It's Time to (Finally) Kick Multitasking to the Curb

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The chances are good that you’re reading this with a window or two open and maybe email alerts coming through or a Slack conversation going on and maybe there’s music or a television on in the background and you’re looking at the title of this post and you’re thinking, “Nope, not me. I’m multitasking right this very second so whatever is she talking about?”

Alas, while very appealing as most myths are, multitasking is no more real than the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus. And I have that on very good authority, thanks to Dr. Carl D. Marci’s new book, Rewired: Protecting Your Brain in the Digital Age, which rounds up all the research, adds in the author’s observations, and makes it clear that there are no ifs, ands, or buts about this.

The Allure of the Myth of Multitasking

While the focus here is on digital multitasking, technology and invention have always offered humans the promise of productivity and opportunity: Machines freed men from mundane tasks and sped them over land and through the air so they could conquer the world and, with frozen food, washers, and dryers, women could forge forth, at least theoretically. With progress as the mantra, initially it seemed that all the digital devices in our homes and offices promised certain rewards.

Except they don’t—and there are reams of scientific studies to prove it. But that doesn’t stop most of us from believing. In fact, as Marci notes, one of the big shockers was a study conducted by Clifford Nass and his colleagues in 2009. Why was it shocking? Because the researchers were sure that multitasking was the ticket to success and that was a premise of the study; in an interview Nass conceded that, “We all bet high multitaskers were going to be stars at something.” They could not have been more wrong.

The Culprit Is None Other Than the Human Brain

Yes, the very organ that sets us apart from all the other creatures, and it is truly fabulous in myriad ways. But it does have its limits and those limits come into play when we try to multitask. The brain’s huffing and puffing in these moments makes us think we’re getting more done but, in Marci’s words: “When we multitask, we don’t get more done. We just expend more effort and strain areas of our brain.” The area of the brain in question is the prefrontal cortex, the command center of executive function, and multitasking just creates bottlenecks, disrupting communication between the parts of the brain as neuroimaging makes clear. But our thought processes collude and, because multitasking feels like more work, we’re likely to believe that, like a physical workout, feeling the strain is a good thing and that we’re being more productive. Nope.

This doesn’t just apply to you and me, the adults in the room, but it has more consequences when it’s the developing brain of a child or adolescent that’s doing the huffing and puffing.

Multitasking Kids: What Is a Parent Supposed to Do?

If you’re a parent, you’ve doubtless felt under siege at times with all the grim warnings about digital natives—everything from increased depression, fewer real-life social interactions, more loneliness, decreased communication, greater distractibility, and more. A part of you may just want to throw up your hands because, other than living like the Amish, what are you supposed to do? Digital devices are here to stay.

Becoming Proactive

The short answer is to prioritize your responses to your child or teen’s behavior. If you glance into his or her room, do not think to yourself, "Oh, he/she is multitasking” when what’s supposed to be happening is homework. As a parent, you have the ability to curb multitasking when it’s happening under your roof, protests notwithstanding. You deal with the protests by talking about the why of it and, by doing so, you also deal with the reduced communication between parents and their children researchers attribute to digital media and multitasking.

• Don’t just tell but also show

Set an example by not multitasking yourself. No one needs to be texting while he or she is watching a movie or having a conversation. No one needs a phone lying next to the cutlery when you are having a meal, and you should enforce the rule for both adults and kids. Finish your work emails before you sit down. And if there are people at the table to talk to, the television doesn’t need to be on.

• Do talk to your kids about how images and profiles are curated

It would surprise you how clueless younger and even some older teens are to the amount of curation exercised not just by the influencers they follow but even the kids they know. Make it clear to them that what is released for public consumption most likely isn’t real; that’s exactly what a developing brain focused on FOMO (fear of missing out) is likely to miss. And you should remember it too when you are scrolling through Facebook.

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• Do talk to your kids about the perils of posting as well as privacy

This doesn’t need a lot of explanation except you really need to hammer this home, especially to older teens who can’t foresee the consequences posts might have in the future. This is not just about nude photos, either. Judgment is exactly what the developing brain is lacking and you can help with that.

• Do encourage focus on activities other than digital ones

There’s a great Sesame Street episode in which Ernie complains that he all gets when he plays his saxophone is a squeak. He goes to Hoots the Owl, an accomplished saxophonist, who points out that Ernie is playing the sax with his rubber duckie in hand. Of course, to play the sax, Ernie has to put the duckie down and, lo and behold, he does. Well, that applies to all of us; if we want to get something accomplished and focused on, we too have to put that duckie down. The duckie, in our case, is digital media.

A Note About Boredom

About four decades ago, before digital life and in what sometimes seems like another galaxy, children learned to entertain themselves by engaging in an activity when they were bored; it was generally thought to be a good thing because adulthood, as you may have noticed, is filled with tasks that are ultimately boring but must be done. In today’s world, kids and adults simply reach for their smartphone or other device when they’re bored and that would appear to fix the problem. Except, of course, as Marci points out, it doesn’t. We’re just distracting ourselves—not engaging—and that, in turn, makes us less tolerant of boring tasks, which means we get bored more easily.

Think about that the next time you’re on a bus or train and go for clickbait instead of reading a book. Encourage your children to do the same.

So, as to kicking it to the curb: Are you in?

Copyright© 2023 by Peg Streep.