Let's I.M. as You Read This
I have the television tuned to a news channel as I write this, my voice mail box is spilling its contents over the speakerphone, and I pause occasionally to flip screens on my computer to check e-mail messages. Still, something feels missing. I think of the executive who positioned his office computer above a treadmill, so he could walk constantly, keeping fit as he ran a business.
The pursuit of maximum moments drives many a multitasking life and an often-distracted mind. Cabbies chat away on the cellphone, even though laws in many places forbid it. Pedestrians text-message, leaving it to others to navigate around them.
Studies show that people may pack the equivalent of 31 hours of activities into a 24-hour day by doing several things at once. That's impressive, although I wonder if any study has figured out how to count the tasks still being tackled during sleep, as the strands of things done too hastily or inattentively deprive us of real rest.
We think of America as a sleep-deprived nation, but we are becoming deep-thought deprived, too. A closed door does not stop interruptions, because we are packing the weapons that can shatter concentration or quiet contemplation. Our fingers are always on a button.
Multitasking did not begin with computers, cellphones or other wireless technology, of course, although they have kicked it up to progressively new levels of complexity. Before those gadgets came along, the TV tray encouraged people to choose entertainment or the evening news over the dinner table and conversation. Radios were put in homes and then cars, helping to fill the dead air that can accompany housework and long rides. We seem afraid to be alone with our thoughts.
I have been a determined multitasker for as long as I can remember, insisting on doing my homework before the television. It did not seem to hurt my grades, but I will never know. Now I am loath to completely shut off connectors to those outside my immediate purview. I might miss something, or someone might miss me. And that would be disastrous. Wouldn't it?
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