Persuasive Essay About Multitasking

Clay shirky, a professor at NYU brings this matter to life through his article “Why I just asked my students to put their laptops away” provides us with a more in-depth look at this issue. Shirky states that “People often start multi-tasking because they believe it will help them get more done. Those gains never materialize; instead, efficiency is degraded. However, it provides emotional gratification as a side-effect.” Although the students are set out to improve using multi-tasking, shirky believes that they are in fact worsening with this view on

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.

Most children today have access to devices such as television, smartphones, computers, and tablets. These devices can be used in a variety of ways, with both positive and negative outcomes. For example, preschool aged children may use a device to learn letters, numbers, or colors. School aged children may use a computer to conduct research, or watch an educational show. A child may also sit in front of the television for many hours, reducing physical activity, and become obese. I believe it is important for the parent or caregiver of the child to monitor the amount of screen time, as well as the content to optimize the benefits these devices can offer.

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.

In recent years, car accidents have been a drastic problem than it used to be decades ago, because of the new technology and social media system that we have been using. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the recent most popular app, Snapchats have been changing life. I believe these social media tools, are the key causes of most car accidents. For instance, many drivers who are teenagers through mid age use Snapchat to follow up with what they are doing. Drivers will be snapping about the things they see while driving. However, there are many other things that can causes problems when driving. George A. Peters and Barbara J. Peters wrote an article, “The Distracted: How Dangerous is “Multitasking”? Discussing about how to reduce the chances of getting into an accident, authors tries to encourage the drivers to drive safe showing the reaction time and distraction stage chart. The authors in depth essay uses causal, evaluation, and proposal argument.

Multitasking, “shifting focus from one task to another in rapid succession,” everyone does it. Whether it is answering a call while writing an email, texting at a stoplight or talking to someone while checking Snapchat or Facebook, multitasking is a normal part of most people’s everyday lives. Reading “Multitasking Can Make You Lose...Um...Focus” by Alina Tugend has really made me realize how much I multitask. It also made me realize no matter what I think, I am not as good at multitasking as I think I am. I believe that the author made some very convincing arguments against multitasking, how it affects society and how common it is.

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.

A ding from your computer alerts you to a Facebook post and you check that before you've finished texting. Does multitasking really work? “Every professor who looks out onto a sea of students these days knows there's email, FaceBook, Googling me, Googling them, Googling their next-door neighbor, that's happening in the classroom.”(Dretzin, Digital Nation) While technology can benefit students who use it right, several students believe they are capable of note-taking, taking in the information, and surfing the web all at once. The problem is that we are only good at doing one thing at a time, but by switching back and forth between sites even, it takes time for the brain to switch from one task to another. In the documentary it mentions a professor who gave a midterm of obvious questions if they had been listening in lectures, taking notes. While the students should have received 100%, the mean score was 75%. Even more reason to believe that technology used in lectures or using it to multitask is actually a distraction and can affect students grades

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.

In Alina Tugend’s article “Multitasking Can Make You Lose…Um…Focus,” the author discusses the dangers of attempting to multitask. Life in the twenty-first century tends to be fast paced which is one of the reasons why there is so much multitasking. Because we want everything fast, we try to get as many things accomplished in the shortest amount of time. According to “The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress,” a study that from April of 2007, while multitasking one is not able to produce as much. University of California professor Gloria Marks noticed that multitasking resulted in higher stress levels, workload, frustration, and pressure; such factors may bring about results that are less than acceptable.

Sana, Weston, & Cepeda (2013), Laptop multitasking hinders learning for both users and nearby peers. Computers & Education 62 (2013): 24-31.

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.