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Dave Crenshaw discussed his latest book, The Myth of Multitasking. Crenshaw makes a strong distinction behind “background tasking”—reading a magazine while waiting in line, for instance, or listening to music while coding—and “switch-tasking.” Most of the time, when we talk about “multi-tasking,” we’re actually talking about the very costly practice of “switch-tasking.” Every time you switch your attention from one place to another—even from one browser window to another—you take a significant hit to your focus

Switch-tasking, he definitively proves, causes you to execute each task more slowly than you would otherwise, with more errors

pecifically, what can parents, teachers, and employers do to help their kids, students, and employees focus their attention more effectively? As a kid, student, and employee myself, I have to say that I believe the solution is emphatically not to limit access—at least not for older teens. Rather, I think the key lies in laying out the facts and discussing strategies. Information overload and the allure of infinite access, after all, are challenges that affect everyone with an internet connection—not just young people. And, though writing a stellar book report might not be a cause compelling enough to warrant total focus, every young person will at some point find a pursuit worth paying attention to. Maybe it’s writing short stories; maybe writing music. Maybe it’s making art. But when that pursuit comes along, they’re going to want to know how to firewall their attention, focus their efforts, and—for once—stop switching.

Maurer is warning parents to take precautions when it comes to gaming consoles because most are hooked to the Internet and anyone can be chatting with children during game play. IBSYS.ad.AdManager.registerPosition({ "iframe": false, "addlSz": "", "element": "ad_N6C0061.2D12", "interstitials": false, "beginDate": "", "endDate": "", "getSect": "", "name": "square", "qString": "", "width": "300", "height": "250", "section": "", "useId": "16995600", "interactive": false, "useSameCategory": false, "topic": "", "swSectionRoot": "", "useZone": "", "type": "DOM" }); "My theory on it is that predators are going to go where kids are, and kids are playing video games so it's a perfect place for them to be," Maurer said.