Can multitasking make us smarter?
Paul Saffo, managing director for Discern Analytics, a Silicon Valley forecasting firm, says “there's a case to be made that the Internet is helping to make individuals smarter. There have been studies showing that not just Web searches but also video games are good at stimulating and strengthening parts of the brain.[1]”
Some new studies point to the idea that multitasking isn’t making us dumber it’s just changing the way we think. We have shifted our standards for accessing and presenting resources. But how can we tell if this new form of thinking and multitasking is for the better or for the worse? And should we be that concerned[2]
An article by the Christian Science Monitor implores us with the question “Is technology making us dumb and distracted or turning us into expert information finders and magnificent multitaskers? Is being connected online 24/7 good or bad? Is there even a good way to tell?[3]”
Perhaps this new way of thinking is better. We can know load our brains with much more information all of the time. Remember back in the day when our memories were full of phone numbers, directions, people’s names, store hours etc.? Well we no longer have to maintain that capacity. We have smartphones that can store that information for us freeing up space and time. At the click of a button we can find information on almost anything all while watching TV or speaking with a friend. You can even download iphone apps that help “organize your brain[4]”.
I recently was sitting in class when our professor was discussing a book but couldn’t remember the name of the author. Almost all of the students in the class had their laptops flipped open and within seconds someone had re-informed him of the name he’d forgotten. Was that student thought less of because he was researching something while the professor was talking? I don’t think so. The professor was grateful to have been told the author’s name that he’d forgotten and we quickly moved onto the next topic.
One of the most (or only) noticeable benefits of multitasking is our ability to access information quickly and anywhere doing anything. We are capable of tapping into large amounts of information while sitting in class, watching TV, or having dinner…
That being said, while I was researching the benefits of multitasking, almost every article I came across ended with cautions and warnings about the negative effects of multitasking. It nearly impossible to find a recent article focused on how multitasking has made us smarter or more effective. Most researchers find that multitasking actually does split our attention so much that we are facing more difficulties accomplishing anything with effectiveness…so maybe our brain overfed on apps isn't always good.
The only viable benefit of multitasking I could decipher was our access to a broader wealth information… but I’ll leave you with a quote from Herbert A. Simon (Nobel Prize winner) about that:
“What information consumes is rather obvious: It consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”
So the benefits of multitasking… very few. I tried.
[3] Lamb, G. (2010, July 24). Are iPads, smartphones, and the Mobile Web rewiring the way we think?.Christian Science Monitor, p. N.PAG. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.
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