Final Blog

Multitasking

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Multitasking is an essential part of everybody's life. Even if you don't know it, you probably multitask more than you think. As a person who does not consider multitasking relevant to her life, here is a list of all the times I multitask in a given day.

• Eating breakfast while checking my phone and social media
• Driving and talking on the phone
• Listening to music, walking to class, and texting a friend
• Eating dinner and watching a movie
• Listening to a friend talk while texting another friend

And the list goes on. Once I sat down and really thought about it, I realized I multitask way more than I should. Multitasking decreases how effective you are at each of the tasks at hand. The abundance of technology we as humans are absorbed in only makes multitasking more desirable. Why walk to class in silence when you could be snapchatting a friend and listening to your favorite song at the same time? Because when you attempt to do so many tasks all at once, your effectiveness at each of these tasks is lowered. Listening to music and walking may not seem too harmful, but when you add in texting or taking selfies, your walking skills are greatly lowered. This could lead to wrong turns or even worse, getting hit by a car. 

However, with the number of people multitasking increasing, is there a chance we could ever become good at it? Done correctly and with enough focus, multitasking could make our lives immensely easier. For example, if people within a certain society no longer use a specific trait, that trait will eventually diminish completely. With that being said, could multitasking be a trait that evolves enough so that future generations are born better at it? If not, it's become such a staple in our lives I doubt it will ever disappear.