1 Racha Salha ENGH-121 11/11/13 Analysis: The Myth of Multitasking In her article " The Myth of Multitasking" that

she wrote for The New Atlantis, Christina Rosen describes the effect of multitasking on us. As a support, Rosen uses a lot of experts' testimony, arguments, and quotes. She also gives a lot of relevant examples and cites many different authors in order to get as many opinions as possible, what makes her article more pertinent and effective. Indeed, the author's recourse to various sources shows that multitasking is a topical subject, which is still at the heart of discussions nowadays. The author waits until the end of the article to give her opinion, which is that there is a good and a bad side to multitasking. Indeed, she believes that even if multitasking may increase our knowledge, it definitely affects our wisdom. First of all, Rosen talks about the effect of multitasking on our intelligence. Indeed, according to her quotation, we are much more efficient by doing one thing at once than two things at a time. Even if this quotation is very old and lacks credibility, it shows us that multitasking is an important and current subject, which has always been discussed.

As a transition, Rosen defines the word "multitasking" and explains where it comes from. Her description is complete and precise, and her explanations are relevant. After that, Rosen describes how the perception of multitasking has changed over time. Indeed, the author reminds us that in the late 1990s and early 2000s, multitasking was considered as a good thing, and people felt even proud of it. Indeed, they were so excited by all the new technologies that they viewed multitasking as a way to save time. Here again, the author uses a lot of effective examples proving that old perception of multitasking, and how it

2 was actually considered as a "skill"(p.105). One example is when she mentions the New York Times article of 2001 that was about teaching people how to multitask (p.105). That example, as all the others, shows us how multitasking was actually perceived as a virtue. However, Rosen explains that this point of view didn't last long. Indeed, once passed the "exuberance" (p.105), or in other words, the excitement of the beginning, people realized that multitasking could be dangerous. As when we use the phone while driving for example: this can be the cause of many serious accidents. In addition to the many examples she gives, Rosen uses statistics showing the effect of multitasking on our IQ too. She goes on to explain that that's how the beneficial concept of "single-tasking" appeared, and that experts became more and more worried about the continual excessive importance of multitasking. Indeed, she confirms that humans' brains are not supposed to manage so many things in the same time. Another bad consequence the author argues is that multitasking also affects economy. By using effective numerical values, Rosen shows us that "multitasking costs the US economy hundreds of billion dollars a year in lost productivity"(p.106), and specifically because of the time workers loose when they use their cellphones for example. In another hand, Rosen reveals that multitasking affects our brains, and that when we multitask, we force our brains to respond to "several stimuli at once" (p.107), that is something beyond their capacity. However, Rosen gives the point of view of another expert in the subject who thinks that multitasking has an advantage, and it is that it makes us learn to "task-switch" (p.107) more effectively. He calls that the "adaptive executive control" (p.107). But in the same time, Rosen explains that multitasking causes the release of stress hormones and adrenaline, sometimes in excessive quantities, and this excess may be the cause of longterm health problems in addition to a loss of short-term memory. Then, Rosen moves on to how multitasking affects our learning too. Indeed, according to experts' arguments and testimony, it appears that there is a specific multitasking learning

3 which is "less flexible and more specialized"(p.107). This learning is not particularly good for us since it is a short-term and limited learning that we cannot use more than one time. Once again, the idea that humans are not supposed to multitask appears with an expert's statement that says that "humans are built to focus"(p.108), and that even if we first feel like we're being more effective by multitasking, we are actually wrong because instead of learning of what we are doing and improving it, we only waste time because we don't focus on it. More important, Rosen recognizes that multitasking, particularly the media multitasking, is strongly affecting the new generation. Rosen insists on that, explaining that it is a serious point because what is happening is that children are completely surrounded by technology, and become more and more dependent on it. Thus, they become impatient because they are used to have everything they need in reach. That causes what it's called " Attention Deficit Recession": what means that kids have more difficulty to pay attention. Once again, thanks to scientific terms and experts' testimony, Rosen effectively formed her point. Even if there is still an optimistic point of view that considers that multitasking is the main source of information, and that information represents the power, Rosen admits that there are some people who remain septic and worried about the effects of multitasking. Moreover, Rosen describes the relation between attention and multitasking. She reminds us that paying attention is "an art" (p.109), and that not everyone has the capacity to effectively pay attention to what he or she is doing. Thus, when a person multitasks, he has to pay attention much more than someone who only has to focus on doing one single thing. To support her assumptions, Rosen uses Isaac Newton's citation. And she adds that according to another expert in the subject, there are " three kinds of attention: sensorial, intellectual, and passive", and that they are all different from each others (p.109). She also uses neurologists and psychologists' arguments, by doing comparison for example, as when she talks about the

4 "cognitive bottleneck"(p.109). Rosen explains that multitasking causes "an extreme mobility of the attention"(p.109), because we can't completely focus on one single thing, and instead of that, we somehow have to divide our attention when we multitask. More important, the author stresses that we are becoming less and less willing to pay attention. Indeed, people think that the possibility of multitasking is an advantage, and most of them are not concerned at all about the inconvenient it may have. In the same time, Rosen bases on expert's argument to show that technology is becoming more and more essential to us, and that we are literally becoming dependent on it. The author describes it as our "support" (p.110), something that we cannot live without, and it causes what experts call "acquired inattention" (p.110). Rosen explains that it is like if we don't even care about paying attention anymore, and that we are sort of learning how to become more inattentive instead of worrying about being attentive.

Rosen concludes by saying that even if multitasking may increase our knowledge, and so our culture, it definitely decreases our wisdom. In order to give her own opinion at the very end of the article, Rosen had to do many research and to study all the possible points of view about multitasking, because as we notice when we read the article, experts have very different opinions on the subject, and multitasking is still a topical subject that is discussed everyday. We are reaping the consequences of multitasking today, especially with the new generation, and that may let us wonder how it will evolve over the years.

5 Work Cited Rosen, C. (2008). "The Myth of Multitasking", The New Atlantis.