Multi-Tasking

Multi-task (v): to perform more than one task at the same time.

Disadvantages:
http://www.advertisingcrossing.com/article/170047/Multi-tasking:-It-could-consume-more-of-your-time/
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_disadvantages_of_multitasking
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080717212542AAPa8OM
http://www.impactlab.com/2008/01/27/multitasking-is-destroying-our-ability-to-focus/

Advantages:
https://blogs.communication.utexas.edu/groups/thetimesofourlives/weblog/a04a9/
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/141129/the_advantages_of_multitasking.html?cat=3
http://www.jgcampbell.com/caos/html/node13.html
http://www.geneseo.edu/~stone/personnel/lec7.htm
http://www.crystalinks.com/multitasking.html

Common Multitasking Situations:
driving and chatting on the phone
computer operation + [insert just about anything here]

My thoughts:
I used to be proud of my ability to multitask. Folks would tell me how talented I was because I could keep up with several IM chats at the same time. Simple, trivial online chats + multi-tasking isn't such a big deal. Lately, however, I've noticed that anywhere you look you find people multi-tasking. It got me thinking that I don't want to multi-task much anymore. A fact of the nature of the concept is that the more you are doing at one time, the less attention to detail and/or the lower the quality work.

Multi-tasking makes me uneasy, especially at work. I find it annoying when I'm on a call and the speaker asks someone else a question, then the person questioned pipes up only because they heard their name. That person wasn't multi-tasking like they claimed. That person was working on something else and only screening the call for their name to be called. I hope I don't ever fall into that sort of habit. I think it's rude, not to mention the annoyance and waste of time of having to repeat the question because it wasn't paid attention to the first time around.

I think society has become so fast-tracked that we're forgetting all about quality. These days multi-tasking translates to "I'm more concerned with the quantity of work performed than the quality of work performed."

-Amanda