Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
essays on multitasking and its effects
essays on multitasking and its effects
Positive effects of multitasking
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: essays on multitasking and its effects
In this modern era, it has become commonplace to try and accomplish as many tasks as possible as quickly as possible in order to be more efficient. With the help of technology, many believe that multitasking is becoming a required and helpful skill. Multitasking is actually a detrimental habit. Multitasking divides a person's concentration in order to attempt to complete multiple actions. Even though in the end the tasks are all finished, the quality of the finished task and the time required to finish all the tasks makes multitasking very inefficient. In addition, this division of concentration is causing many people to not pay attention. For most, multitasking is a disadvantageous skill that should not be encouraged as a valid method of completing assignments. The majority of people who multitask may think that they are getting a lot of tasks done and gaining tons of information at the same time. However, most multitasking reduces one's ability to retain information and concentrate, it diminishes efficiency, and it creates stress.
Modern technology is making multitasking easier and more common. However, most multitasking is not entirely beneficially. In fact, multitasking has led to many people becoming easily distracted and, therefore, unable to learn from or understand most of the completed tasks. According to one study, people who multitasked frequently are more prone to be sidetracked and, therefore, unable to learn certain skills properly (Dalton). This constant shifting of attention is literally changing how many people learn and complete actions. Most people who multitask only partially start a task and then reallocate the majority of their concentration onto another assignment without ever really paying att...
... middle of paper ...
...ld not be encouraged by technology or employers.
Works Cited
Conley, Dalton. "Wired for Distraction: Kids and Social Media - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. Time Magazine, Web. 15 Feb. 2015.
Kenner, Naomi, and Russell Poldrack. "Portrait of a Multitasking Mind." Scientific American (2009). Web. 15 Feb. 2015.
Rosen, Christine. "The Myth of Multitasking." St. Martin's Guide to Writing. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. 409-14. Print.
Rubinstein, Joshua S., David E. Meyer, and Jeffrey E. Evans. "Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 27.4 (2001): 763-97. Print.
Weaver, Rheyanne. "How Multitasking Affects Mental Health | Fox News." Foxnews.com. Fox News, 7 Jan. 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2015.
Today we live in a society where everything is seconds away from us. With the advances and affordability of quality technology, you would be hard pressed to find someone without a smartphone, laptop, or tablet, possibly all at the same time. Because of the accessibility we find that, in our tech-savvy culture, multitasking has not just become an art form of sorts, but rather an expectation. In the article “Multitasking Can Make You Lose…Um…Focus,” Alina Tugend sets out to explore the idea that although multitasking appears to show productivity, it could be doing the opposite. Throughout her article, Tugend uses studies done by neurologists and psychologists to show how in a world that sees multitasking as an expectation it has actually made us less efficient. She proposes, through studies, that although you might be working on multiple tasks it is as if you’re playing tennis with multiple balls (Tugend, 725).
Students may easily lose their attention and concentration with easy access to such incredibly rich store of information. With such new technologies as television, internet and social networks, people nowadays tend to multitask more often as they have easy access to a large amount of information. However, such easy access may sometimes be a distraction. Study “Your Brain on Computers” reports that heavy multitaskers perform up to 20% worse on most tests compared to performance of light multitaskers. Working efficiency of people, who multitask, is claimed to be significantly lower. The same is with concentration. (Crovitz 353) As a result, they are not engaged in working process. Students tend to be easily distr...
On May 3, 2013, The New York Times had posted an article discussing the poor effects that can happen to the brain if you are multitasking and being interrupted. There have been claims from numerous Universities suggesting that multitasking can deaden our brain. Sullivan and Thompson give us the insinuated results that if one wishes to accomplish two or more tasks at once, they will not reach the maximum capacity of success that the brain offers to them. Research on this topic has been minimal so the authors decide to investigate more on this epidemic (Sullivan and Thompson).
People live in a society that encourages getting as many things done as quickly as possible. Whether they realize it or not, multitasking as become a part of their everyday lives. They perform multiple tasks at the same time in order to save time. They use multiple electronics to take more in all at once. Multitasking can seem to be the more efficient way to handle things because people can spend the same amount of time on several tasks as opposed to just one. However, they do not stop to think of the amount of effort it takes the multitask and the consequences that can come along with it. Several experiments have been performed to determine just how detrimental multitasking can be. Attempting any form of multitasking
Paul has four main reasons why multitasking is a bad habit of a person when doing school homework. The first reason is doing assignment will take longer to accomplish because there are many distraction activities occurring. Paul uses the example of students using cell phones during class, where if you are paying attention to your phone, then you are not paying attention in class. The result causes students to re-examine their assignment to help themselves familiarize the material. The second reason is students can be tired and sleepy, which can make more mistakes on their assignment as they multitask. The third reason is students lose memory on the assignment they were given which divides their attention from doing other things at the same time. The fourth reason is when we are distracted, the information we received is processed differently making ourselves unable to concentrate. The last reason is multitasking can decrease student's school grades. According to the Rosen study, students who spend fifteen minutes on Facebook will have a lower grade. As comparison learning was more effective in the past, resulting in a new generation filled with
In Alina Tugend’s “Multitasking Can Make You Lose…Um… Focus,” the columnist lists the possible cons from multitasking. As Tugend adversely states, “…we are required, or feel required to do more and more things in a shorter period of time.” (715) Rebutting Tugend’s point of view, multitasking has been recognized as one of the most refined ways to get ahead not only at work but at home as well. Simultaneously completing responsibilities has the potential to prevent procrastination, allows you to deal with distractions, and productivity
In David Glenn’s “Divided Attention” an article for The Chronical Review, emphasizes the strain of classroom multitasking and detrimental side effects it has the nature of learning, memory and intelligence. In my evaluation of this article I’ve found the Glenn reasoning to be partially accurate, however he neglects to inform the readers on the increasing demand multitasking has placed on students in a new age enhanced by the advancements of technology.
In “The Myth of Multitasking”, Christine Rosen argues that multitasking has become the normal way of doing things for many people and there are many side effects from multitasking. Many people believe that multitasking is a skill, but multitasking is in fact just dangerous. Multitasking has changed today’s society because more people are texting and driving, distracted for longer periods of time, cannot retrieve information, and attention spans are weaker. If more people took their time and paid attention to how they complete a task the first time then things could get done quicker instead of trying to do too many things at one time. In conclusion, multitasking is based on how much a person pays attention while doing a task and in today’s society is it harder for people to pay attention for long periods of time.
In Hermann Maurer’s, “Does the Internet Make Us Stupid?” he shows that Michael Merzenich, a neuroscientist and professor at the University of California in San Francisco is “profoundly worried about the cognitive consequences of the constant distraction and interruptions the Net bombards us with. The long term effect on the quality of our intellectual lives could be ‘deadly’”(Maurer 49). If an expert in the brain field is worried, then others should also be more cautious about the devices they use. Mark Becker suggests that “media multitasking may be uniquely associated with deficits in basic cognitive processes such as the ability to successfully filter out irrelevant information and ignore distraction” (Becker 132). People do not give one task their full attention, they are always multitasking such as doing homework while texting and listening to music. People think multitasking will help them complete tasks quicker; however, in the long run they are changing the functions of their brain and even damaging it. According to Nicholas Carr in his novel “The Shallows”:
In the article, “Multitasking Can Make You Lose…Um…Focus,” Alina Tugend centralizes around the negative effects of multitasking. She shows that often with multitasking, people tend to lose focus, lack work quality, have an increase in stress, and in the end she gives a solution to all these problems. Tugend conveys her points by using understandable language, a clear division of subjects, and many reliable sources, making her article cogent.
As human beings, it is becoming more of a second nature to us to multi-task. As the world is technologically advancing more and more every day, there are becoming more distractions. Social-media is flourishing, reality TV show ratings are going up, and humans even unintentionally check their phones every two minutes. In this day of age, multi-tasking is proving to promote inefficiency rather than productivity.
Christine Rosen, editor of The New Atlantis and the author of “The Myth of Multitasking,” explains how technology in the modern world has allowed people the ability to constantly multitask, at the same time, exposing the human body to negative long-term effects of the body. Nowadays, people are constantly on the run trying to finish their daily tasks. In order for this to happen, they multitask in order to accomplish their activities. Not only do humans incorporate multitasking in their own lives, they also are found doing this at their jobs. Jobs require their workers to multitask especially through the use of technology. Aditionally, multitasking has been known to be dangerous in the work field as well as while driving. Workers are found to be worn down by intense multitasking. Because of this, people should minimize the use of multitasking in order to avoid health problems. Furthermore, research has been conducted on multitasking by fMRI scans to find out the effects multitasking has on the brain. The effects that were found is memory loss caused by stress through multitasking. In addition, research has also shown that people have a hard time learning while multitasking, therefore, they learn less. Due to this reason, children is greatly impacted because constant
Technology has been always improving over the decades, and now it has improved to the point where it’s a part of a human being’s life. People can’t imagine living without technology anymore nowadays, and especially college students who are always on their phones and laptops during lectures. That leads to what is known as multitasking, which is the ability to take care of more than one task at the same time. Multitasking has been popularized by students, and specifically college students who think that they are actually successful at doing it. Unfortunately, according to Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, after testing students who think they are brilliant at multitasking, results showed that they are terrible at every aspect of multitasking; consequently, it is not successful.
The presence of accumulated stress and heavy work load on the brain automatically bring about the student or the employee inability to multitask; knowing fully well that multitasking is one essential key to excellence.
Multitasking is a poor long-term strategy for learning. People can’t filter out irrelevancy because multitasking has become a habit. A majority of people have the misconception multitasking will help them accomplish tasks in a faster manner, yet it does the complete opposite. Multitasking is not doing a plethora of tasks all at once, but rather switching from one task to another in a continuous cycle. Each time the brain switches task, there is lag time between that adds up. Multitasking distracts people from doing the task before them, so learning and memory becomes spotted and limited, and it doesn’t help that there is technology constantly at people’s fingertips. Multitasking is a poor strategy to to use why trying to complete a job. Multitasking has negative benefits in all aspects of life and is a habit that needs to be broken.