Multi-tasking.... hmmm....

Yet another "gift" from the world of the computer is the concept of multitasking. Multitasking is more than reading a good book or the newspaper while you are eating your morning cereal, and I have come to believe that, in general, it is not such a good idea.   We are human after all -- not computers. What I am wondering is how this idea became popular -- how any level of skill in this area has become a goal for which to strive?   When exactly did it become a social imperative to handle multiple tasks at the same time when everyone knows on some level that this is not a good thing? Why do some people take so much pride in their handling of so much at once? I think the whole trend is some kind of plot to undermine the physical and mental health of otherwise healthy and intelligent people. I am sure if I wanted to think about that possibility, I could find someone to blame, but I have too many other important things to do, and for the most part, I plan to handle each of them one at a time. 

I hereby take a stand to multitask as little as possible. Even if I knew how, my Jeep has enough sense not to allow me to program the GPS system or to watch a DVD while I am driving. Actually I am surprised that it even lets me listen to the radio while in gear. Stop and think for a minute -- as human beings we have only two hands. Further -- we cannot answer a bunch of different questions all at once.  If you doubt either of these statements, ask any parent or teacher -- they will tell you I am right in this. We need to focus on one thing at a time. I am staying on the side of "Anything worth doing, is worth doing right" (American Journalist, Hunter S. Thompson). Actually my mother used to say basically the same thing all the time -- as she made me remake my bed, rip out a seam or unravel a row and start over, and I am not even going to tell you how many times I had to clean my room until I got that right.  (Maybe I was trying to do too many things at the same time and thus doing no one thing well  -- multitasking before it even had a name.)

Yep -- There is a definite downside to multitasking.  Second only to causing me to do a poor job on all the tasks I am trying to do at the same time is that multitasking makes me feel scattered. I dislike that feeling. It's like trying to cook a complicated  meal while struggling to make intelligent "grown-up" conversation with other adults while at the same time listening to two grandchildren describing with delight what yucky, maybe dead thing their dog is dragging up onto the back porch at that very same moment. I simply cannot formulate a complete sentence while wondering if the yucky maybe dead thing might end up in the kitchen.  Maybe I dislike multitasking because it also generates a bit of panic along with the scattered feeling.  Sometimes when things are coming at me from every direction I just want to put my legs over the side of my old wagon and drag my feet to slow it down.  So what if I wear out the toes of my new sneakers?  There are worse things that can happen in this day and age. Right?

I think it is important to note that this whole problem is not gender specific. I do, however, write as a woman, mother, grandmother, and all the other "things" I am. From my point of view, multitasking is not always avoidable and sometimes it is even necessary to juggle, to keep all the balls in the air... you know -- to comfort the crying child and to stop the bleeding while you unwrap the band-aide and dig through the drawer to find the antiseptic cream. The thing is -- multitasking keeps the pressure on and that grows tiresome. Remember that Helen Reddy and Ray Burton song - "I Am Woman?" The main lyrics are something like "I am strong. I am invincible"...?  Well --  I am sometimes exhausted.  So it is that I am going to try to be a single-tasker whenever possible  -- except, of course, during the holidays.