Read the passage below and check your comprehension by answering the following questions. Then “submit” your work.
The stack of phones in the middle of the table is buzzing. Three friends, gathered for an after-work drink at a local pub, are anxious. Mike, Jacob, and Elisse had all set their phones to vibrate. Only Karen sits smugly, looking over the menu with a bemused smile, knowing one of the others would soon give in. She had turned her phone off. There was no way she was paying for dinner tonight. “Phone Stack” is a game of sorts but also a response to the culture of multitasking and technology overload that has pervaded every aspect of our social lives. When a group goes out to dinner or for drinks, phones get stacked in the center of the table, the idea being that they are off-limits. The first person to give in gets stuck with the bill. The bigger the group, the higher the stakes (Tell, 2013).
Stepping away from the bings, beeps, and buzzes that connect us to our social networks is hard to do if you are worried that you might miss important information coming in on your smartphone. And although it may seem like you can easily attend to the people you are with and the people you are online with, you really cannot. According to cognitive researchers, the human brain does not really multitask—it just divides its attention. That means we are never really paying attention to more than one thing at a time; we are just constantly toggling between tasks (Wallis, 2006). Multitaskers are far less adept at filtering out extraneous information to focus on what is important (Richtel, 2010).
So when you pick up your phone to check the group chat, remember that you are actually ignoring the company of the people sitting beside you. Oh, and bear in mind that you might wind up picking up the tab, too.