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Multitasking is the Enemy of Learning
June 9th, 2008 by StephenWelcome back! It's good to see you again. Please note that I am now publishing all new material at my hub site: StephenPSmith.com
Josh Waitzkin, one of the world’s most recognizable chess personalities, gained popular fame as the subject of his father’s book turned movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer”. Josh stepped back from chess at 22, to explore his interest in Eastern Philosophy and Tai Chi Chuan. In 2004, Waitzkin became a world champion in Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands Competition. He holds a combined 21 National titles and is training in a new discipline, Brazilian Ju Jitsu.
Here Waitzkin has an essay on the effects of multitasking and lack of discipline in modern classrooms. I wrote a little note on this last year, about doing one thing at a time. After you read Waitzkin’s article, please come back and share your ideas about how we, as a culture or a community, can teach people to stop living in a state of continuous partial attention.
Waitzkin on the Multitasking Virus
I see myself in the eyes of so many kids today. Too many primary, elementary, and high schoolers are being boxed into the mold of conformity required by big classes, competition for grades, tests with multiple choice questions. The first grader who leaps to his feet when he figures out the math problem is diagnosed as ADHD and medicated to sit quietly with the class. Young learners have immense pressure to perform, to get good grades, but no one is listening to the nuance of their minds. They feel suppressed, they are suppressed, and by the time students get to college, they have become disconnected from the love of learning.
Read the whole thing!
(BTW - Here is the key quote from the link for “continuous partial attention”:
Continuous partial attention is a post-multitasking adaptive behaviour. Being connected makes us feel alive. ADD is a dysfunctional variant of continuous partial attention. Continuous partial attention isn’t motivated by productivity, it’s motivated by being connected. MySpace, Friendster, where quantity of connections desirable may make us feel connected, but lack of meaning underscores how promiscuous and how empty this way of life made us feel. Dan Gould: “I quit every social network I was on so I could have dinner with people.”
What do you think?
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June 9th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Lately, I’ve been feeling more and more like I have ADD and it could simply be the result of “too many irons in the fire,” as my mother-in-law likes to tell me. It’s hard to give quality attention to one thing when your mind is split in many directions.
However, I feel much more socially connected as a result of social media, because as a deaf person, a lot of stuff is cut off for me socially when face-to-face in large groups. While something like Twitter may feel like a waste of time to someone else, to me, it’s the first time in my life that I have access to many conversations and can see what people chat about.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
As what I’ve noticed most students are ADD. Their attention is more focused on the things where they could create connections among their friends rather than focusing on their studies.
Multi tasking for students is really unhealthy.
June 10th, 2008 at 11:11 am
ADD is a big problem, which I suspect is exacerbated by the multitude of inputs that young people receive. Too much stimulation from electronic games, TV, radio, CD players, etc.
There is something to be said for sitting quietly and reading a book!