Journal 5

While discussing McLuhan, the idea that we are a multi-tasking society was briefly mentioned. I agree with this, but I do not support the multi-tasker. It's true that there is so much to do and so much that can be done at once, that it becomes very tempting to multi-task. The sad truth however, is that we are not machines and cannot efficiently perform multiple tasks at a single time. To embrace the multi-tasker is to say that we are happy with the mediocre. Why do things efficiently one at a time, when you can just do an average or poor job on all of them at once? That seems to be the mentality today. Now we have people talking on those little ear-piece phones, while his 4 kids are watching a Spongebob DVD laughing loudly, while playing cards on a little table in front of them, while the wife is fiddling with the CD player, while he's looking at a navigation system, while driving. We are not perfect and we are not machines. We have a limited capacity for attention and are incapable of efficiently doing something as important and 'dangerous' as driving with so many distractions nearby. It’s simply beyond us as human beings to achieve it. Just by talking on a cell phone (hands free or not), you are 20% slower to react because your attention is too divided. It's so easy to lose your life in a car accident and yet we continue to put useless luxuries into our vehicles and in other inappropriate places. People need to realize that just because our technology has advanced; it doesn't mean our basic human limitations have simply disappeared. Multi-tasking is a bad habit, not a way of life to be glorified.