The PBS video Digital Nation really made me think about my generation and our "multi-tasking" abilities...or lack there of. Digital Nation, more or less, bashed our thoughts surrounding the idea that we are great multi-taskers. In all honesty, I think there is no such thing as a good multi-tasker. When we say, "Oh yeah, I'm a great multi-tasker. I go on facebook, check my flight info, write a paper, listen to music, and talk on the phone all at the same time". What we're really saying is "Hey, I get distracted". To me, it is not multi-tasking if your spreading your mind so thin over a bunch of different tasks and not focusing all your energy on one at a time.
Even now as I write this, I'm distracted. I'm talking to my friend, eating a bagel, sitting in a frat house where people are drinking and shouting, the hockey game is on, music is on downstairs, I'm texting on my phone, and amid all of this I'm tempted to go onto gilt.com and see what the sales are for the day. I know my blog post would be different, perhaps more in depth, if I locked myself in the bathroom-but this is my point. Maybe I get distracted more easily than the average person, so I'm not a good example. As random people are walking by me I'm asking them "Are you a good multi-tasker or do you get distracted easily?"
Here is my tally....
Good Multi-Tasker Easily Distracted
7 33
The questions I asked are as follows....
Me: "Hi, Can I ask you a question? Are you a good multi-tasker?'
Random College Students: Yes I am
Me: "So when your writing a paper, listening to music, going on facebook, and reading other things online you think your sufficiently multi-tasking or doing other things because you're distracted from your initial task?"
Random College Student: "If you put it that way, I guess, yeah, I'm distracted"
In all, 33 out of 40 students said the reason for their "attempted multi-tasking" is distraction.
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I'd be the first person to defend the concept of multi-tasking. I love to brag about my skills, but in all honestly there is no such thing. Multi-tasking is just another way of saying "I'm doing a bunch of things half-ass". Good post!
ReplyDeletehaha I agree with Stephanie...sure we all think we are great at multi-tasking but your definitely right about it being good at doing a bunch of things half assed and I'm sure many people can agree with that statement.
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