one task at a time. We're constantly switching from one thing to another, going back and forth between writing an email to your boss and talking on the phone to a fellow coworker. If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm talking about multitasking. You may think that multitasking is the best way to get things done and that it saves time, when in retrospect it has been proven to be just the opposite. Multitasking not only makes you less productive and wastes your time, but it also harms your brain.…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    annotated bib

    • 594 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Tugend believes that multitasking does not mean doing several things while simultaneously tasking. People can and should train themselves to have a longer attention span and focus on a longer task. Society believes that technology and busy lives demand and facilitate multitasking. Attention span…

    • 594 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Multitasking can be prevented by self-control. In the marshmallow test this test was a result of self-control and obedience. Children were given a marshmallow and was told if they could wait 15 minutes without eating the marshmallow, then they would be rewarded with two marshmallows. This test was proven that the ones who had self-control were more likely successful in life compared to the ones who couldn’t…

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    After completing the self- assessment, I need to work on multitasking when people are talking to me. Being a full-time mother of two, a full-time student, working part-time, planning a wedding and attempting to start a business, multitasking works in my favor. There is always something that needs to be started or completed in my world. after reading chapter one, I understand that even though my multitasking may work for me, it may not work for the people around me and I can miss something important being said because I am not giving my undivided attention to the person speaking to me. I plan on using the five steps below to improve my developmental needs.…

    • 345 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Task Switching

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Throughout the day, people constantly find themselves starting, stopping and finishing many different cognitive tasks. This study was conducted to discover the effect that task switching has on performance. Thirty eight students participated in this experiment. They were asked to complete both repeating and switching tasks. The 100 total tasks were fully randomized with 50 task repeating and 50 task switching. It was hypothesized that when a participant will be asked to switch a task over repeating one, he or she will be significantly slower in reacting. The collected data revealed that in fact, the reaction time for task switching trials was significantly higher than for repeating ones. These findings supported the hypothesis. One can conclude from here that when one switches between cognitive tasks they can expect themselves to perform less than optimally then when they repeat the same task over and over.…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Multitasking is when a person tries to do more then one thing at a time, humans are incredibly bad at multitasking and it ends up wasting our time. The U.S. hockey team uses strategies to avoid multitasking. Coach brooks shows he can handle interruptions with care when he has to stop watching films to to talk to his wife. He recognizes that the talk cannot be avoided, handles it, then immediately gets back to what he was doing. The whole team aligns themselves with their passions when the stop infighting and start trying there best to improve at hockey.McClanahan aligns his time with his passions when he plays despite his injury.These are all examples of strategies on how to avoid multitasking.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Actions, when repeating constantly, turns into habits in the brain that will done without noticing. For example, when a person drives a car for the first time, the person will face difficulties; but when that person drives frequently, driving becomes an easy action because it turns into habits in the unconsciousness brain. However, when we stop doing those actions, it becomes hard to do, and this is what happens to our brain when we switch from reading books to clicking web pages in order to get information. Deep thinking and concentration become hard abilities for people. Using Google too often could cause internet addiction which will escalate into serious problems.…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Computers can also lure us into the world of multi-tasking. It's hard to resist the idea that we can competently do something else at the same time that we are mindlessly making mouse-clicks even though research shows that we just end up doing both tasks poorly.…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays