This week I’m going back to school. I’ve been blessed to have been teaching Torah, Jewish wisdom and values for more than half a century to thousands of students and, thank God, I’m still with all my faculties [pun intended] as well as the physical and mental ability to continue to serve as a professor of Jewish studies at Yeshiva University.
I witnessed the changes of generations and the differences of students throughout the years. Invariably people ask me, “So how do the students of today compare with those of yesteryear? Are there any significant differences between those you taught years ago and the ones studying today? ”
The youth of today are inquisitive, intelligent and idealistic. They worship authenticity. They see through hypocrisy, pretense and insincerity. They profoundly want their lives to have meaning. We can take great pride in the next generation as well as hope for their future achievements.
But we need to acknowledge the proverbial “elephant in the room” in contemporary education. It is perhaps the one word that best describes the reason for today’s unfortunate decline of academic excellence. It’s a word of recent vintage which had no relevance just a decade ago but today causes more grief to teachers trying to transmit knowledge than all the noisy disruptions which made learning impossible in times past.
The word is multitasking – and its great danger comes from its duplicitous masking of its harmful effects, its seductive appeal as a positive addition to the learning process instead of its true role as today’s greatest barrier between teacher and student.
Countless studies have proven beyond a doubt that multitasking is a myth. It simply does not work. More than that, it is counterproductive in many serious ways.
Simply speaking, multitasking is attempting to do a few things at once while doing none of them properly.
Of course that’s not what people who multitask believe. As they continually listen with one ear to the instructor they check their emails, surf the web, look at snapshot, twitter and Google something that just came to mind, see what their friends have posted on Facebook, and do the other thousand and one things that have become part of their daily preoccupations.
But here’s the truth: Countless studies have proven beyond a doubt that multitasking is a myth. It simply does not work. More than that, it is counterproductive in many serious ways.
Outside of the classroom multitasking can be a killer.
The statistics on driving and electronics use are alarming. Cell phone use leads to 1.6 million car accidents each year. 25% of car accidents are caused by texting. Texting drivers are six times more likely to cause an accident than drunk drivers. According to the RAC Foundation, a British motoring research organization, texting while driving decreases reaction time by 35% while reducing steering control by a horrifying 91%. This makes texting and driving significantly more hazardous than driving while drunk or stoned.
Multitasking while walking is almost as hazardous. Those using electronic devices walk more slowly, weave more, and make more direction changes than those not on cell phones. Distracted walking causes pedestrians to get hit by cars, fall off bridges, and stumble onto subway tracks.
Doctors at Harvard declared war on multitasking when a resident nearly killed a patient while taking a text message.
Now just imagine what multitasking can do in professional settings. Doctors at Harvard declared war on the practice when a resident nearly killed the patient after being distracted while taking a text message. Not only that, authors Maggie Jackson and Nicholas Carr have both written books about the bad things computer-assisted distraction is doing to our brains. In a fascinating study by David Rock, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, we learn:
"A study done at the University of London found that constant emailing and text-messaging reduces mental capability by an average of 10 points on an IQ test. It was five points for women, and fifteen points for men. This effect is similar to missing a night's sleep. For men, it’s around three times more than the effect of smoking cannabis. While this fact might make an interesting dinner party topic, it's really not that amusing that one of the most common productivity tools can make one as dumb as a stoner."
That means when you're switching between answering emails and doing important tasks, when it comes to mental function, you'd be better off if you were stoned. Or, as another quote from the book puts it, "when people do two cognitive tasks at once, their cognitive capacity can drop from that of a Harvard MBA to that of an 8-year-old."
According to Dr. Clifford Nass, the author of The Man Who Lied to His Laptop, the more you multitask, the less you’re able to learn, or concentrate. He shows that multitasking stunts emotional intelligence and makes us less creative, and studies support this.
Dr. Daniel J. Levitin, Professor of Psychology, Behavioral Neuroscience and Music at McGill University, indicates that multitasking creates a dopamine-addiction feedback loop, effectively rewarding the brain for losing focus and then finding new external stimulation. In his book The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, Levitin states emphatically that continually checking email, Facebook, or Twitter qualifies as an addiction.
Scientists still haven't concluded whether or not multitasking is permanently harming our brains. However, there's overwhelming evidence that it harms our lives.
As in so many other ways, Albert Einstein was far ahead of his times and profoundly prophetic when he said “I fear the day that technology will surpass human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”
Technology is changing our brains — and, it’s generally agreed, not for the better. Now it’s not unusual for people to be engaged in several activities at a time – and students it seems have adopted multitasking as the ideal way to go on with their lives while ostensibly at the same time supposedly gaining an education. Stanford University psychology professor Dr. Clifford Nass says, “25 percent of Stanford students are using four or more media at once.” Learning four times as much? No, according to reputable studies, not even learning one thing well.
People who are busy doing two things at once don’t even see obvious things right in front of them, according to a 2009 study from Western Washington University. Specifically, 75% of college students who walked across a campus square while talking on their cell phones did not notice a clown riding a unicycle nearby. The researchers call this “inattentional blindness,” saying that even though the cell-phone talkers were technically looking at their surroundings, none of it was actually registering in their brains.
“Inattentional blindness” is the educational sickness of our times. Woe to those who study Talmud – or for that matter any other subjects which require the mind to focus – while the computer pleads with them for their attention.
Perhaps the most interesting finding of all was that it was precisely those who firmly believed they were capable of multitasking without any mental loss, both in terms of full understanding as well as memory of material, who turned out to be the ones most negatively affected.
So the bottom line is simple: to all those who want to succeed academically, who want to fulfill their potential for mental and intellectual growth, who want to gain a real education - just as their parents and grandparents did in the ancient days prior to computers – I urge you to acknowledge that multitasking is the one thing that stands in the way of your equaling or being better then the generations that preceded you.
Indeed, the one word which begins the most important proclamation in Judaism is Shema - listen. I pray, at the beginning of the school year, that every student takes this to heart, without distraction and “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”
(9) Maurice M Mizrahi, August 7, 2019 4:28 PM
Jewish sources needed
Could you supply Jewish sources for the notion that we must not do two things at the same time?
(8) Avraham Sonenthal, September 6, 2018 5:45 PM
Kanban is the answer to multitasking
The Japanese have long recognized the futility of multitasking, so they developed kanban. A good introduction to kanban is Personal Kanban:
https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Kanban-Mapping-Work-Navigating/dp/1453802266/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536255869&sr=8-1&keywords=personal kanban
(7) Phyllis Hecht, September 2, 2018 5:44 PM
Multi-task has taken on a whole new dimension
pre- the influx of technological devices at our finger tips- the term multi task was used for being a super parent. In many cases Mom-while Dad was still at work. Mom would be homemaking: cooking,cleaning,doing homework with kids and assorted household chores. I believe this is where the etymology of 'multitasking came from as opposed to the Dad whom when taking over the role from Mom-was not as adept at allthis multit-tasking for he needed to focus on one thing at a time to get it done-Hence the Supermom. Even today we mom's continue this practice-because due to the time challenges we have no choice-therefore MULTITASKING is helpful. Unfortunately this Term has taken all sorts of twists and turns and has been bent out of shape and stretched far beyond what is seemed to accomplish into the psychological aftermath of it heaving highly detrimental results.
(6) Anonymous, September 2, 2018 12:22 AM
Warning applies to all levels of Jewish observance
The triviality of a lot of so many "tasks" makes the choice seem easy. Then think about listening to a recorded Talmudic lecture by Soleveitchik, which requires a lot more focus than even any symphony or dramatic aria, while driving, cleaning house, taking a walk or shopping for groceries. Imagine tripping at the curb, being hit by a car and having to tell the paramedics, "Sorry, I was listening to a tape about the ir hanidachas." And then, because you hadn't been listening that well, either, being unable to explain that ir hanidachas is a Jewish city in Israel that has been subverted by idolatry but which, according to the Sages, never existed except as a prohibition in Torah law.
(5) Dvirah, September 1, 2018 7:09 PM
Successful Multitasking
One can "multitask" successfully when each of the tasks has innate "pauses" wherein the task essential "does itself" - something that has been made possible by current technology. For example: doing laundry and baking. For most people today "doing" laundry means loading a machine, adding soap and pushing buttons; once those are done the machine does the actual washing and one is free to go to the kitchen, gather one's ingredients and prepare a pie, which goes into the oven and essentially bakes on its own. With the clothes in the washer and the pie in the oven, one is then free to pick up a book and study an little...
Technically one is then "doing" three jobs simultaneously, but in actual fact one focuses only on one action at a time.
(4) Anonymous, August 31, 2018 6:37 PM
Excellent article
For a long time I’ve been stating,”I don’t multi-task.” Friends think it’s old fashioned to say such a thing. I can concentrate only on one thing at a time. Though the Rabbi stayed it ever so much more eloquently than I, I totally agree with him.
(3) Anonymous, August 30, 2018 11:43 PM
thoughts from Rabbi Noah Weinberg about focusing and doing more than one thing at once
from Way #9: Total Concentration
Just as you need to "guard your tongue" in order to not waste words, so too you need to "guard your thoughts" to steer them in the right direction. Get in touch with your mind. It's flopping all over. Freeze the frame: What are you thinking right now? You're wondering what's for lunch! In Jewish consciousness, before any important activity, we say: "Hineni muchan u'me'zuman" – "I am about to do activity X." It's a declaration to apply one's mind for a certain period of time, and to block out extraneous thoughts and emotions. Try saying aloud "I am now going to study," or "I am now going to honor my parents," etc. You set the agenda, close off other compartments, and concentrate. You mind is here, not anywhere else.{...] Tracks of the Mind Judaism says the mind has 70 tracks. That may sound improbable, but actually we use multi-tracks all the time. Remember when you first learned how to drive? You couldn't handle any distractions. If someone started chatting, you'd ask him to be quiet. It was full focus on the road ahead. Now think of all the activities you do while driving: tuning the radio, planning your day, talking on the phone, enjoying the scenery, looking for a parking space – and driving the car, too! By controlling different tracks, you can exponentially increase your power for living. It is known that Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky (20th century Europe) could write two letters, one with each hand, while having a conversation at the same time – plus whatever was going on in his mind besides. This skill does not happen overnight. Like juggling, before you can coordinate three balls, you first need to know how to catch. To develop concentration, choose one thought, focus intently, and work it through. (Of course, the prerequisite to concentrate on one idea totally is that it must be interesting and important to you.)Once you've mastered a single track, you can expand to the other 69 tracks of your mind.
(2) Nancy, August 29, 2018 11:22 AM
To commenter #1 John
I agree with you to a limited degree. Yes, I can take out the trash while listening to an audio book. However, more often than not I do not talk on the phone while I am driving. In the latter situation, I have encountered some truly reckless individuals and need to pay 100% attention to what I am doing on the road.
(1) John, August 28, 2018 10:37 PM
Sorry but multitasking is necessary.
Consider the following things that must be done daily, and that time moves faster as you get older
Eating
Drinking
Toilet
Bathing
Washing dishes/cutlery/clothes
Working
Cooking
Cleaning
Taking rubbish out
Buying food/drink/household essentials
And that doesn't include things like looking after pets/children, social life, sex with partner, cutting nails, paying bills etc.
Anonymous, August 30, 2018 3:03 PM
Multi-tasking works if you do not think..
Sure you can multi-task while eating... but will you really appreciate your food?? And, if you try to multi-task while cooking -- will you always "get it right"? So, before asserting that mulit-tasking is "necessary"... do you REALLY want to *multi-task" while having an intimate experience with one's partner???
Bruce Sherman, August 30, 2018 4:52 PM
Bingo!
The issue is not whether people – – especially men – – can multitask, the real question is what impact does it have on their performance of the various tasks that they are trying to juggle more or less simultaneously. The difference between the way the male brain works and the female brain works is a very valuable fact for couples to keep in mind.