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Multitasking Considered Detrimental

Posted by kdawson on from the but-we-knew-this dept.

djvaselaar sends along an article from The New Atlantis that summarizes recent research indicating that multitasking may be detrimental to work and learning. It begins, "In one of the many letters he wrote to his son in the 1740s, Lord Chesterfield offered the following advice: 'There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.' To Chesterfield, singular focus was not merely a practical way to structure one's time; it was a mark of intelligence... E-mails pouring in, cell phones ringing, televisions blaring, podcasts streaming--all this may become background noise, like the 'din of a foundry or factory' that [William] James observed workers could scarcely avoid at first, but which eventually became just another part of their daily routine. For the younger generation of multitaskers, the great electronic din is an expected part of everyday life. And given what neuroscience and anecdotal evidence have shown us, this state of constant intentional self-distraction could well be of profound detriment to individual and cultural well-being."

31 of 371 comments (clear)

  1. Hang on a sec by mrbluze · · Score: 5, Funny

    a bit trksey to typ wif on hand while im ... oh lookie shiny ponies!

    --
    Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
    1. Re:Hang on a sec by jimmydevice · · Score: 5, Funny

      What? BRB

    2. Re:Hang on a sec by dodecalogue · · Score: 4, Funny

      a bit tricky to work for an employer while going to college... oh lookie a business idea!

    3. Re:Hang on a sec by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Dude, I don't want to know what that other hand is doing while you're looking at "shiny" ponies.

  2. old man can't multitask by QuantumG · · Score: 2, Funny

    News at 11.

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    How we know is more important than what we know.
    1. Re:old man can't multitask by mazarin5 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Give him a break, he's 314!

      --
      Fnord.
    2. Re:old man can't multitask by QuantumG · · Score: 4, Funny

      True, eating brains does take up most his day now.

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
  3. Multitasking is easy! by techmuse · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have absolutely no problems with...

    hold on a minute...

    multitasking. It makes me...

    one second...

    much more efficient, because I can handle...

    sorry about this...

    many different tasks at once

    1. Re:Multitasking is easy! by EdIII · · Score: 3, Funny

      That was a very well thought out, cogent, and well structured answer. I feel smarter every time I read it.

      Your intelligence and ability to express yourself being well established, I would pose the following question to you....

      When I switch hands and gain a stroke is that not multitasking changing to multiprocessing and then back to multitasking?

  4. Apparently it affects memory as well. by raving+griff · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apparently it affects memory as well. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/27/2221228&from=rss

    1. Re:Apparently it affects memory as well. by mrbluze · · Score: 3, Funny

      It also effects spellig Your spelling maybe, but not the grandparent poster's.
      --
      Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
  5. 2001 Called, They Want Their News Back by apok04 · · Score: 4, Funny

    CNN Article from 2001

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    It's not a bug, it's a feature
  6. In other news... by mechaman · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...it's been found that most guys already have a great tool for all this mono-tasking, Selective Hearing.

    1. Re:In other news... by dave420 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Pardon?

    2. Re:In other news... by exspecto · · Score: 1, Funny

      grep

  7. Multitasking bad? by suck_burners_rice · · Score: 5, Funny

    In other words, I should wipe my drive and install MS DOS.

    --
    McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
    1. Re:Multitasking bad? by Urkki · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nah. There's a modern solution to this. Just get an X Windows window manager that can be configured to force maximized windows. If that's not enough for you, configure it so that it won't run more than one application at a time. If still not good enough (after all, with GUI applications, popups are kinda like using multitasking), just ditch X, remove screen (an application), and use only one virtual console. Possibly tweak the kernel so that suspend signals won't be delivered, if you're worrided you might get distracted by accidentally pressing ^Z.

      So just a little bit of tweaking, you can go all the way to MSDOS level of single-tasking with Linux! And if you need those MSDOS applications, there's dosemu too, so there's absolutely no need to use proprietary MSDOS directly.

      Just try to achive this with any modern Windows!

  8. Re:They forgot by the_humeister · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh really? "Feels like I'm wearing nothing at all!" "Stupid sexy Flanders!"

  9. Re:One-size-fits-all doesn't fit all by NoobixCube · · Score: 5, Funny

    My life is so dull, I donate unused excess brain power to SETI and Folding@home

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    Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
  10. Re:One-size-fits-all doesn't fit all by RustinHWright · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes, some of us are far more efficient when we allow our focus to stretch beyond one thing.

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    It's all about the information. And what we do with it.
  11. Re:They forgot by doyoulikeworms · · Score: 3, Funny

    To preempt a likely reply to the parent-- there are no women on /.

  12. Re:I do find it kind of strange by Chrisq · · Score: 2, Funny

    A good friend of mine seems to basically invent things to do so that he doesn't ever get "stuck" with one task at a time, which he says is boring. Like reading slashdot at work?
  13. Gender very much part of this! by rishistar · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Multitasking may be detrimental to work and learning" says 18th Century man. "Verily, this is why women should not be permitted work or learn!"

    --
    Professor Karmadillo Songs of Science
    1. Re:Gender very much part of this! by urcreepyneighbor · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Verily, this is why women should not be permitted work or learn!"

      Don't be silly!

      Every young woman has to learn how to care for children, cook, clean and - without being raunchy - pleasure her husband. These are things that every young woman must learn, since woman is - in her raw, natural state - an animal that isn't fit to be kept indoors. She must be trained from a young age.

      --
      "The fight for freedom has only just begun." - Geert Wilders
    2. Re:Gender very much part of this! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Ok, I hope this is intended as a joke/sarcasm, but with a name like urcreepyneighbor, I could be wrong.

  14. Multitaski... by stainlesssteelpat · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just in, man stabs himself in mouth with BBQ fork instead of beer, while barbequeing. The dangers of multitasking,News at 8.

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    War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade.- Shelley
  15. Re:One-size-fits-all doesn't fit all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    They sent it back. They don't take micro-donations

  16. I thought this was going to be a technical article by Mesa+MIke · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... but I see it's just a discussion of a B.S. Bingo buzzword.

  17. HA! by wmbetts · · Score: 2, Funny

    So this entire time me shunning the idea that people could really multitask was more or less correct. Now when people complain that I can't multitask, or I'm just ignoring their IMs and emails I'll send them this link.

    --
    "Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". - stolen from Dan C alt.os.linux.slackware
  18. Re:I do all my breathing in the first 2 hours .... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 2, Funny
    most people here who think they know what's going on under the hood are sadly. fucking. mistaken. as proven by the floods of bad automotive analogies

    Calm down before you fracture a kidney.

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    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  19. Re:I do all my breathing in the first 2 hours .... by jonaskoelker · · Score: 5, Funny

    So what you're saying is that a slashdot thread without an analogy is like a car with only one liver?