The Unpopular Truth: Multitasking Is Destructive (Part 2 of 3)

The act of truly mastering a craft is lost. Thanks a lot, multitasking.

We live in a world dominated by technology that fuels a false sense of entitlement among the youth constructed alongside it. These minds refuse to offer absolute attention during conversations, milestone events, or even the most casual of scenarios (ex. watching a football game on Sunday). Unless you’re an Eagles fan, this inability to devote one’s attention span to the enjoyment of a genuine experience among friends and family is inexcusable.

I get it; it’s everywhere.

But these individuals who swear by “getting the most out of their time” deserve some criticism. While all art can be composed with cohesion, absolute mastery can’t be shared. Neither can the thousand-plus hours spent on understanding the craft, the consummation of its respective world, and/or the commitment an artist must make to be considered one of the greats. This act can’t be juggled.

Multitasking breed’s lazy perfectionists, a term stripped of its true definition.

This addiction has extended beyond the social setting of phone scrolling during dinner and has dispersed among millennials like a disease without a drug, as the very slumped-necked, entitled bunch justify their ghostly presence with “artistic expression”. What they forget is that the fallen icons they swear by learned something misguided in the modern world: the unfiltered devotion to their art.

Some research suggests that multitasking is “just the best”. I’m familiar with conducting extensive research of my own and feel qualified enough to counter that no matter how intensive the investigation, it’s difficult to cover every valid scenario.

“My artistic expression cannot be contained by just one profession. I must spread my creative wings and hover wherever my imagination calls, for this autopilot trip run by my unconscious must not be labeled. If so, and only then, will I be unable to create. Only then, will I cease to exist in both this world and the next.” — An unnecessarily elaborate and unrealistic monologue given by a fictitious, pretentious person.

See, because the Internet, it may seem like a no-brainer to resort to something so easily accessible when faced with everyday tasks. But one should never underestimate the wave of sobriety that is the freedom to exert all of one’s energy and time into something that drives them. In other words, the exploration of one’s unfiltered passion. While technology is mostly essential for achieving the goals I aspire in my lifetime, there’s truth to enjoying something in its “purest” form. The traditional audience rightfully frowns upon Multitasking because it’s an illusion that incapacitates from appreciating natural experiences.

Focused productivity is always superior to the tangled mess that is multitasking. Multitasking deceivingly justifies of procrastination. Visionaries, perfectionist, and purist are collective terms that have become superficial, words lost in translation, robbed from their authentic meanings.

It should no longer be acceptable to simply refine a skill-set. That ceiling has been reached by millions worldwide, millions of times before. Because of multitasking, there isn’t time to master and surpass the path and bar set time and time again. (That’s a lot of “times”). It’s disrespectful to each craft and it isn’t doing the field (or the last standing professionals in those respective fields) any favors.

It may be 2016, but we should never lose sight of what made those who globally inspired, great.

This article may seem incredibly one-sided, and you aren’t wrong. This is why there are three parts! Next time: “You’d Never Believe It: Everyone’s a Hypocrite”.