The curse of multi-tasking

There was a time that I would just put on a record and listen to it. Nothing else, just listen to the music and perhaps sing along, or maybe play some air guitar.  Occasionally I may have read something at the same time, but generally, listening to the music was the main aim of putting it on. Appreciating it and enjoying it. Some of this may have been governed by time. I only had 4 minutes, or 20 if it was an LP, before I had to get up and turn over or put something else on. The digital world changed all that with the advent of 80 minute CD's and a skip button. 

Since then, however, something has insidiously and radically changed  and the vast proliferation of distractions that now vie for my time means that I am shocked to discover that I seem to have become mentally incapable single-tasking.  I now find it almost impossible to watch television without checking my Twitter timeline, reading posts on a favourite message board or flicking through a magazine.  Even films are now a constant challenge for my attention. The very thought that I could devote two whole hours just to one form of entertainment is now almost laughable. There is so much more I could be missing out on. My beloved music has moved into the realms of background noise. The only time I am able to devote to actually listening is while driving or walking to the shop for my Sunday paper, which I will read with music in the background.

This realization hit me only the other week.  I was watching the first episode of "The Newsroom". A new drama by Aaron Sorkin.  Previously, any work by the wordsmith behind the West Wing was watched in rapt appreciation, particularly a new series.  Not this time. My wife pointed out thirty minutes in  that I had hardly watched any of it without the distraction s provided by the I-pad and mobile phone. Sadly,   I realized that I had very little idea of how the plot had developed over the previous twenty minutes.  I did, however know the thoughts (in 160 characters or less) of a random bunch of people , most of whom  I had never met, and had posted my views in response to a topic raised on a message board by another bunch of people I had never met.  I had no idea whether something which would once have been of great interest to me was any good or otherwise. I had happily waited my time and attention on minutiae of no consequence or indeed real interest.

I has been commented elsewhere that in the way we use entertainment media has changed generationally. Those of us with grey hairs used to own music, still do our children consume it.  As such it loses it's value quickly as you have invested so little time and money in it. The effort or appreciating it is too great to break through the clutter of what now comprises normal daily life. The same can now be said of films, TV programmes and increasingly books. 

I watched The "Newsroom" again, ironically on the I-pad which caused the original distraction, whilst on a train. It was great.  I had missed something.  I'm trying to watch Grand Prix, TV dramas and  films consciously once again.  The rest can wait. It always did. Being able to filter out the distractions, concentrate and enjoy one piece of entertainment at a time is, in fact a great  joy. The availability of so many choices is a blessing of our age, but it should be just that, a choice. We run the risk of losing the pleasure of enjoyment and ending up as Roger Waters once put it "Amused to death"