Multitasking

One of the most interesting things that we talked about in class I feel, was the concept of multitasking, and how inefficient it is, even though many feel that it works. I found a PBS article online talking about studies from various universities, and opinions of various scientists. According to a study conducted by Clifford Nass, a cognitive scientist at Standford, found that multitaskers ere bad at filtering irrelevant information from relevant. Multitaskers had a lower mental organizations, and also had a hard time switching activities. One thing that multitaskers did better on, was "inattention blindness". An famous study on inattention blindness was where people are asked to pay attention to basketball players shooting baskets, and completely miss a man in a gorilla suit walking around with them. The most interesting thing about the article to me though, is the fact that high multitaskers have more social problems than people who do not multitask. Apparently, stress hormones are released when we are rapidly switching tasks, which is a pattern said to be from our ancestors avoiding predators. While multitasking is good for getting multiple things done, it also can be detrimental to our health and our happiness, so beware when becoming to immersed in everything at once.