Too Many Tasks, So Little Time

"I feel like I don't have enough time in the day to do everything" (3)

Whether we like it or not technology keeps evolving and with it, so does our propensity to evolve our techniques for handling the ever increasing demands of our daily lives.  But is technology really making multitasking easier? Does this ease of multitasking decrease our cognitive ability, or need, to pay attention to singular items or tasks? Does our need to be "constantly plugged in" (4) to our tech devices create an "induced form of ADD" (2) from which we cannot escape? Is Google really making us stupid? (1)  Our readings and podcasts for this week discuss these very questions and it was quite interesting to see that not everyone agrees with the answers. 

As the discussion on NPR's Talk of the Nation podcast Bad at Multitasking?: Blame Your Brain noted, most scientific research seems to agree that our brains our really "wired" to focus on and complete one task at a time and that most people "fool themselves" into thinking that they can actually multitask.  According to these scientists, our brains are really switching rapidly from one task to another; we aren't able to focus all of our attention on more than one thing at a time.  What I found particularly interesting was the idea that Nicholas Carr in his article Is Google Making Us Stupid? and Jamais Cascio in his Get Smarter essay, eluded to.  They seemed to suggest that we (our brains in particular) might, someday, evolve to become able to divide our attention equally among many different tasks at the same time, effectively allowing ourselves to become "true multitaskers."  They illustrate that the ubiquitous nature of tech devices from cell phones, iPods, e-readers, computers, GPS devices, etc. to our compelling need to constantly "surf" the web for information, will all play a pivotal role in this evolutionary process.  Carr mentions that, "the human brain is infinitely malleable" and Cascio discusses that throughout history, as technology advances, so too have we "significantly increased our functional memory."  I am inclined to agree with Carr and Cascio, that perhaps, one day, our brains will evolve to incorporate our necessity to complete multiple tasks at the same time.  Just looking at the history of mankind, I think that it is safe to say that we have evolved right alongside technology, although technology does seem to advance light years faster that we do.  Like it or not, technology is a part of lives and so is our need to multitask.  It only seems logical that we will naturally select those cognitive traits that allow us to become actual multitaskers in the future.

Referenced Works

(1) Nicholas Carr: "Is Google Making us Stupid?

(2) Jamais Cascio: "Get Smarter"

(3) NPR's Talk of the Nation: Bad at Multitasking?: Blame Your Brain 2008

(4) NPR's Fresh Air: The Price of Putting Your Brain on Computers 2010