I stepped into a crosswalk yesterday only to nearly be run over by a car. The driver wasn't paying attention when the light turned green and assumed she could make a right turn without checking the crosswalk. She saw us and hit the brakes, but decided to plow along anyway. I caught a glimpse of her as she drove by and noticed she was - you guessed it - talking on a cell phone.
This isn't an uncommon story these days. Drivers talking on the phone are a dime a dozen. Rants against cell phone drivers are every bit as common. While evidence of the dangers of driving while talking on the phone is ubiquitous - a study done by the University of Utah shows that drivers on cell phones are as dangerous as drunk drivers, and 48 countries have partial or total bans on cell phone usage while driving - many cell phone users, when confronted with the issue, will tell you that they can drive "just fine" while on the phone.
This should be cause for alarm for every driver on the road. I don't know about you, but when I'm on the road, I'd prefer to be surrounded by drivers giving all of their attention to the task at hand rather than sixty or seventy percent. And lest you think that this is another crusade against cell phones, I assert that any distraction in the car is dangerous. This includes putting on makeup, flipping through CD booklets, shaving, or even changing your clothes in the car. (I wish I was making that last one up.) We have a motivation to accomplish as many things as possible in the smallest amount of time in our society, all in the name of "efficiency." When you stop and break it down, though, you find that quicker isn't always better.
Multitasking started as a corporate buzzword some time ago, but has since entered the common parlance. Younger people especially tend to fall into this trend with the advent of handheld electronics. It's not unheard of to see a high school student reading a textbook while listening to an iPod, watching TV, and texting a friend on their phone. When scolded for not doing their homework, the teen will insist, "I am doing my homework. Just because you can't do more than one thing at once doesn't mean I can't." Yet that same student will find that it takes them two hours to finish reading a ten page section of text. (You'll also go on to find that they'll complain that they never have enough time to finish their homework.) While multitasking may make a person feel as though they are getting more done, studies have shown that their efficiency drops substantially. Simply put, you might be able to get more tasks finished, but you might only do them seventy percent as well as you would have normally.
The shock is that this level of efficiency is acceptable in society. We find ourselves sacrificing quality of work in favor of convenience. This isn't limited to the corporate world. We find people insisting that they are listening to their spouse talk about their day while reading the newspaper or watching TV. We find children say they are listening to their parents while chatting with their friends online. It's the great irony of the information age that gadgets designed to increase our capability actually limit them.
3 comments:
I must make a rebuttal: Though I agree with you in some terms, I find myself better able to effectively learn something when I am multi-tasking then when I am just focusing on the one thing. Why? Because when I focus on one thing, I lose focus. My mind wanders to other things. I have never been a good test taker, or a paper writer when it's the only thing I am doing. But when I multi-task I use more brain power and am able to stop myself from day dreaming. The tough thing is, is in finding your own happy medium and being able to accept others. I am not advocating the studying while texting method of multi-tasking, but the doing more things at once which would exercise your brain.
But I do agree with you when it's on the basis of operating heavy machinery or things which could possibly hurt someone else. Also when speaking with someone on important matters. The biggest problem I find is when I find my own happy medium but trying to help someone to understand where mine is so they don't feel like I'm not being nice in some way.
Great post. For me, it's true--I focus better on most thing when I'm not trying to do more than one at once. (An exception being when I'm exercising and desperately need to stop focusing on what I'm doing.) I like being able to take little breaks, though, to break the tedium.
I study best when I have other things going. I get more reading(and retain more of it ) if I watch tv and just read during commercial breaks than if I try and sit just with the book and read. When I break up a task and just focus in small spurts I find I do much better.
I don't have a cell phone, so I firmly believe that talking on the phone while driving should be illegal everywhere!
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