Advantages And Disadvantages Of Multitasking

Categories: Multitasking

In this fast-paced era, people are used to multitasking in their daily life. People choose to multitask because some tasks are so boring to do, but they have to do them, or they don’t have enough time to do the different things separately. Multitasking does have some advantages for people like people will feel successful when finishing all the tasks at the same time, but it also causes some bad effects. It seems that people have saved some time by multitasking, but actually, they may spend more time on doing the tasks together than they would have spent if they had focused on them one at a time.

People multitask because it is boring to just do what they have to do, and they want to find some tasks that are more fun to do at the same time to feel happier when they are doing the task they should do. For example, when people are eating their meals, they always want to find something to make the mealtime not so boring.

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Some people like talking with each other if they have eating partners, and some people like watching videos or reading the news when eating alone. People are so used to eating because they have to eat several times every day, so they feel bored just eat. Although eating a meal doesn’t take them much time, they still try to do something else to make the mealtime more fun.

Another reason why people are multitasking is that they don’t have enough time to finish the tasks separately in a short time, so they have to multitask no matter whether they want to or not.

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It is common to see that employees or students are still working on their laptops during lunchtime as they are eating. Other people may doubt that those still working don’t have just a little time to have lunch, and they may be working during lunch on purpose because they want their employers or teachers to have a good impression of them. However, everybody has times when some tasks appear suddenly when they are relaxing, and they have to finish them immediately wherever they are. They have no choice but to take their laptops out during lunchtime and do that task while eating. Time is always like a starving tiger chasing the people who are behind all the time when they are doing their work.

Multitasking looks like it has saved people some time, but actually, they may spend more time on each task than if they had focused on them one by one. People can hardly live without smartphones in this era. Smartphones make the world smaller, and they help people know the things that are happening far away from them in a short time. Thanks to smartphones, people can communicate with their friends whenever they want. Some people would like to text their friends when they are driving because they don’t want their friends to have to wait for a long time for a response, or they may fear losing the relationship if they don’t reply to the texts in a short time. However, texting while driving is not only dangerous, but it also takes more time to do them together. People have to focus on both tasks at the same time, but they are not able to. As Carol Deeb explains in her article “Bad Effects of Multitasking,” “When working on several tasks at once, you can lose the focus required to adequately complete one item. Too many distractions break your concentration, which requires more time to come back to one task.” When people are focusing on texting, they don’t pay much attention to drive, and their speed slows down unconsciously. Also, when people are focusing on driving, they spell the words slowly and make some mistakes, and it takes more time for them to text. It looks like people have saved time and gotten both tasks done. However, in fact, if they stop their cars by the curb and return texts intently, they can actually save more time than multitasking.

In conclusion, people cannot stop multitasking since life speed is so fast nowadays. People have to multitask to save time or make boring tasks more fun. It helps people feel better when several tasks are done at the same time, but it also wastes their time. In my opinion, people can multitask when doing something that is not very important, but they should focus on the tasks that can have a big effect on them to make sure the tasks will be done without any mistakes.  

Works cited

  1. Deeb, C. (2019). Bad Effects of Multitasking. Small Business Chronicle. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/bad-effects-multitasking-4249.html
  2. Foerde, K., Knowlton, B. J., & Poldrack, R. A. (2006). Modulation of competing memory systems by distraction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103(31), 11778-11783. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0602659103
  3. Hallowell, E. M. (2013). CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap! Strategies for Handling Your Fast-Paced Life. Ballantine Books.
  4. Koriat, A., & Levy-Sadot, R. (2001). The combined contributions of the cue-familiarity and accessibility heuristics to feelings of knowing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 27(1), 34-53. https://doi.org/10.1037//0278-7393.27.1.34
  5. Medina, J. (2008). Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Pear Press.
  6. Monsell, S. (2003). Task switching. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(3), 134-140. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1364-6613(03)00028-7
  7. Rosen, L. D., Lim, A. F., Felt, J., Carrier, L. M., Cheever, N. A., Lara-Ruiz, J. M., … & Rokkum, J. (2014). Media and technology use predicts ill-being among children, preteens and teenagers independent of the negative health impacts of exercise and eating habits. Computers in Human Behavior, 35, 364-375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.01.036
  8. Skaalvik, E. M., & Skaalvik, S. (2017). Teacher stress and teacher self-efficacy as predictors of engagement, emotional exhaustion, and motivation to leave the teaching profession. Creative Education, 8(11), 1913-1923. https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2017.811130
  9. Ward, A. F., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. W. (2017). Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2), 140-154. https://doi.org/10.1086/691462
  10. Zentall, S. S., & Meyer, B. J. F. (2018). What has changed about the nature of cognitive control and executive function during the past 50 years? The American Journal of Psychology, 131(4), 481-494. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.131.4.0481
Updated: Feb 02, 2024
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Advantages And Disadvantages Of Multitasking. (2024, Feb 08). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-multitasking-essay

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