Media Multitasking: A Lack of Social Skills? Many people in today’s society may look at multitasking as a harmless way of accomplishing multiple tasks at one time. For instance, one could be chatting with a friend online while listening to music and doing homework. Although multitasking can indeed be helpful in completing tasks in a timely matter, one must recognize the definite price that is being paid for this practice. Media multitasking is damaging today’s students by not only hindering one’s ability to fully absorb information, but by changing student’s understanding of what the term socializing means.
In order to fully understand how media multitasking is damaging students, we must first realize what exactly is happening in the brain during multitasking. Those students who multitask during homework may be doing things such as browsing Facebook, checking email, texting, and instant messaging. Scientists believe that when a person is trying to complete multiple tasks like this, the brain is distributing low amounts of information to each task instead of concentrating on one task at a time. This creates a sort of “brownout” effect inside of the brain. University of Michigan Professor David Meyer states that “all the lights go dim because there just isn’t enough power to go around.” This means that even though you think you are giving most of your attention to that homework assignment, your brain is actually rationalizing instead. During this rationalization, the brain is simply distributing a low dose of focus and concentration to your homework assignment, and an equal amount to your social life on facebook. As a result of

the brain using low power on each task, crucial factors such as memory and clarity are highly jeopardized.
It seems that there is also the notion of a brownout happening in the ways in which the younger generation of people