You're chatting with friends on the phone, but you can't help looking through shopping websites in the meantime. You're having lunch alone in the dining hall, but it only feels right when you start playing a show on your phone —as if it's a necessary "side dish".
We're now living in a world that is filled with information. It seems unnatural to do only one thing at a time. It's as if we're all suffering from a recent article called "multitasking OCD".
"With news reduced to 140 characters and communication increasingly by emojis, we have developed the ability to focus our attention on several activities and devices at once," Sabry Otmani, founder of Pulpix website, once wrote. "We need something exciting to keep us interested and to fight off boredom."
But perhaps "fighting off boredom" is not the only reason.
My own obsession with multitasking mainly comes from the fact that everyone around me seems to study all the time. Each minute I'm not taking in something new feels like a waste of time. So I always have my headphones on, whether I'm commuting, exercising or walking in the park. I'm forever listening to something—a course on classical music, or on new media management, and heaven knows what else—just so I can keep up with the world.
People who can't stay away from social media are known by "FOMO" (fear of missing out): They have to be updated about what their friends are doing and saying. But I'd guess that "FOFO" better describes me – "fear of falling out".
No matter what reason you're doing it for, "multitasking" is already a part of the modern lifestyle. Just make sure you make the most out of it.
