Why too much multi-tasking is bad for humanity
or ‘Why I can’t eat by myself’
One of the most common conversation topics under adults is probably the old ‘When we were teens, everything was better…’ story, mixed with a little bit of ‘We had manners, not like the kids these days…’.
But not only does society enjoy to pick on the bad manners of the younger generations, no, it’s also a common thinking that all those new gadgets my generation is growing up with, will soon lead to the end of human conventions as we know them. Inventions like Google Glass are going to make future, real life, face-to-face interactions inconceivable. The media likes to highlight all the flaws my generation either has or will develop; some of those prejudices are true, some are false and others are complete garbage. I am 17 years old and I just discovered another flaw.
I can’t eat on my own without being exposed to any sort of additional media. I just can’t. Don’t get me wrong, I love to eat, I love it so much, that I do it all the time, I just can’t do it while I am not doing something else. I either listen to one of my beloved podcasts (ThisWeekInStartups is Great btw.) or try to catch up on watching all the videos in my YouTube feed. What reallly bothers me though is the fact that it doesn’t even matter what I am listening to or what nonsense I am watching, as long as I don’t have to eat my supper in complete silence.
Now, I don’t know if that is actually a common problem or if that is just another of my peculiarities but it kind of made me think. I know it hasn’t always been like that. When I was younger, I used to enjoy being by myself, spending time thinking new adventures and possible careers. It is a common prejudice that men can’t multi-task; A lot of people have the opposite problem: Focusing on just one thing can get pretty difficult these days. With all the outside distraction that is available to us at every place (almost every place) and at every time and all the social networks you have to stay on top of, people are slowly losing the ability of being fully engaged in real conversations or other essential parts of life (and inventions like Google Glass are not going to help that).
That’s why people like Thomas Backlund, a Swedish entrepreneur who has quit his job and apartment to move into the forests, tend to inspire me. He is currently living in a tent, working on his startup and solely relying on solar energy to get him through the day.
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