Multi-tasking

There had been a special report on the Straits Times last Saturday about multi-tasking teens and how they could have possibly derived their influence from us - the adults.

However there has been no mention of which category poses the greatest influence. On one hand, the parents had formed the main core of complaints about teens performing impossible tasks of multi-tasking while on the other hand there were mentions about the filter of multi-tasking from the adult office area down to the homestead.

Consider this - the common practise in Singapore would be to wolf down mouthfuls of your lunch while remaining glued to your office PC. I cannot make a fair statement for my previous work experience was based on frontline Customer Service but I believe some of earlier work experiences as an admin clerk had similar experiences because we had to finish our data entry within a certain period or we would have to perform overtime - with no additional pay.

So I'm led to believing if you had to finish some marketing or business analysis report by 3pm [presuming there's a meeting later] it's not surprising you would be stuffing short mouthfuls of.. whatever you bought or even asked your colleagues to buy on your behalf while you continue rushing the report first.

As I did some reflection, it did cause mild cognitive dissonance within myself for a while because.. at work I have developed an attitude of "full concentration" on a particular matter simply because I'm communicating with another person and to fully understand the situation that the person in front of me is explaining requires full attention so that I do not miss details lest I make a bad decision due to uncertainty. On the other hand, it would appear rude to be doing something else in front of that person because if the client does not feel that you're giving him/her the desired level of attention then the consequences would be disastrous.

The contrary belief became evident when I stepped into my room - I turn on my hi-fi radio, log on to the internet, start my mp3 playlist of lounge music, flip the papers on my table [I usually wake up just in time to get prepared and go for work straight so I'd only read the papers after I'm home], start to download new mp3s, chat with friends, play online games, check and reply emails, download lecture slides and study them and it goes on till about 2am where I'm finally tired enough to log off and go to bed which is just right beside me.

Sounds similar to the featured teens? I guess this trend had been going on even much earlier with my generation which would mean most late 20s young working adults are in a pretty similar habitual situation.

However, the only difference I observed was this trend became evident mostly with friends of mine who had been exposed to higher levels of education say.. Polytechnic and above? Perhaps some causes are due to higher levels of expectations at accomplishing multiple priorities. As a featured teen explained her situation, she is a member of the student council, sings in her church choir, takes german classes and many other things. So when exposed to tertiary education you're expected to accomplish projects, accumulate extra-curricular activities' points, perform voluntary work and handle your school assignments and tutorials. These multiple priorities become very evident when you're staying in the University Hostel.

Am I instigating that the higher level of education you receive the more prone you are to multi-task? Certainly not, I'm only comparing myself to those featured teens and.. we're actually not that different despite being a full zoadiac cycle apart.

Guess the main barrier lies with the demographic sector of above 40s.