Multitasking Gets Some Scrutiny

Link to "The Myth of Multitasking" in The New Atlantis, A Journal of Technology and Society.

Excerpt: In modern times, hurry, bustle, and agitation have become a regular way of life for many people—so much so that we have embraced a word to describe our efforts to respond to the many pressing demands on our time: multitasking. Used for decades to describe the parallel processing abilities of computers, multitasking is now shorthand for the human attempt to do simultaneously as many things as possible, as quickly as possible, preferably marshalling the power of as many technologies as possible.

Favorite quotes:

“We have always multitasked—inability to walk and chew gum is a time-honored cause for derision—but never so intensely or self-consciously as now.” (James Gleick, Faster, 1999. )

“Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.” (From research study funded by Hewlett-Packard and conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London.)

I wonder if they're looking for volunteers for the follow-up study. I've always wanted to go to London.

All kidding aside, the article summarizes some useful information from recent studies about the workings of the brain and "the art of paying attention".