"Multitasking" Is Bunk
 

So say Stanford professor Clifford Nass. Here's bit of his remarks as quoted at Psychology Today Blogs.

I think he has a point.

When one considers that tests show that people driving while talking on the phone score worse than drunk drivers, it seems fairly obviously true.

Personally, I know for a fact that I am NOT a multitasker. I have one single, but highly powerful CPU :) If am doing something, especially playing video games, I ignore everything else. If somebody asks me something during this time I have no recollection of what my answer might have been at the time ... it's more of a standard AFK / away from home message, something like "Yeah, sure, whatever".

I don't use my cell phone while driving, and if I have to then I use a hands free set and tell them to call me later or make it very brief. No chatting and texting and other BS.

Actually, I don't even listen to the radio while driving. It distracts me and tends to make me drowsy. If I drive on a long journey I'll burn a CD that makes an annoying noise every so often to keep me awake. Also, I don't drive or play video games for more than 3 hours at a time. After that I start making mistakes, so I take a break, eat something, etc.

Multi-Tasking can be fatal while riding my motorcycle.

Sounds to me like you were parallel processing, rather than multitasking. Whichever subprocessor answered the question just didn't have write access to the logs at the time - maybe because the (same block of) RAM was being written by the CPU?

Sounds like "old age (and treachery)," to me ... ;)

... I think ... uhh, what was I saying? ... oh, damm, I dropped that. Now, is it worth me trying to bend over to pick it up, or should I just buy another one? ... where are my glasses ...

Cigarette in one hand, mouse in the other - that's multitasking isn't it? :)

Nope, nope, nope. Brian, you forgot the bourbon. ;) Or the Scotch. Or the pint. Or something.

Yeah, if only I had three (or more) hands. Bad design. Maybe in the future, genetic engineering: a blend of human and octopus DNA?

I don't know about anyone else, but when I was growing up in the 80s I was taught to FOCUS and CONCENTRATE.

sundialsvcs, Scotch. Any Scotch is better than every anything else.

My favorite imbibe is a dark rum ... "neat." The flavor of molasses. Sipped, all by itself, very slowly.

"You can't chew gum and walk at the same time" my Female Parental Unit always told me.

Multi-tasking is just another perpetration by "the man" to get you to do the work of the guy they just fired (and at the same pay). What a racket.

and all this while I was under an impression that you must
around 35 years old. :eek:

See:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/03...-cellphone-use
I would agree with a total ban on cell phone use in cars. I mean alcohol use is banned because it greatly increases chances of collision ... so then why shouldn't cell phone use be banned ?

Why not ban collisions?

They are banned. I mean one of the drivers has to pay (via insurance or not) for the damages. If cell phones are banned, you'll get a fine for using one in a car.

I am. You're only off by a year.

In the US, many states ban, at a minimum, use of hand-held cell phones by drivers in cars.

It doesn't seem to have much effect.

I think the assumption is that holding the phone causes people to not put that hand on the steering wheel and steer, and that looking at the phone for a few seconds while driving will greatly increase accident rates. This is clearly incorrect. It's about the driver not paying attention, and this has nothing to do with hands-free sets. I'd like to see a study that shows that hands-free sets are significantly safer than handheld phones while driving.