Technology has created a societal norm of multitasking without an understanding of its consequences and misinterpretation of its benefits. Multitasking, if done in a correct manner, can help focus and efficiency. With that goal in mind many try to multitask without knowing that they are simply just rapidly changing their attention between the two things. Research has shown that effective multitasking has been mastered by Buddhist monks, there understanding of multitasking has enlightened their minds and given them more focus and efficiency. One writer, Sam Anderson, wrote a paper on multitasking and its effects on the brain and tasks at hand. In the piece he writes:
Over the last twenty years, Meyer and a host of other researchers have proven again and again that multitasking, at least as our culture has come to know and love and institutionalize it, is a myth. When you think you’re doing two things at once, you’re almost always just switching rapidly between them, leaking a little mental efficiency with every switch… the brain processes different kinds of information on a variety of separate “channels” -a language channel, a visual channel, an auditory channel, and so on -each of which can process only one stream of information at a time. If you overburden a channel the brain becomes inefficient and mistake-prone (Anderson 4).
Many are in the belief that by doing two things at once they are helping themselves save time by doing the two simultaneously. In fact the brain is becoming less effective and will spend more time than doing both things separately…
