How Multitasking Is Affecting the Way You Think with Clifford Nass

Technology continues to evolve and play a larger role in all of our daily lives. This huge growth in media (television, computers and smart phones) has changed our culture of the way in which we use media. More devices has created a world of multitaskers and in this talk, Professor Cliff Nass explores what this means for our society.

Clifford Nass is the Thomas M. Storke Professor at Stanford University with appointments in communication; computer science; education; law; science, technology and society; and symbolic systems. He directs the Communication between Humans and Interactive Media (CHIMe) Lab, focusing on the psychology and design of how people interact with technology, and the Revs Program at Stanford, a transdisciplinary approach to the past, present and future of the automobile. Professor Nass has written three books: The Media Equation, Wired for Speech and The Man Who Lied to His Laptop. He has consulted on the design of over 250 media products and services.

This Stanford+Connects micro lecture was filmed on location in Paris, France. Stanford+Connects is a program of the Stanford Alumni Association.

[roelzylstra]

The most interesting part of the talk, the part where the audience was asked to do a task (i.e. determine if the red rectangles rotated) was cut from the video ...too bad.

[klustout]

#RIP a beloved professor from my Stanford days: HCI scholar & multi-tasking researcher, Clifford Nass.

[ssyhrr]

I'm determined to change.
#unitaskingisgood

[ANGLICTINAJASNECZ]

The great and important research, thank you prof. Nass! We should all stop doing multitasking, the consequences of multitasking are so scary...

[jamiewatson]

A great and useful presentation. Especially liked his explanation of the history of partial media displacement and behaviour change since the early 1990s. RiP.

[wagagagaggag]

A month after this video uploads, the professor passed away. RIP.

[MindAgilis]

Fascinating talk! What makes certain people better at multi/serial-tasking than others? Is it a trainable 'skill'?

[thevegetableaddict]

Do you know how hard it was not to multitask while watching this video about the dangers on multitasking and not check my Facebook.? Too damn hard.

[RalfStephan]

The late Prof. Nass presents results from MRI scans of students given the task of ignoring distractions. Unsurprisingly, some are good and some not. However, he states that a group shows effects not seen before, in that their MRI scans are different. Also, his hypothesis is that somehow this all is caused by changes in media availability and use.

I have no opinion on if there really is something not seen before but I think, if there is a sudden appearance of a new effect, he failed to show convincingly that the cause is media use. Wouldn't there have to be something completely new? Further, other hypotheses like drug use, infections and, above all, education would have to be ruled out. I'm also interested in if there are independent confirmations of the effect.

[kimwolinski]

Clifford Nass died 11/7/13. What a great loss.

[Treyx]

So what does this tell us? What are our kids going to be "thinking about" during simple tasks and observations? I want to know what the consequences are!!