What Contributes to Multitasking?

Abstract

In Chapter 1, I wrote about the abundance of information available in our digital age. Yet the unimaginable amount of information alone is not the cause of multitasking when working on the computer. Rather, in my view I see it as one of many other factors that facilitate multitasking. Certainly we might expect that the more information available (and accessible), the more opportunities exist to switch and view different information sources. McLuhan (1994) spoke about how the communication medium changes how people perceive. The rise of the print medium led people to perceive the world in a format that was consistent with the rectangular printed page. The rise of the Internet, along with the interface design of computers has also led to behaviors that reflect, and at times even mimic, the design of these media. To unpack why people multitask, I present a range of factors that could contribute to leading people to multitask, as summarized in Table 3.1.