The New - and not Improved - Multitasking Family

Being a mother and a student I often find that what I am learning overlaps into my daily life - with a double major in Anthropology and Human Development and Family Studies you can imagine...I am consistently applying my research and study of family life to deal with tribal behaviors that you can liken to war or blood sacrifice rituals, aka the life of a mother with four teenagers. 

Last semester I took a class dealing with Home, School, and Community Connections.  One of the weeks discussions was regarding cognitive development and multitasking.  I had always thought multitasking meant doing the dishes, a load of laundry, helping three kids with homework, and making dinner while planning a political walk out to save a community garden.  I was surprised to learn that in todays terms multitasking has more to do with the number of electronics that we are using at the same time that we are doing the dishes, a load of laundry, or writing a 10 page mid-term that was due yesterday!  One of the discussion questions asked if I have ever personally experienced any of the negative effects of multitasking and if so did it affect my work, family or psyche?

"Have you ever

 personally experienced

 any of the

 negative effects

 of multitasking?

 If so, how did it affect your work,

 family

 and/or

 psyche?"

I really like the question that was proposed for my ponderings....and in-between all of the above stated tasks I became more and more disturbed at the affects that I could see my own family experiencing because of multitasking and technology.  This is something that is really concerning me as a mother.

Two summers ago I boasted, mostly to myself, that my children were not addicted to technology.  We didn't have cable TV, they had electronics but mostly played basketball outside or messed with each other and board games.  My kids were noisy and ....well, kind of engaged in other stuff.  It wasn't too much of an issue.  Obviously I bragged too soon, and must of have forgotten to knock on wood.  [Superstitions!]

That summer I had them earn X-bucks to spend on time playing the X-box.  It was pretty successful - they earned half the amount of time they read, or a specified time for each chore they did.  They did a lot of reading and chores and really did not spend even half the bucks they earned.  Fast forward to now - lately my boys have been "spending" an average of 3-5 hours on handheld electronics, i.e. iPad, iPod, texting.  The average of 3-5 hours is spent after school - when I am distracted with my own studying or in class.  The only denominator difference in the amount of time they are spending now (compared to before) that I can see is that I am not as engaged as a parent with my children.  My schedule has changed and with me being less involved they have become more technologically "addicted". 

To me this is a very negative effect of multitasking; multitasking on my part because I am doing so many things that I am not focused on the most important part of theirs and my day together, and multitasking because they are on so many forms of electronics, phones, games, Netflix, TV (we have cable now), snapchat and twitter.  It is atrocious.  Really!  And I feel like I am failing.

Quick Flashback:  it wasn't that long ago we were driving somewhere and my daughter leaned forward, grabbed a water bottle, and handed it to her brother.  No conversation took place - just a silence as they were both focused on their phones.  I asked my daughter if her brother had texted her to hand him his water and she texted me back - "YES".  (No lie!)

I was recently reading a Time Magazine article titled "The Multitasking Generation" by Claudia Wallis and in it she states: 

"Plato warned (correctly) that reading would be

 the downfall of oral tradition and memory.

  And every generation of teenagers embraces

 the freedoms and possibilities

 wrought by technology

 in ways that shock the elders:

  just think about what the automobile did for dating." 

I do find that I am probably just as likely appalled by the effects of technology on my own little family over the past year as is suggested by dating and the back seat of an automobile!!


I share some of my thoughts from reading "The Multitasking Generation" writing this:

"The Multitasking Generation, or generation M, as discussed by Claudia Wallis in Time Magazine, is a generation whose baby “selfie” was likely posted, tweeted, blogged and Instagram’d all before the infant took a second breath.  Wallis points out that this new trend of technology is alarming to cognitive scientists (Wallis, 2006, 3).  Cognitive development is an identified risk factor that, as discussed by Wallis, includes a level of technological multitasking previously unchartered by the Baby Boomer (40’-60’ era) to the X (1965-1980) generations.  For Generation X the mere size of a home computer may as well have doubled as a refrigerator, and further had no internet (Wallis, 3).  The Millennial era, those born after 1980 and before the Generation Y (2000), really don’t know life before technology and have never heard of NOT having the internet.  Technology has developed and advanced in a way that it is hard for even the baby boomers to ignore.  Wallis states, “Fifteen years ago, most home computers weren't even linked to the Internet (2006, 3).

As families engage with new technology to a level of multitasking far beyond any generation before, family members tend to disengage.  Why is multitasking technology, embraced as a genius development to our human culture and function, and allegedly an advancement to our civilization, an identified risk and an intrusion to intellectual development and familial dysfunction?

Wallis discusses multiple facets of technology and multitasking; “highly scheduled” (2006, 7) living “leaves little time for old fashioned socializing and family meals”.  She suggests “overcommitted students” and families need to “slow down”, “unplug”, “log off”, and “take time to think”.  She discusses Jordan Grafman, NINDS chief of cognitive neuroscience, predicting that people “aren't going to do well in the long run", and Wallis specifically states that “Decades of research (not to mention common sense) indicate that the quality of one's output and depth of thought deteriorate as one attends to ever more tasks.” (Wallis, 2006, 4)"

 "the quality of one's output and depth of thought deteriorate as one attends to ever more tasks."

[so...that is what is wrong with me, i say to myself]

Putting down a technology that is distracting a parent or a child from the nurture that is necessary to develop real relationships is within the “hands” of each individual.  I have increased in understanding on how important hands off technology and hands on interaction between parents and children, in the home, as a family, and at the dinner table.  Hand on parenting in tandem to hands off technology is a way to protect and buffer youth from one risk factor - among so many risk factors they face daily!  An intervention is needed - that is simply a matter of making time for “old fashioned socializing and family meals” (Willis, 7).  Dinner time is one protective factor that families can enjoy together, laughing out loud!


There are so many things today that are out of the control of the family -- but putting technology in time out, especially for parents and children, can alleviate the distractions and make room for the opportunities that are crucial for the development of real relationships.  This power is literally within the hands of each individual person.  Mothers, fathers, children, even grown up college kids!  You never outgrow your need for family connections, for developing relationships.  I have gained a better understanding of how important hands off technology and hands on interaction between parents and children, in the home and as a family.


If you like what you read here check out the 2006 Time Magazine article by Claudia Wallis:

Wallis, C. (2006) “The Multitasking Generation”. Time Magazine. March 19, 2006. <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1174696,00.html> Accessed November 2013.