Multitasking Doesn't Work
I think that multitasking between multiple <i>tasks</i> has been somewhat-generally known to not be possible (for most people) for a while now. However, this part of the article was novel:<p>> Other studies suggest that people who frequently “media multitask” (like listening to music while checking email or scrolling through social media while watching a movie) are more distracted and less able to focus their attention even when they’re performing only one task.<p><i>This</i> was novel to me. Listening to music negatively affects your ability to focus? I guess it's time to throw out my headphones...<p>Well, but that article links to "Multicosts of Multitasking"[1], which references studies made on "heavy multitaskers", defined as having high "MMI" scores. What's MMI?<p>"A high MMI score means an individual engages in a lot of media multitasking (e.g., checking email while also perusing Facebook and watching Netflix), and a low score means he or she does not (e.g., checking email without any secondary media)."<p>Whoa there - checking Netflix and Facebook are <i>completely different</i> than listening to music, and it should be obvious that the former two are mutually exclusive with performing other tasks (simultaneously) - but that doesn't imply the same for music.<p>I think that the HN submission page might be making some unsupported claims...<p>[1] <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7075496/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7075496/</a>