Multitasking Paragraphs

According to Sparks, “13-18 year olds use six different types of media outside of school.” The brain cannot be in two places at once. In the article, they say that it takes longer to “multitask” than it does to do two tasks one after the other. They say that making decisions always has a delay, but “the more dynamic the situation, the longer the delay.” (Sparks, 2012) They say those who multitasked, did worse on the memory tests they were put through. When a selection of people were asked questions via text, those who responded almost immediately got fewer questions right, unlike the individuals who took a few minutes to text back. When a text or call appears and the person is studying, then your brain has to switch from study mode to social mode. So there’s a delay in that, and then when the person has to switch back to study mode, they have to remember where they last stopped, and then another delay to get back into the groove of studying. The marshmallow test was to test 4-year-old children on how well they focused. They were told not to eat a marshmallow for 15 minutes and if they didn’t, they got two treats instead. Those who stayed on task were proven to be more successful in the later years.

People cannot multitask, as much as I would love to say that I am I just end up procrastinating. I try to multitask at work, by doing dishes and then doing another task, but I just end up taking longer in my tasks because I’m trying to focus on two things at once. Usually I forget one of the tasks I’m doing and don’t get back to it until the end of the night. We play music at work, and sometimes while making drinks I focus on the music and mess up someone’s drink because I wasn’t focused on the drink making process. Multitasking is impossible scientifically, but I do believe that a person could multitask. You would have to have some type of muscle memory though.