I’ve written about this before but it always (and I mean always) bears repeating. Whether you’re a student or a teacher or something else, a constant connection to the internet has sort of tricked us into believing that we’re great multitaskers when we’re probably not all that great. And, even if you are a great multitasker (as I believe myself to be), not all tasks are equally successful while multitasking. I mean, think about it, some of the most important things you do (or at least large sections of the things you do) require a level of attention that is not constantly interrupted by that dinging new e-mail sound, or the instant message interruption from a friend (or, perhaps, not even a friend), or the ability to simply alt-tab your way to an open web browser and look up something valuable to your work only to be caught in a link rabbit-hole that tailspins out of control until you’re left wondering where the last hour and a half has gone. We’ve all experienced it and it bears repeating.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll know that I’m very much in favor of technology. For all the negatives I generally think the positives far outweigh the negatives and we can suffer a little multitasking pain for the benefit of having nearly the whole of human knowledge and understanding literally at our fingertips. It is an advantageous trade-off, but only if you’re able to manage your time and attention accordingly. Unfortunately they don’t (yet) teach that last bit in schools (or most workplaces). Instead, you’ll have measures artificially imposed to prevent you from doing the “wrong” thing. Your school or business (if they give you an internet connected computer) might just block all social networking services or popular linking sites in the name of increased productivity. The problem, of course, is that social networking tools can also quickly connect people for meaningful work and action as well. It’s a trade off. Still, whenever I need to get some serious work done (generally writing/editing) I turn off my web connection temporarily. That, more than anything else, lets me focus on what needs to be done.