Continuing the discussion from Demanding cites for things that would take you 2 second to look up is lazy:
Please tell me more about this. It could be useful knowledge.
I will get back to you on this one! I only learned about it recently and before I get into it I’m going to have to sort out “task switching creates anxiety” from “anxiety makes it harder to task-switch” because I think both are true but I’m not sure how researchers tease apart which direction things are going.
TBC…
Thanks! It helps to get as many handles on the situation as can be.
I’d never heard of this, but it explains so much.
Today I mentioned the idea to my social worker and he endorsed it, saying that context is a matter of being present in the moment, immersed in its presence, aware of its content and its potential.
I made up the word “isness” for this feeling. When you look at a tree and see how it just… is.
I’m going to look for the research tomorrow, but anecdotally, things changed a whole lot for me when I started doing only one thing at a time. It requires conscious effort because it’s so against the status quo, but I’m happier when I can stick to it. For me that means one browser tab, one app, one conversation, etc.
(Abstract only)
Increased stress response to multi-tasking, meta-analysis:
Our main findings are that SNS activity is significantly higher and PNS activity is significantly lower during MT/DT than during single tasking. Only two studies were found, in which HPA axis (re-)activity was surveyed. No eligible study was identified in which immune system (re-)activity was investigated. This is the first systematic synthesis of the literature base showing that stress system activity is increased during MT/DT in comparison to single-tasking.
This study on children and adolescents:
Higher levels of media multitasking were associated with worse sleep and behavior, increased levels of psychological distress, and lower attention ratings by both teachers and parents of 118 students at a Swiss school, reported Pedro Cardoso-Leite, PhD, of the University of Luxembourg, and colleagues.
Digital social multitasking (DSMT) is defined as “technology-based multitasking during a social interaction” (p. 1210) [6]. Scrolling social media feeds or texting while simultaneously holding an in-person conversation is an example of DSMT, as the individual is multitasking with both a digital device and a communication partner. Although the DSMT framework was informed by the research of media multitasking (i.e., using multiple media simultaneously [15]), the latter focuses on attending to multiple technological activities without any activities needing to be social (e.g., surfing the Internet while watching TV). In contrast, DSMT does not require all multitasked activities to be media-based, but at least one of them must be social in nature (e.g., texting during a face-to-face interaction). The social focus of DSMT makes it an especially relevant framework to study adolescents’ mobile communication. Indeed, DSMT is a common activity among adolescents. A recent study observed that 89 % of the adolescent participants engaged in DSMT during a recent face-to-face peer interaction at least part of the time [9]. Under the DSMT framework, when examining the implications of multitasking, one should consider both the level (i.e., frequency) by which someone performs this behavior and the multitasker’s positive and negative perceptions of the behavior.
I think there are many potential factors that could be going on here.
- Media multi-tasking makes it more likely that you spend more time on media than you wanted to (I guess this would be a negative perception per the article, thus resulting in poorer mental health)
- Spending more time results in more time ruminating. Rumination has been identified as a key driver of depression and anxiety.
- Increased cognitive load due to media-multi-tasking results in poorer cognitive control and thus emotion dysregulation. (not sure of the evidence for this)
- Media multi-tasking has been shown to negatively affect sleep, a significant factor in mental well-being - in fact, I’ve been armchair psychologizing that maybe the reason adolescents appear to have worse mental health outcomes with excessive media use is because that media use is interfering with their sleep. But I don’t know of any studies looking into when the media use is occurring. I just know a lot of kids have their phones in their bedrooms.
I will continue to keep an eye on this because I’m very interested in it. I have ADHD and problems with working memory and nothing wreaks havoc on working memory like task-switching, which in and of itself is a stressful experience, but if you add onto that negative perception, rumination and difficulties with emotion regulation that’s a pretty quick route to feeling bad.
Ah yes, that parasympathetic response is important. If I don’t get it, I really miss it. I want my parasympathy!