Multi-Tasking our Lives- Are we better at it than our parents?

I’d have to agree with Sherry Turkle that technology is taking over people’s lives, but that it is only problematic with parents. In her interview she talks about the “nostalgia of the young” and that children are going to grow up seeking attention due to the attention that their parents gave their blackberry’s, Facebook’s, Twitter’s, and Ipad’s and not their children. In the this perspective I would definitely agree that there is a problem. The parent should know when the right time to use their blackberry is and when it is time to listen to their children.

On the other hand, I’m going to contradict myself a little and also disagree with Turkle, by saying that children who have grown up in the digital age have learned to multi-task so that they are able to do both listening and texting, facebooking, etc. at the same time. An article in USA Today on kids and multi-tasking hints at the fact that the younger generation’s brains are actually wired differently. The author in this article says, "They should be distracted and should perform more poorly than they do,". But findings show teens "survive distractions much better than we would predict by their age and their brain development." I have even taken a college course where the professor openly said, “I don’t mind if you use you have your cell phone out during class because I understand that your generation is able to multi-task.” So is this technology really a problem in children, teens, and young adults? I don’t think so- I’ve heard of multiple friends who have de-activated their Facebook accounts during midterm and finals weeks so that they were more productive. I think that our generation knows how to balance technology and the outside world. The real problem is when adults, who didn’t grow up using this technology and are not able to multi-task are taking time away from their children.