“Hello? Are you even listening to me?” The usual answer is “yeah I heard everything you said” or a “no sorry, can you say that again?”.  We’ve all been on both sides of the conversation before. We’ve either asked the question to someone focused on a book or the television, or zoned out on while someone else was talking to us and let our attention fall on one of our various social media accounts. While most people would agree that they’ve zoned out on someone while they were talking I think they would also agree with this statement “I am very good at multitasking”.  How can you be a good multi-tasker and unable to focus on someone speaking to you while completing another activity? And if we’re all so great at multitasking why did a study done in 2006 find that in 80% of crashes and 67% of near crashes were due to inattentiveness (Goldstein, p. 94)?

When I was younger I tried to master the art of multitasking. I was confident in my ability to accurately complete my homework assignments and watch television at the same time. My mother wasn’t as confident in my abilities as I was. As I got older, completing tasks such as that did not grow easier for me. I was never able to equally divide my attention between my auditory and visual perceptions. Another struggle I had when it comes to dividing my attention was when I’d write the word I just heard or said and interrupted whatever it was that I was originally writing. I’ve found that with practice at my job, that’s become an automatic process for me. I no longer have any issues with that.

For most people driving is an automatic process, the problem starts when they attempt to divide their attention between driving and doing something else. Eating while driving, using hands-free devices, reading, typing, and applying makeup, are all things that can take your attention off the road for just a few seconds but still have grave consequences (Goldstein, p. 94). Texting while driving is huge “no, no” for me and I even have my phone set to driving mode, and it automatically sends responses to people when I’m driving letting them know I’ll respond to them later. I wish that more people realized the danger of texting while driving and understood that no matter how good they think they are at multitasking they’re still putting their lives, and other’s at risk every time they do it.

Goldstein, E. Bruce. (2011). Distractions While Driving. In E. B. Goldstein, Cognitive Psychology (pp. 80-116). Belmont,CA: Wadsworth.