Multitasking = dumbing down of society?

Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (Full Version)

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sloguy02246 -> Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/5/2013 9:26:18 AM)
The obituary section in the 11/5/13 Chicago Tribune had a column written by Steve Chawkins about the passing of Stanford University professor Clifford Nass (1958-2013). Nass had studied the interactions of humans and computers for decades and this morphed into the area of multitasking when he became a “dorm dad” in 2007. From the article: “He was caught off-guard when one of his students explained why she was texting her boyfriend just down the hall. ‘It’s more efficient,’ she said. Then there was a familiar site Mr. Nass continued to find astonishing. In lounges, in libraries, just about everywhere, he gazed at a legion of the perennially plugged-in: They chatted on cell phones, scanned Facebook, watched videos, blasted out tweets, and maybe thumbed through a calculus text, all at once. ’I thought, wow, that’s awesome,’ he told the Boston Globe in 2011. ‘What do they know that I don’t know and how can I be like that?’ The answers surprised him. After several years of studies, Mr. Nass and other Stanford researchers came to some disturbing conclusions. They found that the heaviest multitaskers – those who invariably said they could focus like laser beams whenever they wanted – were terrible at various cognitive chores, like organizing information, switching between tasks, and discerning significance. ”They’re suckers for irrelevancy,’ he said. ‘Everything distracts them.’ More worrisome to Mr. Nass was his finding that people who regularly jumped into four or more information streams had a tougher time concentrating on just one thing even when they weren’t multitasking. By his estimate, ‘the top 25 percent’ of Stanford’s students were in that category. In a 2011 lecture at the university, Mr. Nass said writing samples from freshman multitaskers showed a tendency toward shorter sentences and disconnected paragraphs. ‘We see less complex ideas, he said. ‘They’re living and writing in a staccato world.’ He told PBS’s Frontline in 2009, ‘You’d see someone multitasking and go, “Ha ha ha, those wacky college kids – OK, they’ll grow out of it.” And then you start looking around and go, “Wait a minute, they growing into it, not out of it.” We could essentially be undermining the thinking ability of our society. We could essentially be dumbing down the world.’ “ For me personally, multitasking has never worked well. I have always chosen to avoid multitasking in favor of creating a “Master List” where I list all the things I need to do, prioritize them, and then work through the list one by one. Anyone else’s views on the subject of multitasking are welcome.

kdsub -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/5/2013 9:49:13 AM)
To me his assertions are wrong, but I am no expert but who is. It seems every generation has an older one complaining about the direction of education and values of the new one. Multi-tasking as in the article is here to stay and humans will adapt and get better at handling the new way of absorbing and assimilating information in their environment. Things change and only what works will survive. Over time human and technological evolution will determine what is dumb and what is not. Butch

MercTech -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/5/2013 1:34:31 PM)
But, is it multitasking or the inability to focus on the task at hand. All the studies of "multitasking" show that performance degrades when it is part of multitasking.

freedomdwarf1 -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/5/2013 2:25:23 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: MercTech But, is it multitasking or the inability to focus on the task at hand. All the studies of "multitasking" show that performance degrades when it is part of multitasking. I think Mr Nass is right when he says "They’re living and writing in a staccato world". I look around me at the new generation of kids and teenagers and even those in their 20's and have noticed that very few of them are able to concentrate on any one singular thing for very long without either giving up completely or losing interest. Even the Education MP's are saying we can't overload our kids with longer lessons or more homework or stuff like that "because they can't cope with it". WTF?? Lessons of high concentration of at least an hour long duration and 3-4 hours home work every single night was the norm in my days at school. These days, kids can't write neatly, most cannot spell or have any regard for grammar or punctuation, can't do any mental arithmetic, don't know know how to do long division and stuff without a calculator (they just don't know the mechanics behind the calculations)..... etc etc etc. A lot of my kids' friends complain that a 30-minute lesson is too strenuous and find it difficult to absorb what they are being taught. The whole educational teaching is very 'dumbed down' compared to my days at school. Most of the time they are only teaching just enough to pass the exam and not the whole subject. Even at home I've noticed my own kids have little ability to make their own fun or amuse themselves in a constructive way. If it don't have a button to switch on, they seem completely lost as to what to do to occupy their idle time. I know they both like reading - a lot. But when I mention to read a book, they ask where it can be downloaded!! What's wrong with going to the fucking library or a second-hand book shop and finding a real book to read - you know... those funny rectangular things made of printed paper?? Then you get the very limited scope of thinking. Example: my step-daughter looks good at multi-tasking. It looks like she's texting and watching TV and listening to music and doing something else at the same time. If you interrupted her, she's completely lost track of everything she was doing and can't remember anything - like forgot what song she was listening to, has to re-read the text she was typing because she forgot what she'd typed etc. She has the attention-span of a goldfish. When she goes to the JobCentre, she gets given instructions about a job. When she gets home, she can't remember who it's for or where they are. Huh? Why didn't she write it down or get them to write it down for her. She says she forgot!! DUH! I'm seeing more and more of this behaviour with people I meet - those of the younger generations. It was also reported on the BBC news last week that technology, and everything being instantly available at the fingertips, is making our brains lazy and also affecting our short-term memory because people don't need to remember stuff these days - they can just look it up again. Perhaps it's a combination of things. Either way, our whole society in general is definitely a lot dumber than people of the same age a few decades ago.

kdsub -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/5/2013 2:53:08 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: MercTech But, is it multitasking or the inability to focus on the task at hand. All the studies of "multitasking" show that performance degrades when it is part of multitasking. If the new techknowledges degrade performance over time it will change or disappear. Who but time is to say that concentrating on one task at 100 percent is better or worse than consentrating on multiple tasks at say 60 percent. Butch

jlf1961 -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/5/2013 3:13:10 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: MercTech But, is it multitasking or the inability to focus on the task at hand. All the studies of "multitasking" show that performance degrades when it is part of multitasking. I wonder if those studies included adults with ADD/HD? I was diagnosed with this a few years after I left the army, and I can multitask fairly well without any appreciable decline in accuracy.

freedomdwarf1 -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/5/2013 3:27:37 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: jlf1961 ...and I can multitask fairly well without any appreciable decline in accuracy. But you are of the 'older' generation jlf. With or without ADD/HD, we were taught the basics and the mechanics behind the subjects we were taught at school. That doesn't seem to happen these days. It reminds of the the movie "Wall-E" where the humans evolve to just learn how to press the buttons and nothing much else. Sadly, I see our 'modern' world coming to that with the coming generations.

DesFIP -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/5/2013 3:41:49 PM)
My father's a retired CEO. As such his ADHD was beneficial. Because every two minutes he had something new to deal with and he could shift gears. But that's not the same as multi-tasking. He didn't do three things at once. He simply transitioned between problems quickly. As far as my kids, college and graduate school, go; they believe this is what airplane mode on the computer is for. It turns off extraneous stuff. However they use their smart phones to keep them on track. If they decide to take a break, it informs them when 15 minutes has gone by and it's time to go back to work. The alarm also tells them when they need to take a break. And yes, studies show that there are diminishing returns to learning after the 40 minute mark. That seems to be the optimal time to work before getting up and stretching. Sitting in a seminar for 3 hours means most of the learning, and teaching, is done in the first hour. You can use technology to work for you.

sloguy02246 -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/5/2013 6:36:42 PM)
I don't think using technology is necessarily a bad thing. I believe the problem is that today's heavy reliance on technology is reducing people's ability for critical thinking. I understand the difference between when I learned how to manually calculate the square root of a number (back in the Stone Age) versus today's student who simply enters the number into a calculator and presses the square root key. Agreed, the student may not understand the actual mathematical process involved, but the calculator is quicker and produces a result which has less chance of error. More importantly, knowing how a square root is calculated is not necessary for critical thought processes. The real difference comes into play when one attempts to express thoughts and ideas. Many people today seem to have a "comment thread mentality," and do not seem to be able to (or want to) think beyond a 140 character limit. As a consequence, reasonable discussion of any greater length appears to be impossible for them. Worse, I believe they actually think that responding in nothing but short (and sometimes snarky) comebacks within a discussion is a form of reasoned thinking. I'm not predicting doom and gloom for the future of humanity because of the embrace of Twitter and the smart phone, just pointing out that today's social media is not making people smarter, or able to think more clearly. It just makes them more accessible.

jlf1961 -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/5/2013 7:40:04 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1 quote: ORIGINAL: jlf1961 ...and I can multitask fairly well without any appreciable decline in accuracy. But you are of the 'older' generation jlf. With or without ADD/HD, we were taught the basics and the mechanics behind the subjects we were taught at school. That doesn't seem to happen these days. It reminds of the the movie "Wall-E" where the humans evolve to just learn how to press the buttons and nothing much else. Sadly, I see our 'modern' world coming to that with the coming generations. Is that a nice way of saying I am older than dirt?

littlewonder -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/5/2013 7:50:12 PM)
I hate multi-tasking and don't do it unless I'm forced to. I work on one at a time until it's finished. Now that means other projects will fall behind but I would rather have one project don't correctly instead of 4 projects given half assed. Thankfully my boss knows this well about me and likes it that way.

FelineRanger -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/6/2013 12:18:53 PM)
There's a very simple and well known test of the human ability to multitask. In 1996, the University of Toronto proved with 669 drivers who used cell phones behind the wheel that driving (already a complex task itself) seriously degrades. In fact, those who used phones behind the wheel were as impaired as people with .1 blood alcohol content (.08 is the legal limit now). The results of that study have been duplicated with varying sample sizes all around the world since. This is probably the most extreme example, but it still shows clearly that humans need to focus on a single task from beginning to completion in order to get it right.

freedomdwarf1 -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/6/2013 12:32:46 PM)
And this is exactly why the using of a mobile phone whilst driving is an offense over here. It carries a fine and points on your license. Once you reach 12 points (or 6 if less than 2 years old), you lose your license and have to re-sit the test to get it back. quote: ORIGINAL: jlf1961 Is that a nice way of saying I am older than dirt? Maybe. But quite often, us "oldies" are better educated and waaay more resourceful than our younger counterparts. I don't see being older as less useful - quite the contrary.

playfulotter -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/6/2013 5:56:04 PM)
I have found that as I get older if people can't get their point across to me in a timely manner (especially the last few years) I get frustrated faster than I used to when I was younger...now is this because of all the technology and my expectations and how fast I can get information on the computer or something else...I am not sure.

NuevaVida -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/6/2013 6:06:04 PM)
At work I don't have a choice but to multitask, or I'd need to be in a different job. At times it's perfectly fine, but there does come a point where there is just too much going on at once, and my head starts to spin. Add to that, a family member texting or calling about something going on, and it's just stimulation overload. It's quite typical for me at work to have 4-5 IMs going on at one time, while the emails are pouring in, while my boss comes over to ask me something, while a coworker asks a question over the cube wall. It's unavoidable. Usually I do OK, sometimes I just shut down because it's too much. When I am home, I find my respite - rarely is the TV on, or even music. I replenish with silence, and if I'm online doing something, it's one thing at a time. If I'm on the phone at home, I turn away from the computer. It's the only way I find my balance. The work days are far too hectic to continue that practice into the home. The workforce (at least where I am) applauds and encourages multitasking, and criticizes those who can't. It's considered quite the talent. That's all well and fine, but there really does come a point where there are limits to how much a person can do at any given time, and it's affect on that person.

littlewonder -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/6/2013 7:50:31 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: FelineRanger There's a very simple and well known test of the human ability to multitask. In 1996, the University of Toronto proved with 669 drivers who used cell phones behind the wheel that driving (already a complex task itself) seriously degrades. In fact, those who used phones behind the wheel were as impaired as people with .1 blood alcohol content (.08 is the legal limit now). The results of that study have been duplicated with varying sample sizes all around the world since. This is probably the most extreme example, but it still shows clearly that humans need to focus on a single task from beginning to completion in order to get it right. Here in Baltimore we have the Johns Hopkins University. They recently just built a walkway for the students because too many of them were getting hit by cars because they were too busy on their phones to pay attention to crossing the street. What's the saying? Can't chew gum and walk at the same time? It should be changed to can't text and walk at the same time.

littlewonder -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/6/2013 7:57:53 PM)
Nueva, I do computer work similar to you and I can understand where you are coming from. I made it a point though to my boss that if he wanted a project completed on time and correctly then he would have to understand that my brain can only handle so much at a time and therefore some things will will have to wait. We together created a task list for myself and others on our team where they submit projects and issues, set a priority and a due date if one is required. This way it's more orderly and organized. Before that it was just chaos in our office. And we're also trying to get away from email so anything that comes across that way instead of through the correct task list, then they are not a priority and it waits. Not my problem. Follow directions. Phone calls wait till I can wait unless I see someone calling me three times in a row (one girl especially and she's fucking annoying because it always ends up not being important and usually just her call for attention. She's the reason I don't always answer the phone). I know many offices are not able to be set up like that but after my former job there was just no way I was going to get into another chaotic and crazy, fast paced job with tons of things going on at once. I just find it ends up causing crashes and breakdowns within the office and with the work that is supposed to get done. I like organization.

sloguy02246 -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/7/2013 12:41:20 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: littlewonder ...I made it a point though to my boss that if he wanted a project completed on time and correctly then he would have to understand that my brain can only handle so much at a time and therefore some things will will have to wait. We together created a task list for myself and others on our team where they submit projects and issues, set a priority and a due date if one is required. This way it's more orderly and organized. I know many offices are not able to be set up like that but after my former job there was just no way I was going to get into another chaotic and crazy, fast paced job with tons of things going on at once. I just find it ends up causing crashes and breakdowns within the office and with the work that is supposed to get done. I like organization. Sounds as though you agree with what I said at the end of the OP: "For me personally, multitasking has never worked well. I have always chosen to avoid multitasking in favor of creating a “Master List” where I list all the things I need to do, prioritize them, and then work through the list one by one."

Paladin9 -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/7/2013 1:50:32 PM)
To me multi tasking is trying to do 2 or more things at once. Like driving and texting - not a good thing to do. The more people do it they tend to not concentrate on any one thing and end up getting only partial info from each source. For those who think they can drive and answer questions on a cell phone are wrong. Mythbusters and C&D or HR mag all did tests comparing driving drunk and driving and answering questions on the phone while on a obstacle course. They did better registering a 0.1 on the breathalyzer.

LookieNoNookie -> RE: Multitasking = dumbing down of society? (12/7/2013 3:12:52 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: sloguy02246 The obituary section in the 11/5/13 Chicago Tribune had a column written by Steve Chawkins about the passing of Stanford University professor Clifford Nass (1958-2013). Nass had studied the interactions of humans and computers for decades and this morphed into the area of multitasking when he became a “dorm dad” in 2007. From the article: “He was caught off-guard when one of his students explained why she was texting her boyfriend just down the hall. ‘It’s more efficient,’ she said. Then there was a familiar site Mr. Nass continued to find astonishing. In lounges, in libraries, just about everywhere, he gazed at a legion of the perennially plugged-in: They chatted on cell phones, scanned Facebook, watched videos, blasted out tweets, and maybe thumbed through a calculus text, all at once. ’I thought, wow, that’s awesome,’ he told the Boston Globe in 2011. ‘What do they know that I don’t know and how can I be like that?’ The answers surprised him. After several years of studies, Mr. Nass and other Stanford researchers came to some disturbing conclusions. They found that the heaviest multitaskers – those who invariably said they could focus like laser beams whenever they wanted – were terrible at various cognitive chores, like organizing information, switching between tasks, and discerning significance. ”They’re suckers for irrelevancy,’ he said. ‘Everything distracts them.’ More worrisome to Mr. Nass was his finding that people who regularly jumped into four or more information streams had a tougher time concentrating on just one thing even when they weren’t multitasking. By his estimate, ‘the top 25 percent’ of Stanford’s students were in that category. In a 2011 lecture at the university, Mr. Nass said writing samples from freshman multitaskers showed a tendency toward shorter sentences and disconnected paragraphs. ‘We see less complex ideas, he said. ‘They’re living and writing in a staccato world.’ He told PBS’s Frontline in 2009, ‘You’d see someone multitasking and go, “Ha ha ha, those wacky college kids – OK, they’ll grow out of it.” And then you start looking around and go, “Wait a minute, they growing into it, not out of it.” We could essentially be undermining the thinking ability of our society. We could essentially be dumbing down the world.’ “ For me personally, multitasking has never worked well. I have always chosen to avoid multitasking in favor of creating a “Master List” where I list all the things I need to do, prioritize them, and then work through the list one by one. Anyone else’s views on the subject of multitasking are welcome. What were you saying?

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