Ten Alarming Dangers Of Multitasking...
Today, the vast majority of us multitask when using our phones. We play games, email, surf social media, text, use apps and other functions while watching television, eating, doing work, or while ‘engaged’ in a conversation with another person.
Multitasking has become such a regular part of our lives most of us believe we can do it well and few would imagine it was actually dangerous.
But new research is exposing how multitasking can have alarming consequences. And to be clear—I do not use the term ‘alarming’ lightly, as is evident in the following list:
1. Multitasking is associated with harm to our brains:
A recent study found people who were frequent media multitaskers had reductions in their brains’ grey matter. Specifically, in areas related to cognitive control and the regulation of motivation and emotion.
2. Multitasking can lead to memory problems:
This 2016 study found that chronic media multitaskers exhibited weakness in both working memory (the ability to store relevant information while working on a task) and long-term memory (the ability to store and recall information over longer periods of time).
3. Multitasking can lead to increased distractibility:
Researchers studied people’s multitasking at home over a seven day period. The more people multitasked, the more likely they were to exhibit behavioral distractibility. Current assumptions are that by responding to so many distractions one loses the ability to distinguish between important and unimportant interruptions.
4. Multitasking can make us walk into traffic:
Researchers compiled information on 1,400 pedestrians who were hit by a carue to distraction from there phones while driving. Twenty percent of teenagersreported being distracted by their mobile device when they were struck compared to only ten percent of adults.
5. Multitasking hurts your grades and the grades of those around you:
A study of multitasking in the classroom found those who multitasked on their computers during a lecture scored lower grades on exams as did those in direct view of them. This is why we hate other people texting on their phones when we're at the movies, it's distracting even when we're not the ones doing the texting.
6. Multitasking can lead to falling and breaking bones:
A study of the elderly found multitasking was likely to affect women’s gait, leading to a significantly greater number of falls and broken bones as a result.
7. Multitasking can harm your relationship:
Cell phones create such an immediate threat of multitasking and distractibility they are associated with relationship problems—which researchers termed technoference. Multitaskers caused their partners to experience significantly reduced relationship satisfaction.
8. Multitasking increases chronic stress:
A study of college students found the more students multitasked while using their computers the more stress they experienced. The constant bombardment of information to which they were trying to respond elevated their stress responses, which means chronic multitasking can lead to chronic stress.
9. Multitasking increases depression and social anxiety:
Researchers examined the link between multitasking, media use, and emotional health. While there was no correlation between media use and negative outcomes (in this particular study), they found the more participants multitasked, they more likely there were to report symptoms of depression and social anxiety.
10. Multitasking makes you less productive and less efficient:
Researchers examined if multitasking makes us more productive and efficient. Their results, while not alarming per-se, did demonstrate the exact opposite of what most multitaskers believe, as they found that multitasking actually made participants less efficient and productive.
