This article was originally published in the October 19, 2008 issue of the Wood River Journal and seems quite relevant today:
"Kids can be great “Unitaskers” if we let them"
We live in the Age of the Multitasker. Everywhere I look I see them. Mom’s on their cell phones while picking up their kids from school. Dad’s text messaging their offices from the golf course. Employees answering emails during meetings. Kids listening to their ipods while doing their homework and instant messaging their friends.
Certainly, modern technology has provided us with wonderful communication tools that have made our lives simpler and changed the way we do business. In the 21st century we are all more connected, interdependent, and informed and our kids live in a world that is getting smaller every day.
However, what is the cost of multitasking? What impact does doing many things at once have on us and, more specifically, on our children? I believe the effect of multitasking is significant and can have a profound effect on adolescent development cognitively, emotionally, and socially.
Last week on a visit to an art class I was observing a student from my school, I’ll call him Bruce. Bruce is a great kid who occasionally has difficulty focusing his attention on the task at hand. In this particular class, on a typical October day in school, he showed me the value of what I like to call “Unitasking.”
After a few minutes of instruction from the teacher the class was asked to begin their preliminary sketches for what would become soapstone sculptures. Bruce, after spending a few minutes fidgeting in his seat and shuffling his papers around, began to draw. With his face two inches from his sketchpad and his body poised on the edge of his stool he produced a drawing with incredible detail and complexity. His pencil moved with skill and speed and his eyes never left the paper. After 30 minutes the teacher asked the class to begin cleaning up to get ready for the next class. Bruce kept drawing. The other kids began to leave the room. Bruce kept drawing. The teacher finally came over to the student and gently placing a hand on his shoulder said, “It’s time to wrap up.” Bruce looked up startled by the emptiness of the classroom. “Where did everybody go?” he said.
In the Age of the Multitasker it is difficult for kids to focus on just one thing. It’s nobody’s fault, really, but this lack of direct focus has the effect of robbing kids of the opportunity to find depth and meaning in their everyday lives. When a kid has the chance to become absorbed in a single activity he is able to explore ideas and emotions that are easily eluded in the Age of the Multitasker.
In the course of one art class Bruce unknowingly discovered the wonder of unitasking. He became so engaged in the moment that the world around him was stripped away. It so happened that Bruce found this engagement in the arts but he could have easily found it in a math book, on the athletic field, or in the wilderness. The key to me is to provide kids with an environment for unitasking. Who knows, it may end up making our lives better as well!
Andy Jones-Wilkins