Driving? Maybe You Shouldn't Be Reading This - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Cynthetiq · 07-13-2004, 06:14 AM

Quote:

Driving? Maybe You Shouldn't Be Reading This
By ROBIN MARANTZ HENIG
July 13, 2004
link

Am I the only person who still prefers doing things one at a time?

My fellow New Yorkers have raised multitasking to an art form. People talk on their cellphones while jogging, do their homework on the subway, listen to books on tape while walking, put on makeup in the back seat of the taxicab and - always, everywhere, constantly - talk on their cellphones while they're busy doing something else.

This isn't how things were meant to be. Our brains are not built to work this way, no matter how many times teenagers insist that they're paying full attention to their homework, despite the fact that they're also watching television, listening to music and sending electronic instant messages to friends who are doing their own homework amid comparable chaos.
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The brain works best "on a single task and for sustained rather than intermittent or alternating periods of time," the neurologist Richard Restak writes in "The New Brain: How the Modern Age Is Rewiring Your Mind."

"This doesn't mean that we can't perform a certain amount of multitasking,'' Dr. Restak writes.. "But we do so at decreased efficiency and accuracy."

And danger. Studies have shown that if you do anything distracting while driving - drinking coffee, fixing your hair, changing CD's and, of course, talking on a cellphone - you're significantly more likely to end up in a crash.

In the last few years, 30 states have considered legislation to outlaw the use of hand-held cellphones while driving. Most have failed. But three states now have such laws. The most far-reaching, New Jersey's, which went into effect this month, prohibits drivers from doing anything else - not just talking while holding a cellphone but restraining a pet, reading a map or eating a Krispy Kreme doughnut on the way to work. The ultimate antimultitasking law.

What could make more sense than to make people who are operating two- or three-ton projectiles at speeds exceeding a mile a minute actually focus on their journey? Yet most states managed to kill such legislation, defending multitasking as an almost inalienable right.

We are all so steeped in the ethos of doing more than one thing at a time that we are hardly aware of it. I serve brunch to my daughter's friend and only later realize that she has, while eating bagels and seeming to enjoy our conversation, been text messaging on her cellphone to two or three other friends, managing it all so skillfully - under the table, during a bathroom break - that none of us has even noticed.

I talk to my brother on the telephone and hear him clicking at his computer in the background, or to my mother and hear her loading the dishwasher. Is it any wonder that occasionally one of them will interrupt the conversation with "What did you just say?"

I do it, too. Just not as flashily as the text messagers or the people at the gym with books propped on the treadmill handlebars. When I'm out for my morning walk, disdaining the people who are walking their dogs while reading the newspaper, talking on the cellphone and drinking a latte, what am I doing? Listening to an audio book on my iPod. Wouldn't want to waste time by just exercising, would I?

Still, in the long run, multitasking is what wastes time. Last year, psychologists at the University of Michigan reported that when they asked subjects to perform two or more experimental tasks - solving arithmetic problems, say, at the same time they identified a series of shapes - the frontal cortex, the executive function center of the brain, had to switch constantly, toggling back and forth in a stutter that added as much as 50 percent to the time it would have taken to perform the tasks sequentially instead of simultaneously.

In another study, scientists at Carnegie Mellon put subjects in an M.R.I. machine and asked them to listen to complicated sentences at the same time that they mentally rotated geometric shapes. The two tasks activated different parts of the brain, but each region was operating at a suboptimal level. Here, then, was high-tech confirmation of the common-sense wisdom of Publilius Syrus, a Roman philosopher from the first century B.C., who warned, "To do things at once is to do neither." (Publilius also came up with "Better late than never" and "A rolling stone gathers no moss.")

But things have changed in the last 2,000 years.

"We are awash in things," James Gleick writes in "Faster," "in information, in news, in the old rubble and shiny new toys of our complex civilization, and - strange, perhaps - stuff means speed. The wave patterns of all these facts and choices flow and crash about us at a heightened frequency. We live in the buzz."

And probably, the buzz is something we will adjust to, because we are at our core a species that, whether we do it one step at a time or all at once, usually manages to adjust.

I find the article counter intuitive. If I am mentally bored (doing 1 non-intensives ask at a time i.e. NOT driving, writing/reading playing video games) I tend to pay even less attention to the details. The more pressure there is for me to pay attention, the more I pay attention and the more accurate I become. It becomes more of a challenge to me to complete it correct and without any errors.

Any one who knows me well here knows that as soon as I read something I am examining it from at least 2-4 different angles/points of view almost instantly.

To me the multitasking mind gives me an edge over those that have no ability to do so. But then again, those that have the ability to do the single tasking, to me they have a higher dexterity to complete things like jigsaw puzzles, models, and other things that require such focus.

animosity · 07-13-2004, 07:02 AM

the only multitasking i do is listen to music while i am reading tfp. and i woulding call that multitasking because neither is really a task.

im glad to see states are passing these laws for driving. my mom is one of those people who will read, put makeup on & drink coffee while driving down the interstate.... i was a very nervous child.

lurkette · 07-13-2004, 08:32 AM

I think whether multitasking is a good thing or not depends on the context. I agree that driving while doing pretty much anything else is a bad idea, and it's hard to carry on a conversation on the phone while I'm also reading email or something. But I find talking on the phone while I'm doing something relatively mindless - cleaning, walking the dog, whatever, perfectly harmless. And what else are you going to do on the subway - stare at the wall? Doing work on the train or a plane seems like a good use of time. I think there's something to be said for being fully present to what you're doing, but there's also something to be said for killing two birds with one stone. I also disagree that the science he quotes necessarily means that all multitasking is inefficient, espcecially when one of the tasks is relatively mindless.

la petite moi · 07-13-2004, 08:34 AM

I never do anything else but drive when I'm in the car. I don't want to be in a wreck.

kutulu · 07-13-2004, 08:46 AM

I've never had a problem with using my phone while driving.

laconic1 · 07-13-2004, 09:00 AM

I'm pretty guilty of eating while driving, and I just about plowed into a bridge abutment when I was 17 because I was paying attention to unwrapping a burger instead of the road. Now I still eat and drive, but I pay attention to the road exclusively, and fumble around unwrapping food.

Macheath · 07-13-2004, 09:18 AM

I don't consider myself a multitasker.

For a simple paycheck, I wait tables. I'm conscious of my customers, the dishwasher, the coffee machine, the kitchen and the register. This isn't multitasking, it's just the full scope of my job.

For a prospective career, I study law. I'd be stupid to listen to music while concentrating on a piece of case law; and it'd be a waste of time.

I save TV, TFP, Winamp and KOTOR for my leisure time. I'm not a multitasker, I'm a multihobbyist.

And I'm able to save money by not needing to own a car - leaves me time to stop and smell the roses without hurting forward at 60 miles an hour and gulping coffee.

StephenSa · 07-13-2004, 10:12 AM

Multi-tasking around the home is ok, I read a magazine, watch tv and fold clothes at the same time. When driving I don't use a cell phone, ever. I don't eat, don't read, don't fiddle with the radio or muck with my hair. I DRIVE. As pilot of a vehicle hurtling down a busy highway I feel I'm responsible for not killing someone because I just had to call my bud and talk about the latest movie I saw or some other nonsense. It also affords me the awareness to avoid some yahoo in an Expedition that suddenly wants my lane but is too busy putting on make-up to signal or even look to see if the space they wanted was available. So, all in all I'm all for any laws that make people pay attention when they drive. I've also had people walk into me on the street or in the mall/grocery store because they were engrossed in some phone call or other activity so maybe multi-tasking should be done in moderation. At the very least people should have some situational awarness when in public or their own safety and others.

apeman · 07-13-2004, 10:23 AM

well physical activities are a bit different from trying to do spatial rotations and listen to complex sentences at the same time ... it just takes practice

Xell101 · 07-13-2004, 10:24 AM

Although it brings up horrid thoughts of office jargon, multitasking is something I do regularly. I eat/drink with one arm while typing with the other (right hand can go at a smooth 60 gwam, or so says the typing program) and singing a chunks of song I'm memorizing (which is Modern Major General by the way, it struck as something really neat to know), all the while bouncin my feet in tune with the song going in the background. I can multitask effectively and often, Yipee horray...

Trisk · 07-13-2004, 11:16 AM

The article has some good points but I don't think it's bad in all cases.
Talking while eating, for one, isn't and never has been a problem as far as I know. Eating is somewhat mindless and concentrating on picking up food with your fork shouldn't be distracting you from the conversation.
I think that there are certain things that you should not do together but for a lot of things it's fine - it really just comes down to how much concentration you need to do each thing well.

For example, I can do pretty much anything but reading while I'm walking. I can eat, talk on the phone, talk to my friend, daydream, listen to music and it really doesn't matter because walking isn't something that takes concentration. I could probably read too, but I'd like to make sure I'm not stepping in poo or bumping into people.
However, while writing a paper, I like to have things relatively quiet. Essays are things that need concentration and, although I can block out any music if I get into whatever I'm writing, a lot of times, my mind starts to stray to the music and the words in the music and the beat and I have to stop for a minute because I lost my train of thought.

I don't multitask that much when it comes to things that I want done well. But there are a lot of things where that doesn't matter.

punx1325 · 07-14-2004, 09:48 PM

I was almost in a very bad car accident while talking on a cell phone. I came within inches of hitting a car all because I was paying more attention to my conversation and not to checking my blind spot. I consider myself an excellent driver, but there are just some things people shouldn't do while driving a car.

KellyC · 07-14-2004, 10:26 PM

I used to multitask a lot when I was a waiter. I wasn't able to do the task as well when I focus my mind on one of them at a time. I would forget a customer's drink or didn't do a good job of cleaning up the table or forgot what's the to go order. Good thing those people are nice about it

I notice a lot of the time, people who talks on the phone while driving tend to drive very slower than the ones who didn't. The speed limit is 35, they'd drive 30, whereas the traffic of non-phone-talkers are all 40 miles + I wish they'd stop doing that...many a times did I get close calls with those people...

Fremen · 07-14-2004, 10:38 PM

I need complete silence while I'm driving.
Luckily I don't have kids, else they would ride in the trunk.

SinisterMotives · 07-14-2004, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cynthetiq
To me the multitasking mind gives me an edge over those that have no ability to do so. But then again, those that have the ability to do the single tasking, to me they have a higher dexterity to complete things like jigsaw puzzles, models, and other things that require such focus.

I hope a certain individual who prides themself on their multitasking ability reads this thread and finally sees what I've been getting at lo these many moons.

I don't see multitasking as a boon to the practitioner at all. Deep processing is far superior to shallow processing for integrating experience with knowledge. Habitual multitaskers rob themselves of the experience of living in the moment and being where they are, they don't absorb or retain anything they see or hear, and they tend to do everything half-assed when they do more than one thing at once. I can always tell from someone's responses whether they're paying attention or doing something else when I'm talking to them on the phone or instant messenger.

I find that anything worth doing requires that I be conscious of what I'm doing and not distracted with a million and one other things. I certainly couldn't write complex programs or do anything creative unless I gave it my full attention. If you ask me, "multitasker" is practically synonymous with "airhead".

Cynthetiq · 07-15-2004, 06:05 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by SinisterMotives
I hope a certain individual who prides themself on their multitasking ability reads this thread and finally sees what I've been getting at lo these many moons.

I don't see multitasking as a boon to the practitioner at all. Deep processing is far superior to shallow processing for integrating experience with knowledge. Habitual multitaskers rob themselves of the experience of living in the moment and being where they are, they don't absorb or retain anything they see or hear, and they tend to do everything half-assed when they do more than one thing at once. I can always tell from someone's responses whether they're paying attention or doing something else when I'm talking to them on the phone or instant messenger.

I find that anything worth doing requires that I be conscious of what I'm doing and not distracted with a million and one other things. I certainly couldn't write complex programs or do anything creative unless I gave it my full attention. If you ask me, "multitasker" is practically synonymous with "airhead".

I beg to differ. It depends on the individual. There are people who do not enrich themselves by multitasking.

The richness of my memories comes from my ability to process extra items that most people just dismiss. I have very detailed memories even from when I was 2-3 years old.

If you walk with me in the city, or any place, I will notice more things than you will. I overhear converstations as I'm walking down the street as I'm noticing a restaurant that I'll be making mental notes for future dining. I'll also notice historical and architectual items and small minute details that people with me are amazed that I even saw or found out. A good number of the items listed in http://www.forgotten-ny.com/ I noticed many years ago, and plenty of my fellow native NY'ers never even noticed them even walking past them every day to work.

I had one professor in college get upset with me because I was doodling in her class as she gave a lecture. She claimed that I wasn't taking any notes. I then regurgitated her lecture back to her not word for word, but I hit all the key concepts as I retraced in my head all the points of my drawing and how the correlated to her lecture. I aced all her tests, but she still gave me a B in the class because everyone else took furious notes in her lectures and I did not.

There are times where I need to focus ALL my attention, during work, meetings and the like. I try when interacting with people to minimize any other distractions and actively listen.

Scorps · 07-15-2004, 10:15 AM

I drive and talk on my Cell Phone a lot, When I was in school(done now) In class I used to wear my headphone and listen to music, unless the teacher was talking to us

When I work or do anything I have to have music playing, my world is empty without music!

SinisterMotives · 07-15-2004, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cynthetiq
If you walk with me in the city, or any place, I will notice more things than you will. I overhear converstations as I'm walking down the street

You'd be surprised at what I notice and overhear. I've learned to filter out the less relevant items though. In addition to memories from early childhood, I have a lot of "junk" memories that I really don't need wafting around inside my head.

Scorps · 07-15-2004, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by SinisterMotives
You'd be surprised at what I notice and overhear. I've learned to filter out the less relevant items though. In addition to memories from early childhood, I have a lot of "junk" memories that I really don't need wafting around inside my head.

Wish your brain had a recycle bin like your desktop...I wish mine had one of those!

Bentley Little · 07-15-2004, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cynthetiq
I beg to differ. It depends on the individual. There are people who do not enrich themselves by multitasking.

The richness of my memories comes from my ability to process extra items that most people just dismiss. I have very detailed memories even from when I was 2-3 years old.

If you walk with me in the city, or any place, I will notice more things than you will. I overhear converstations as I'm walking down the street as I'm noticing a restaurant that I'll be making mental notes for future dining. I'll also notice historical and architectual items and small minute details that people with me are amazed that I even saw or found out. A good number of the items listed in http://www.forgotten-ny.com/ I noticed many years ago, and plenty of my fellow native NY'ers never even noticed them even walking past them every day to work.

I had one professor in college get upset with me because I was doodling in her class as she gave a lecture. She claimed that I wasn't taking any notes. I then regurgitated her lecture back to her not word for word, but I hit all the key concepts as I retraced in my head all the points of my drawing and how the correlated to her lecture. I aced all her tests, but she still gave me a B in the class because everyone else took furious notes in her lectures and I did not.

There are times where I need to focus ALL my attention, during work, meetings and the like. I try when interacting with people to minimize any other distractions and actively listen.

You said that you do better and remember better when you multitask, but what you are saying here is that you are paying more attention to certain things and less to others. This is exactly what the doc is saying. Many studies have been done like this one and the findings indicate that as we multitask, our concentration must be divided as it is finite, and therefore we lose a certain percentage of some to concentrate on the other.

water_boy1999 · 07-15-2004, 01:21 PM

I think there is a time and a place for multi-tasking. While at work I can juggle several tasks at once. However, you will never see me on the cell phone at a restaurant, or while on the treadmill. I am guilty in that I drive sometimes while eating or on the cell, but I also try to keep it to a very minimum.

07-13-2004, 08:32 AM	#3 (permalink)
lurkette My future is coming on Moderator Emeritus Location: east of the sun and west of the moon	I think whether multitasking is a good thing or not depends on the context. I agree that driving while doing pretty much anything else is a bad idea, and it's hard to carry on a conversation on the phone while I'm also reading email or something. But I find talking on the phone while I'm doing something relatively mindless - cleaning, walking the dog, whatever, perfectly harmless. And what else are you going to do on the subway - stare at the wall? Doing work on the train or a plane seems like a good use of time. I think there's something to be said for being fully present to what you're doing, but there's also something to be said for killing two birds with one stone. I also disagree that the science he quotes necessarily means that all multitasking is inefficient, espcecially when one of the tasks is relatively mindless. __________________ "If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." - Anatole France

07-13-2004, 10:23 AM	#9 (permalink)
apeman Wah Location: NZ	well physical activities are a bit different from trying to do spatial rotations and listen to complex sentences at the same time ... it just takes practice __________________ pain is inevitable but misery is optional - stick a geranium in your hat and be happy

07-14-2004, 09:48 PM	#12 (permalink)
punx1325 Junkie Location: San Diego	I was almost in a very bad car accident while talking on a cell phone. I came within inches of hitting a car all because I was paying more attention to my conversation and not to checking my blind spot. I consider myself an excellent driver, but there are just some things people shouldn't do while driving a car. __________________ If something seems too good to be true, then it probably is....

07-14-2004, 10:26 PM	#13 (permalink)
KellyC Comment or else!! Location: Home sweet home	I used to multitask a lot when I was a waiter. I wasn't able to do the task as well when I focus my mind on one of them at a time. I would forget a customer's drink or didn't do a good job of cleaning up the table or forgot what's the to go order. Good thing those people are nice about it I notice a lot of the time, people who talks on the phone while driving tend to drive very slower than the ones who didn't. The speed limit is 35, they'd drive 30, whereas the traffic of non-phone-talkers are all 40 miles + I wish they'd stop doing that...many a times did I get close calls with those people... __________________ Him: Ok, I have to ask, what do you believe? Me: Shit happens.

07-14-2004, 10:38 PM	#14 (permalink)
Fremen With a mustache, the cool factor would be too much Location: left side of my couch, East Texas	I need complete silence while I'm driving. Luckily I don't have kids, else they would ride in the trunk. __________________ Google

07-13-2004, 07:02 AM	#2 (permalink)
animosity on fire Location: Atlanta, GA	the only multitasking i do is listen to music while i am reading tfp. and i woulding call that multitasking because neither is really a task. im glad to see states are passing these laws for driving. my mom is one of those people who will read, put makeup on & drink coffee while driving down the interstate.... i was a very nervous child.

07-13-2004, 08:34 AM	#4 (permalink)
la petite moi Filling the Void. Location: California	I never do anything else but drive when I'm in the car. I don't want to be in a wreck.

07-13-2004, 08:46 AM	#5 (permalink)
kutulu Junkie	I've never had a problem with using my phone while driving.

07-13-2004, 09:00 AM	#6 (permalink)
laconic1 Junkie	I'm pretty guilty of eating while driving, and I just about plowed into a bridge abutment when I was 17 because I was paying attention to unwrapping a burger instead of the road. Now I still eat and drive, but I pay attention to the road exclusively, and fumble around unwrapping food.

07-13-2004, 09:18 AM	#7 (permalink)
Macheath Junkie Location: Sydney, Australia	I don't consider myself a multitasker. For a simple paycheck, I wait tables. I'm conscious of my customers, the dishwasher, the coffee machine, the kitchen and the register. This isn't multitasking, it's just the full scope of my job. For a prospective career, I study law. I'd be stupid to listen to music while concentrating on a piece of case law; and it'd be a waste of time. I save TV, TFP, Winamp and KOTOR for my leisure time. I'm not a multitasker, I'm a multihobbyist. And I'm able to save money by not needing to own a car - leaves me time to stop and smell the roses without hurting forward at 60 miles an hour and gulping coffee.

07-13-2004, 10:12 AM	#8 (permalink)
StephenSa Psycho Location: Dallas, Texas	Multi-tasking around the home is ok, I read a magazine, watch tv and fold clothes at the same time. When driving I don't use a cell phone, ever. I don't eat, don't read, don't fiddle with the radio or muck with my hair. I DRIVE. As pilot of a vehicle hurtling down a busy highway I feel I'm responsible for not killing someone because I just had to call my bud and talk about the latest movie I saw or some other nonsense. It also affords me the awareness to avoid some yahoo in an Expedition that suddenly wants my lane but is too busy putting on make-up to signal or even look to see if the space they wanted was available. So, all in all I'm all for any laws that make people pay attention when they drive. I've also had people walk into me on the street or in the mall/grocery store because they were engrossed in some phone call or other activity so maybe multi-tasking should be done in moderation. At the very least people should have some situational awarness when in public or their own safety and others.

07-13-2004, 10:24 AM	#10 (permalink)
Xell101 Junkie	Although it brings up horrid thoughts of office jargon, multitasking is something I do regularly. I eat/drink with one arm while typing with the other (right hand can go at a smooth 60 gwam, or so says the typing program) and singing a chunks of song I'm memorizing (which is Modern Major General by the way, it struck as something really neat to know), all the while bouncin my feet in tune with the song going in the background. I can multitask effectively and often, Yipee horray...

07-13-2004, 11:16 AM	#11 (permalink)
Trisk Insane	The article has some good points but I don't think it's bad in all cases. Talking while eating, for one, isn't and never has been a problem as far as I know. Eating is somewhat mindless and concentrating on picking up food with your fork shouldn't be distracting you from the conversation. I think that there are certain things that you should not do together but for a lot of things it's fine - it really just comes down to how much concentration you need to do each thing well. For example, I can do pretty much anything but reading while I'm walking. I can eat, talk on the phone, talk to my friend, daydream, listen to music and it really doesn't matter because walking isn't something that takes concentration. I could probably read too, but I'd like to make sure I'm not stepping in poo or bumping into people. However, while writing a paper, I like to have things relatively quiet. Essays are things that need concentration and, although I can block out any music if I get into whatever I'm writing, a lot of times, my mind starts to stray to the music and the words in the music and the beat and I have to stop for a minute because I lost my train of thought. I don't multitask that much when it comes to things that I want done well. But there are a lot of things where that doesn't matter.

07-15-2004, 10:15 AM	#17 (permalink)
Scorps Lost!! Location: Kingston, Ontario	I drive and talk on my Cell Phone a lot, When I was in school(done now) In class I used to wear my headphone and listen to music, unless the teacher was talking to us When I work or do anything I have to have music playing, my world is empty without music! __________________ A.K.A. PainTrain

07-15-2004, 01:21 PM	#21 (permalink)
water_boy1999 Fly em straight! Location: Above and Beyond	I think there is a time and a place for multi-tasking. While at work I can juggle several tasks at once. However, you will never see me on the cell phone at a restaurant, or while on the treadmill. I am guilty in that I drive sometimes while eating or on the cell, but I also try to keep it to a very minimum. __________________ Doh!!!! -Homer Simpson