He literally is playing a game, watching a YouTube video in another screen, and talking to friends at the same time, and in the most extreme case, is even listening to an audiobook or podcast as well.
Asking kids about it, they all say that's just what they do and look at us oldies like we are from the 20th century or something.
Just last night my wife asked how I can play a game (Path of Exile) and watch YouTube on my other screen. It was a little hard to explain but I mentioned I tend to watch videos I don't really need to look at (in this case it was just the relaxing tones of LockPickingLawyer) and I was kind of playing in a flow state in PoE so it didn't need my full attention.
What is really concerning is when I am watching something I actually want to pay full attention to on YouTube/Netflix, and I find myself opening a fresh tab to load up a second video before catching myself and realising it's ridiculous listening to two videos at once talking over each other. Putting the speed up to 1.75x or so helps with this if it suits the topic. In fact that was one habit I built during COVID, and going from YouTube videos at 1.75x to voice meetings with slow-talkers back in the office I found myself reaching for a speed button that didn't exist.
That's not a flow state. That's autopilot.
This really seems to be it, for me. There's a "high" that comes with being productive. Multitasking lets you trick your brain into thinking its being productive, giving you the high without actually doing the work.
> What is really concerning is when I am watching something I actually want to pay full attention to on YouTube/Netflix, and I find myself opening a fresh tab to load up a second video before catching myself and realising it's ridiculous listening to two videos at once talking over each other.
This is so relatable. A lot of times I open up a window to get started on a project, and within 5 minutes I've absentmindedly opened youtube/reddit/discord/hn/wikipedia and started my way into a wormhole that will take at least an hour to get out of.
Even more so for @andrewstuart his son. I can only imagine what I could have achieved with early diagnosis and treatment.
This terminology means you are completely focused on the task you're doing, forgetting other distractions. I don't think it applies here.
I literally listen to nearly all the content I watch on 3x speed, faster if it's not difficult to understand. I have literally found myself reaching for a nonexistent speedup button on a nearly daily basis it's very maladapted.
It drove my grandpa nuts, and he literally taped paper over the bottom of his television screen so he could watch Larry King in peace.
Now you watch some Minecraft PvP influencer’s YouTube channel and they can’t make a statement without running around playing the game while they do it.
Like at the end of it could they give you a detailed report about what happened with any one of those things? Even just asking for the gist of things, I imagine at least one of those things is being tuned out entirely.
For instance, I often game and talk with friends at the same time. That's pretty normal I think, especially if we're playing the same game together. I could easily have a podcast on and a youtube video playing, and from my girlfriend's perspective I'd look like I was trying to do it all at once. But realistically there's no way I'd be able to give the podcast or the YouTube any attention. They'd just be on.
I'm just curious if the latter is really the same as multi-tasking. It's reasonable to question if having a lot of sensory input thrown at you that you are mostly ignoring is the same thing as multi-tasking.
Although when I was a kid a literally did everything with the TV on in the background.
20 years ago I had no problem having three to five conversations running in private chats mediating between guild members, keeping notes about them so I could remember for next session and still grinding XP in demanding highlevel areas of an MMORPG.
Now? All quiet and maybe I can concentrate enough to finish one task at a time.
When I visit people with TV on in the background I have a very hard time to talk to anyone.
Strikes me as the worst context switching waste imaginable.
My high school had four 90-minute blocks. 7 minutes between. 3rd period was actually 2 hours, and you'd have one of four half-hour lunches (so, sometimes 90-30 and sometimes 60-30-30, and each of those reversed).
I hated the middle school setup, in which settling down took the first 15 minutes and the last 10 were spent packing up (since the time between was so short, you had to be packed when the bell rang). High school was so much better... but my brother hated it, because focusing on the same topic for 90 minutes straight with no breaks was difficult. (And it made scheduling difficult, but that's tangential here).
So I think the moral of the story is that there's no silver bullet, and breaks are important, even if you don't change topics.
My wife multitasks like this all the time (tv + phone), but then she has to ask me something about what's on the TV because she missed it or didn't understand well
Related, my kids make grumpy faces when I tell them to turn off "background" Netflix or YouTube while they're doing their homework.
Semi related, my wife's friend came over and it was suggested we watch a film. "Aliens" was chosen as the friend and my wife hadn't seen it before. I put it on, they started chatting. When they started chatting I paused the film. They stopped chatting and asked what was up. I said that you started chatting so I figured you weren't watching the film, and I was actually trying to watch it. They promised to stop chatting. I played the film, they started chatting again after a short pause. We went through the pause/explain/promise cycle again and I played the film. They both promptly fell asleep.
Are you aware of the reason why you are doing this? Have you examined your reasoning as thoroughly as the faces of your children seem to tell you? Do parts of your body feel numb?
What? It's simple isn't it? Multitasking doesn't work, all having these things on in the background will do is distract from the homework they need to do. This is literally a comment on an article about how multitasking doesn't work.
> Do parts of your body feel numb?
What the hell sort of question is this?
You described yourself as extremely self-centered and you didn't seem to notice that you did so. I'm wondering if you are one of those people who seem to only ever use the left side of their brain. You can function in the role of a father in this mode but don't expect your kids to take care of you when you're old if you never respect their opinions and desires. I'm reaching out to you because what you wrote seem tragic to me.
Applying human sensibilities to the result of an evolutionary process is not going to capture all its intricacies because evolution re-uses systems with no regard to taxonomy. Because of this you are for example unable to tell the difference between anxiety and gas trapped in your stomach, or tension in your neck and stress from work. There is no duality which lets us separate mind and body, and apparently people can get so out of tune with their own body, mind and emotions that physical numbness results.
Respecting people's opinions or desires doesn't mean letting them do anything they want, and not letting them do one fucking thing doesn't mean that "you never respect their opinions and desires". They're kids, they need structure, guidance and protection. You can let your kids do whatever the fuck they want wether it's good for them or not, let me know how that works out.
Your weird obsession with this, and your writing make you sound like a complete fucking weirdo.