Multitasking Cause And Effect Essay

Growing up in a generation where technology is at our fingertips, the brain changes its organization and functioning to accommodate the abundance of stimulation forced on it by the modern world. I recognize where Restak’s logic comes from because individuals are so dependent on phones and laptops that it becomes a challenge for people to complete work on their own. People feel as if it is necessary to have an electronic device by their side, tricked into believing multitasking is an acquired skill when in reality the brain is struggling. With the constant use of extra devices, Restak suggests “multitasking”

Multitasking, helpful or harmful? In Alina Tugend’s “Multitasking Can Make You Lose…Um…Focus”, Tugend explores multitasking in several ways. Explaining how we as humans sacrifice focus “shifting focus from task to task gives illusion that we’re simultaneously tasking”. Also, how our brains react to operating and trying to do more than one task at once. Only one or two visual stimulants can activate our neurons at one particular time. Lastly, how we can recreate boundaries and cope with everyday life and multitasking. Tugend reiterates several times the importance of one task at a time so we as humans can effectively complete tasks to the best of our abilities instead of giving partial focus and not efficiently completely a task. Multitasking is very beneficial at times, but more often there are significant downfalls; it is crucial we learn how to manage the downfalls of juggling tasks, events, conversations, and daily events.

In the essay “Multitasking can make you lose … Um … Focus” Alina Tugend exams why multitasking can make you lose focus. Tugend explains what multitasking is in the first section she also explains why it is bad. She then brings in a professor to explain how multitasking works in a scientific way. Alina Tugend then uses case studies to show how multitasking can cause loss of focus and impairment in motor activities. She then shows how multitasking can actually delay your progress on completing projects by constantly switching to different tasks. Tugend then sums it all up by trying to teach us how to better ourselves and to not multitask.

In “Multitasking Can Make You Lose...Um...Focus,” Alina Tugend examines the negative aspects and many disadvantages that occur through multitasking. Tugend begins by stating that multitasking is the norm for today’s fast paced society; however, in reality it is pulling focus from the task at hand. The author continues on to cite various researchers who express that the brain cannot simultaneously do two tasks at once and is actually just flipping back and forth between tasks rapidly. Although multitasking seems like a time efficient method, Tugend reveals, it is actually creating a large amount of stress and pressure on the individual. Furthermore, the author notes that multitasking actually pulls away from the task at hand creating a great time loss. Tugend even goes on to explain that multitasking is proving to be bad for innovation by not allowing an individual to think in depth about one task for an extended period of time. With Tugends article in mind I agree that multitasking puts a lot of stress and pressure on the individual, creates a loss in time, and is awful for innovation.

Students may easily lose their attention and concentration with easy access to such incredibly rich store of information. With such new technologies as television, internet and social networks, people nowadays tend to multitask more often as they have easy access to large amount of information. However, such easy access may sometimes be a distraction. Study report “Your Brain on Computers” shows that heavy multitaskers perform up to 20% worse on most tests compared to performance of light multitaskers. Working efficiency of people, who multitask, are claimed to be significantly lower. The same is with concentration. As a result, they are not engaged in working process. Students tend to be easily distracted with this situation. For example, combining doing homework with operating on Twitter, phone or YouTube results in poor engagement of a student into deep thinking process, according to Winifred Gallagher, who is the author of Rapt. He also points out that nowadays high school and college students have decreased capacity of serious thinking because of multitasking and distraction. Moreover, Tyler Cowen, economist and famous blogger, claims that nowadays information tends to come in shorter and smaller portions and that explains why our generation encourages short reading. Since online information is always presented in short written passages, the web prevents user from concentration and contemplation. As an illustration, Nicholas Carr, the speaker at MIT and Harvard,

In our busy lives, multitasking has become a normal day-to-day activity. In the twenty-first century, the ability to do multiple things simultaneously has become a valuable asset and is viewed as an essential skill by many. However, does multitasking negatively affect the outcome of your task? The practice of doing multiple things at once is detrimental to your efficiency, attentiveness, focus, and detracts from your ability to execute your task well.

In the essay “Multitasking can make you lose … Um … Focus” Alina Tugend exams why multitasking causes you to lose focus and how it is counterproductive. Tugend explains what multitasking is in the first section and that since the 90s we have widely accepted it into our daily lives. She also brings a credible professor named Earl Miller to elaborate on multitasking and how it is explained in a scientific manor. As this professor goes on he talks about how its misleading and that multitasking doesn’t actually benefit us, it actually hinders are ability to be productive. Tugend uses multiple case studies to back up this information and to even support her own argument that multitasking causes loss of focus.

Many people take pride in the fact that they can multitask. A study “Task Switching” conducted by Monsell concluded that multitasking, or switching

Yelling at your children…” She also says that “since the 1990’s we’ve accepted multitasking without questions,” helping give background and showing how new technology has changed our working habits.In the second paragraph on the second page of the article she explains more how technology has changed and how there are now more distractions; however, she never explicitly states how new technology has changed how much and how often we multitask. In the next paragraph she helps explain how it can hurt productivity by quoting a psychiatrist Edward M. Hallowell with the statement “you have to keep in mind that you sacrifice focus when you do this”

After all, if a person was to learn about or concentrate on a different subject every few minutes, it would be nearly impossible to retain and remember the information. As one study discovered, "multitasking adversely affects how you learn. Even if you learn while multitasking, that learning is less flexible and more specialized, so you cannot retrieve the information as easily (Rosen 412)." Most people who multitask become so distracted by the amount of information they are trying to obtain at one time that it is actually causing the opposite effect. Multitasking makes it harder to distinguish the difference or importance between individual tasks. This means that many people either dismiss all the information gain as redundant or clump all knowledge, unnecessary and essential, together.

While students feel they are great at multitasking, studies show that they actually perform academically at a lower level than those who do not multitask. A study was conducted by a respected research lab in Stanford University. Clifford Nass, a professor of communications at Stanford University, introduces us to a study conducted on carefully-selected high chronic students who multitask (Digital Nation). The experiment was structured for students to identify numbers as odd or even, letters as vowels or consonants. Professor Nass wanted to test how quickly these students can switch tasks without losing focus. The results showed that people who multitask are slower than those who do not multitask. While slower does not mean horrible, it should raise a sign that if they had focused on their work only they would get better scores in their respective studies. Sherry Turkle, in an interview, displayed the differences between two common multitasking activities: taking a break from your studies to stretch and surfing the web. Turkle says: “When you get up and stretch and take a walk around the block, you can stay with your problem. You can clear your mind; you can move your body. You can stay

The gravity of the issue is certainly more pronounced in Wallis’ essay compared to Turkle’s. She begins by providing the reader with several scenarios that are likely to play out in the average American household. Each of the twins is in their own world as they veraciously absorb the stimulus coming from their computers, phones and tablets. They are supposed to be finishing homework but even a task with this much importance falls to the wayside. It suddenly becomes apparent that these kids are addicted to their devices, something that has become all too common in many of our own homes. The term multi-tasker was once used to define a person who could do many things at one time successfully. However, Wallis explains that this is nearly impossible.

We often encounter distractions all around in our daily lives. Our attention is divided between different tasks, which make it difficult to focus. The internet plays an important role in distracting individuals to focus the mind and sustain concentration. According to Nicholas Carr, “When we 're constantly distracted and interrupted, as we tend to be online, our brains are unable to forge the strong and expansive neural connections that give depth and distinctiveness to our thinking.”(Carr 224). The internet plays an important role in why it is difficult for individuals to focus the mind and sustain concentration. The internet has many distractions that can often lead us to multitasks and not fully focus on one task. For example, I have seemed students in class using their laptops not for education purposes but searching

Multitasking is becoming very significant on the workplace to complete the task in less time. In fact, some people believe that multitasking saves time and can be done at all together. On the other hand, some people think that it is a distracting activity which leads to a lack of concentration. According to David Silverman, “In Defense of Multitasking”, multitasking is “crucial to survival in today’s workplace” (522). However, I do not agree because multitasking reduces productivity, increases stress levels and it is, especially, problematic for students.

Through extensive research we are now able to see that multitasking is not an effective learning method, but is a bad thing to do.