CLoA Outcome Link: Discuss how social or cultural factors affect one cognitive process (environment on memory)
I recently read a few articles discussing what we know as ‘multi-tasking’. Some say it is an efficient way of working, while others say it is a distractive way of doing your tasks. I believe in the former, to an extent. It really all depends on the situation.
There are all sorts of multitasking- chewing gum while walking, patting your dog while watching the television etc. These types, I believe, are not detrimental to the efficiency of a person. If an individual had to walk the dog while rehearsing their lines in a play, they could manage that easily. They should not be told that multitasking is “creating information bottlenecks”.
However, if we were to define multitasking as Professor Laws puts it- as “the ability to plan and devise strategies to do all the (intelligent) tasks we have to do and navigate our way through them", then I am in total agreement. It is much more efficient to do thinking tasks separately. I myself cannot concentrate if I were to be doing two separate tasks that required critical thinking. I could, however, watch television while texting and discussing the movie with my parents. These are tasks that require no intelligent thinking.
A quote I found interesting in the article states that “In this media-heavy world, it is likely that brains that are more adept at media multitasking will be passed along and these changes will be naturally selected. After all, information is power, and if one can process more information all at once, perhaps one can be more powerful.” This is techno-social Darwinism, nature red in pixel and claw.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-11035055
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-myth-of-multitasking
I recently read a few articles discussing what we know as ‘multi-tasking’. Some say it is an efficient way of working, while others say it is a distractive way of doing your tasks. I believe in the former, to an extent. It really all depends on the situation.
There are all sorts of multitasking- chewing gum while walking, patting your dog while watching the television etc. These types, I believe, are not detrimental to the efficiency of a person. If an individual had to walk the dog while rehearsing their lines in a play, they could manage that easily. They should not be told that multitasking is “creating information bottlenecks”.
However, if we were to define multitasking as Professor Laws puts it- as “the ability to plan and devise strategies to do all the (intelligent) tasks we have to do and navigate our way through them", then I am in total agreement. It is much more efficient to do thinking tasks separately. I myself cannot concentrate if I were to be doing two separate tasks that required critical thinking. I could, however, watch television while texting and discussing the movie with my parents. These are tasks that require no intelligent thinking.
A quote I found interesting in the article states that “In this media-heavy world, it is likely that brains that are more adept at media multitasking will be passed along and these changes will be naturally selected. After all, information is power, and if one can process more information all at once, perhaps one can be more powerful.” This is techno-social Darwinism, nature red in pixel and claw.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-11035055
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-myth-of-multitasking