Do We Really Benefit From Multitasking?
It was junior year of high school when my English teacher warned us as a class.
Another day of half listening to her, half playing on our phones and laptops, or half filling out physics worksheets and math homework. She told us that multi-tasking was, frankly, not good for us. Spending English catching up on another class? Then we’d have to spend that other class catching up on English and probably spend a good while catching up on some other subjects in between.
I knew what she was talking about, but I chose to ignore it. After all, we had just taken our masks off that year; the year before, we were all at home for school on our computers. And far before COVID, I knew my attention span was fried.
You see, I think what we used to call “multitasking” in the past decade has evolved into something far less productive (BrownHealth.org). It’s the norm now to put on a TV show, then look down at your laptop, and take a break on your phone, while chatting with your friend, while eating your lunch…you get the point. One of my favorite commentary YouTubers, Drew Gooden, touched on this in a video, “Everybody wants to waste your time”. He discussed how modern television and movies purposefully treat the viewer as slow – redescribing plot points and overexplaining exposition – because it is the expectation that the audience will be on their phone during the media, and miss key parts. To put it short, Netflix treats you like a baby, with a baby’s attention span.
This relates heavily to how we get our work done. Many students, including myself, struggle to work without a show or music playing in the background. There’s no shame in that, but it rarely stops there. Suddenly you can’t work without a phone break every couple of minutes, or a snack break, or giving up on work entirely and hopping on Dress to Impress on Roblox. How do we relearn to focus, and give up on that wonderful yet unrealistic idea of modern multitasking?
The key is mindfulness. Taking back one thing at a time, for our productivity and for our mental health. It’s harder than it sounds; dear reader, I’m finishing this blog during my Math Concepts II course. It’s insanely difficult to comprehend the importance of dull tasks while we’re doing them. And we continue to feel the impact of the pandemic on our focus – I find it hard to believe we will ever retain focus like we once did, but we have to try. Not just for a good grade on campus, but in order to be a good roommate, a good employee, a good friend, and a good member of our families.
That 11th-grade English teacher was one of the best I have ever had. She challenged us in our writing and with the material we studied but offered several opportunities for support if we needed it. She prepared us for college in a way that barely any of my senior-year classes did. To pay her back, I owe it to her, and to myself, to start taking life one task at a time. Today, I hope you give the attention you can to any and everything that you can.
