Multitasking: Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Undergraduate Psychology Students
We live in a world today where we almost never perform one task at a time. We're constantly switching from one thing to another, going back and forth between writing an email to your boss and talking on the phone to a fellow coworker. If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm talking about multitasking. You may think that multitasking is the best way to get things done and that it saves time, when in retrospect it has been proven to be just the opposite. Multitasking not only makes you less productive and wastes your time, but it also harms your brain.
Switching back and forth between tasks may seem to be the best and fastest way to get things done, but in reality it does the exact opposite. Multitasking has been proven to make you up to forty percent less productive (Cherry). When we're multitasking we have a harder time tuning out distractions, which can lead to mental blocks that ultimately slow down and hinder your performance (Cherry). When multitasking we are also more susceptible to lose the focus that we need to finish important tasks. Just imagine how much more you could get done if you were stop multitasking.
Multitasking affects people from every age group. Multitasking ranges from toddlers to senior citizens. That’s pretty obvious. But what isn’t obvious is that young kids are the ones who it has the largest effect on. Neuroscientists and author Gary Small says that children who spend their formative years multitasking lose out on the chance to develop crucial, but slow forming interpersonal skills (Naish). "With the weakening of the brain’s neural circuitry, controlling human contact, our social interactions may become awkward, and we tend to misinterpret - and even miss - subtle, non-verbal messages," says Small. In other words, your child could become socially awkward if they miss out on these skills that are ignored when they multitask. Constant multitasking also increases your child’s chances of developing attention deficit disorder (Scott).
Switching back and forth between tasks may seem to be the best and fastest way to get things done, but in reality it does the exact opposite. Multitasking has been proven to make you up to forty percent less productive (Cherry). When we're multitasking we have a harder time tuning out distractions, which can lead to mental blocks that ultimately slow down and hinder your performance (Cherry). When multitasking we are also more susceptible to lose the focus that we need to finish important tasks. Just imagine how much more you could get done if you were stop multitasking.
Multitasking affects people from every age group. Multitasking ranges from toddlers to senior citizens. That’s pretty obvious. But what isn’t obvious is that young kids are the ones who it has the largest effect on. Neuroscientists and author Gary Small says that children who spend their formative years multitasking lose out on the chance to develop crucial, but slow forming interpersonal skills (Naish). "With the weakening of the brain’s neural circuitry, controlling human contact, our social interactions may become awkward, and we tend to misinterpret - and even miss - subtle, non-verbal messages," says Small. In other words, your child could become socially awkward if they miss out on these skills that are ignored when they multitask. Constant multitasking also increases your child’s chances of developing attention deficit disorder (Scott).