Time mag; multitasking generation
Time Magazine’s March 27th edition has a cover story on what they have termed the multitasking generation.
The story asks how multitasking devices are changing how kids learn, reason and interact with one another. “Although multitasking kids may be better prepared in some ways for today’s frenzied workplace, many cognitive scientists are positively alarmed by the trend. “Kids that are instant messaging while doing homework, playing games online and watching TV, I predict, aren’t going to do well in the long run,” says Jordan Grafman, chief of the cognitive neuroscience section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.”
You will have to be a logged in subscriber to read the full article online, but there is a CNN summary of the article. You could always single-task - buy the mag and read the paper version….
there seems to be a bit of hysteria about this multitasking idea. Sure kids are doing lots of things at once but given cognitive ability at any given point in time is a given/ fixed are they doing any of the 10 things they are doing at once well? Or are we saying kids today have a higher ‘IQ’ in order to cope with the multiplicity of tasks they are doing??
I would argue that one of the things we need to be doing is teaching/encouraging kids to focus all their attention on one task at a time (when they need to), give it their FULL attention and therefore do the best they are capable of.
I think I share your sentiments, Greg. The article in full skims across the topic, and I cant help get the feeling that it’s scaremongering, pulling in the opinions of a few experts to create a dubious point. Bit like climate change and evolution/creationism. Be interesting to see research as it appears on multitasking and cognition over the next few years.
The wired generation, hmm, where are our artisans? As society builds specialist roles can be developed within that society (Jarod Diamond in Guns, Germs and steel). These specialists can focus on skills adding great value to society such as doctors and artists. I’m absolutely positive I want someone with an attention span greater than 2 minutes to perform any surgery on those I know. No watch maker or wood carver got by with a ‘blip-vert’ view of the task. There is value in the artistry of taking time, focus, discipline. The wired generation may be cool in some ways, but I wonder of its long term value. Is it just to be the new somalin, the replacement for out TV generation, or does it have any long term value. It also leads me to wonder if I would rather have a robot (see Marshall Brain, Robotic nation: http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm) to perform surgery, or the likes, than someone who got it off a blog and was doing 7 other things at the time. Frenzied workplace or just plan scattered? Curious that teaching in the net generation focuses on skill development, rather than content (how to research, plan, assess, critque versus knowing facts and figures).