Peter Smith: Blog

There is an inter­est­ing art­icle over at McKin­sey on inform­a­tion over­load. But it also talked about the con­sequences of multitasking.

There is a lot of pop­u­lar writ­ing about the cur­rent gen­er­a­tion doing a lot of mul­ti­task­ing. But I won­der where is the evid­ence that they are any bet­ter at it than any other generation.

My sense is that mul­ti­task­ing doesn’t seem to be some­thing one can learn to get bet­ter at … there are some cog­nit­ive lim­it­a­tions. Per­haps people become more tol­er­ant about it, or perhaps–and per­haps more likely–people who do a lot of mul­ti­task­ing nat­ur­ally avoid the type of activ­it­ies that aren’t amen­able to mul­ti­task­ing. In other words, the chan­nel them­selves down routes where the neg­at­ive con­sequences of mul­ti­task­ing are less import­ant. For example, if mul­ti­task­ing inhib­its cre­ativ­ity, is there a ten­ancy for those who mul­ti­task to avoid activ­it­ies where cre­ativ­ity is important?

I won­der what is the evidence.