Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Multi-tasking
Posted by Zach in News

This excerpt is from Walter Kirn’s article “The Autumn of the Multitaskers.”

“Consider a recent experiment at UCLA, where researchers asked a group of 20-somethings to sort index cards in two trials, once in silence and once while simultaneously listening for specific tones in a series of radomly presented sounds. The subjects’ brains coped with the additional task by shifting responsibility from the hippocampus–which stores and recalls information–to the striatum, which takes care of rote, repetitive activities. Thanks to this switch, the subjects managed to sort the cards just as well with the musical distraction–but they had a much harder time remembering what, exactly, they’d been sorting once the experiment was over.

“Even worse, certain studies find that multitasking boosts the level of stress-related hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline and wears down our systems through biochemical friction, prematurely aging us. In the short term, the confusion, fatigue, and chaos merely hamper our ability to focus and analyze, but in the long term, they may cause it to atrophy.

“The next generation, presumably, is the hardest-hit. They’re the ones way out there on the cutting edge of the multitasking revolution, texting and instant messaging each other while they download music to their iPod and update their Facebook page and complete a homework assignment and keep an eye on the episode of The Hills flickering on a nearby television. (A recent study from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 53 percent of students in grades seven through 12 report consuming some other form of media while watching television; 58 percent multitask while reading; 62 percent while using the computer; and 63 percent while listening to music. “I get bored if it’s not going all at once,” said a 17-year-old quoted in the study.) They’re the one’s whose still-maturing brains are being shaped to process information rather than understand or even remember it.”

Walter Kirn sheds new light on Solhenitsyn’s quote: “Many of you have already found out and others will find out in the course of their lives that truth eludes us as soon as our concentration begins to flag, all the while leaving the illusion that we are continuing to pursue it.”

One Response to “Multi-tasking”

John Neiner comments:
Thursday, November 8th, 2007

hmmm . . . I had to read this article twice. While answering my cell and clicking on my email alerts when they popped up, my MP3 player died and consequently I missed the gist of the article the first time around . . .

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