Although there's no hard and fast rule when it comes to doing tasks, many recommend performing one task at a time. The basic principle is that multitasking divides a person's attention and leads to many distractions that he or she can't complete tasks anymore.
The same advice is given to teens, and although it still remains to be true, there's a new breed of teens that are more efficient when they are doing many things at once.
A new study conducted by Alexandra Ulmer and Sarayu Caulfield, also teens studying at an Episcopal school in Portland, Oregon, gave rise to a term called "high media multitaskers." These are teens who are also digital natives, or extremely exposed to technology especially mobile devices.
The study employed more than 350 students with ages between 10 and 10 years old. They were first quizzed about their media habits on a daily basis. They also answered questions found on Stanford Multitasking Media Index to determine the frequency of their multitasking. Then they underwent a test where they were asked to shift from one task to another and later to single tasks. Sometimes they were exposed to certain distractions.
Upon their analysis, they learned that those who were able to multitask efficiently and frequently across many media devices spent no less than 3 hours multitasking, completing their homework in less than 4 hours while doing other things half of the time.
Meanwhile, students who received lower scores in the index spent less hours in doing homework but also multitasked less than a percent at a time.
This simply means that those who are avid multitaskers cannot really focus well if they are asked to perform only a single task. However, they are more adept in sorting and blocking out distractions.
The researchers believed that this kind of level of efficiency may be due to their regular use of multiple devices. As they do it every day, they are training their minds to work better even if there are many distractions.
