Tyler Feigh

               People today believe they are multitasking but in truth they are doing two things at once, but focusing on one more than the other. “Kids are distracted by forms of multimedia and that kids from 13 to 18 use about 6 forms of multimedia” said. The reason for this is because the brain cannot be in two places at once. When you believe you are multitasking, you are really just doing two things but one more than the other. She goes on in her article to say that it can lead to people being not able to pay attention for long periods of time and that people are better off doing one thing at a time. People who are multitaskers normally cannot pay attention for long periods which leads to worst attention test scores compared to people that do one thing at a time. Also multitaskers will mostly just pay partial attention to people and thing that go on around them. Doing one thing at a time is actually a quicker way than to try and do both things at once. Mr. Yantis is used in this article and he explains how the brain can only focus on one thing and had some examples set too. One example is when people are doing a task and they switch to their cell phones which causes them to be distracted and completely takes them off course. There was a test in this article called the Marshmallow Test. This test contained some kids that had a marshmallow put in front of them for a period of about 15 minutes, which is long for a kid. The trick was that the kids could eat it but if they waited they got a full bag. This was to experiment self-control that some of the kids had and some that did not. They tracked these kids after years, and the test showed that the kids that waited had a better life such as good grades, more money and a successful job. This test just showed that people with less self-control are more likely to turn out as great people. If they would have tested me I know I would have eaten the marshmallow as soon as they left. So have had my fair share of experiences of both multitasking, getting off topic and with self-control, in which these categories intertwine with one another, but in the end multitasking is an impossible task.

               There are not real multitaskers because no one can do two things at once equally good it’s just not how the brain works. Before Spark’s article I thought multitasking was possible, I was just never good at it. I thought I could multitask but it never seems to benefit me because my mind can only handle one thing at a time. I learned from the article that it is faster to do one thing at a time and thinking about that now makes a lot of sense. I always feel like I am multitasking when I am watching TV and doing homework or watching TV and on my phone. When I am doing these activities, my mind focuses on one more than the other which is good and bad. Sometimes I am focusing on my homework more and other times I am focused on the TV. Most of the time my phone will interfere with everything from TV to homework, it just consumes my mind to it instead of other activities. So my mom is a really bad at texting so my dad and I always mess with her when she is texting. She will not say a word to us until she is done, so that is proving that the mind can only focus on one thing at a time, also proving that texting is a major distraction. Then she gets mad because she knew we were trying to distract her. So I am never multitasking, or my mom, just doing one thing at a time with something else going on around me. To continue on with Spark’s article there is another side at the end by Ms. Davidson. Ms. Davidson says “that our attention is trained to live silent and alone but in the real workplace no one is alone and silent, we are all connected”.

 

Sparks, Sarah. “Studies on Multitasking Highlight Value of Self Control.” Education Week. 15 May 2012. Web, 4 Nov. 2015.