Smart phones, dumb us
These days multitasking is not so much choice as it is compulsion. People rarely seem to do just one thing anymore; while working, eating, playing, driving, child-caring, shopping, watching, and in-person conversing, we text/email/scan a website, checking and rechecking for responses and updates. We can't seem to stop.
Focus - an element of intelligent processing - is fading into the sunset.
Constant interruptions. Less concentration. Less chance of in-depth analysis, which the brain requires focused, uninterrupted time to develop. And certainly, less human intimacy. We don't yet seem to have the discipline to simply put the gadgets away until the other task is complete.
For decades as schedules have become more crammed and to-do lists lengthened (don't forget those accumulated hours of email, Facebook, and Tweets), "multitasking" has been elevated to the near-divine. Everybody does it. We brag and joke about it.
Apparently, it's not just a stress-builder. It's a results-killer - less effective and less efficient. The French medical research firm INSERM conducted a study on multitasking's effects on the brain in 2013. Using MRI scans of the adult subjects and comparing effects of singular and multitasking activities, these neuroscientists discovered that multitasking:
1. Slows us down
2. Reduces memory
3. Increases mistakes
4. Changes the way the brain works
Yes, No. 4 is true. Multitasking actually changes the way the brain functions, or differently put, doing more reduces the area of the brain in use.
That's the most surprising part, that doing more means less brain function in the prefrontal cortex - that crucial area of the brain which is key to decision-making and judgment. The MRI scans of multitasking brains showed one side of the prefrontal cortex was dark, indicating no or little activity. When completing one task at a time, both sides of the prefrontal cortex were active.
When we try to think, to pay attention to something, the prefrontal cortex (which spans both left and right sides of the brain behind the forehead) springs to action. It helps us analyze, consider multiple layers of a situation, and it motivates, coordinating input from other parts of the brain to help us assemble parts or aspects into a whole picture. We need full attention and time to do that, so multitasking interrupts that process and limits thinking.
Practice makes anything seem easier, so yes, society's modern multitaskers are more able to skate by and get things done simultaneously. But science is beginning to prove we're getting them done less intelligently, not to mention with more stress. Other studies showed regular multi-tasking (e.g. while studying or learning) students had lower test scores, and those "senior moments" in older adults tend to happen more when multitasking or when interrupted.
Whatever that interruption is, it can probably wait.
Sholeh Patrick is a neo-Luddite and columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at [email protected]