Every time I read articles in which the author is amazed by the alleged ability of teenagers to effectively multitask I can’t avoid frowning. It is true that we can all see examples around us of young people chatting simultaneously with countless friends while listening to music or watching TV, but does it really mean that younger generations are better at multitasking? I do not believe so. I think that this is yet another example of parents being amazed by what their children can do, amplified by their own lack of understanding of new technologies.
I just turned 40, so I guess that I can no longer be categorized as being young, yet I am writing this post in a restaurant while watching a soccer game. If someone called me on my cell phone right now, that would probably not interrupt any of my other two activities. Am I specially gifted? My mother probably would love to think so, but since she doesn’t use the Internet I can confess that unfortunately this is not the case. The only reason I can do multiple activities at the same time is because none of them requires my full undivided attention. It is that simple. This has always been the case for me (and I suspect, most of us). For example, at school I could listen to music or watch TV while doing simple repetitive math exercises but not when trying to memorized laws. Today, nothing has changed, I can watch TV while testing an application or making small changes to it but I need to avoid any distraction when developing a new algorithm to solve a complex problem.
I have found that time is an extremely scarce resource. Once I take into account the time I spend working at IBM and the time I devote to my family, not much is left. That is why I try to use it effectively. Since many of the activities I enjoy do require my undivided attention, you are not likely to find me logged on my IM system. That is because I find the simple thought that I could be receiving a message at any time, distracting. The truth is that any complex activity requires at least a couple of uninterrupted hours of work to make progress. We all know that, even teenagers who claim they can effectively multitask while doing their homework. So, why lie? Well, we have all been there. Studying is not (always) fun and I can certainly understand (and sympathize with) those who want a little distraction to ease the pain. However, when you grow older, reality catches up with you. If asked to do something complex and fail to deliver, we have to pay the consequences. So, what do we do? We just turn the TV off and focus on our work. That doesn’t mean that adults are less capable of multitasking, it just means that we have more responsabilities and that what we do is more complex than chatting with friends, and therefore requires more focus.
December 16th, 2006 at 11:29 am
[…] Two days ago, I wrote about a web-site called yourminis.com. It is a great site and I highly recommend it but, in my commentary I mentioned some small problems as well as some wishes for future releases. I was very surprised to see that I almost immediately got a post from one of the developers addressing the issues and telling me that indeed a future version of their site would include some of the features I wanted to see implemented. I was shocked. Sure, my site is listed on technorati, but even so, they must have been doing some serious blog monitoring to find my post that quickly. […]