Multitasking: how people operate nowadays and its reflection on society

Today, we teenagers and adults, have become unconsciously dependant on technology and have began to “multitask”. Personally I find it very difficult not to multitask, especially when working on my computer, as I open several windows (Microsoft Word, YouTube, BlogSpot, etc), chat sessions and Windows Media Player in the first minutes after I turn on the screen. Sometimes I can be already talking to a friend on the phone and start chatting with someone else, but in my experience I can never handle both convesations without one of them saying “are you doing something else?”. People notice when I multitask and it bothers them, but they don’t mention it. Why? Because they do the same thing.
While investigating and reflecting on this subject, I have found out that the loss of concentration while multitasking, or productivity and efficency in working hours, is one of the most notorious consequences of this phenomenom, leading to reviews that promote a possible solution. Secondly, a large number of social changes have also appeared as another consequence, as the rupture of social relations, new education plans and language transformation. The way the world has been living has changed, as technology hasn’t stopped advancing.
Before analysing the multitasking consequences I would like to make a distinction between two groups which are strongly related with technology. The Digital Natives are all the people who are “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and Internet. Digital Immigrants are the ones who were not born into the digital world but have, at some point in their lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or mosts aspects of the new technology. During the analysis both groups will be named, without any distinction, as multitaskers.
Today’s technologies allow individuals to accomplish multiple tasks almost simultaneously, and, at least in North America, there is a perception that being productive and efficient in the workplace requires being a multitasker. So why do multitaskers lose their concentration and do not achieve their maximum working potential? Because of multitasking, or as David Crenshaw, business coach and author of “The Myth of Multitasking”, calls it, switchtasking. “When we speak of multitasking, what we really mean is that we are switchtasking: switching rapidly between one task and another. Yet, each time we switch, no matter how quickly that switch takes place in our mind, there is a cost associated with it. It's an economic term called switching cost—and the switching cost is high”. Crenshaw conveys that “doing two things at once is to do neither”. The solution relies on every single person, who should care about developing the ability to focus on one thing at a time instead of trying to do everything at once. The BBC reported on a research study that found that “Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers”, although, removing the multitasking requirement, the IQ jumps back to normal.
Social problems are directly related to educational institutes and families. The rupture that has been produced in their structures, due to the influence of technology, has been radical, changing prevailing educational plans of institutes and disrupting family bonding. We have got accustomed to getting everything that technology can give: advice, answers, worldwide information, international communication and, of course, entertainment, because of the practicity the devices show once you master them. This has lead to the rupture of social relationships, as oral communication has become non-existent, and the language used in the few online conversations has critically eroded; example: nmu (Translation: Not much. You?), 2morrow (Tomorrow), brb (Be right back), etc; which is the way to express in a fast and efficient way according to the idea of taking advantage of time. Teachers have been surprised by the ability of their students when searching and manipulating information, presumably because modern childhood tilts towards visual rather than print media. They are especially skilled at analyzing visual data and images and they are suprisingly creative when it comes to producing a computer presentation, inserting video clips, audio files and images. Despite the positive side of it, what students tend to do is switchtask during class. Crenshaw rightfully supports that, “When you switchtask when dealing with a computer, you simply lose efficiency. But if you switchtask on a human being, you additionally damage a relationship”. Teachers have changed their way of teaching because their students did not learn the same way as past generations, and have willingly become digital immigrants to achieve a closer and friendlier relation with them so they can at least hold their attention for a whole period.
People think that by improving technology they will be better multitaskers, but they don’t understand that there is a limit to what we can do at the same time in an efficient way. I was a great fan of multitasking until now, that I have realised how distracting it is to work that way and how harmful it can be for me and the people whom I interact with.