Modern technology is a part of modern life. There isn’t anything more obvious than that fact. When teachers and students are saying that it isn’t okay to multitask with homework and iPhones, they are putting a stopper in the bottle of progress.
It isn’t the kind of progress that has to do with 3D and 3G, but the progress of the mind. For years and years technology has been advancing and with it the modern perception of that progress. There was a time when people were saying that “everything worth being invented has been invented.” This was a time right before the minds of Wilbur and Orville Wright started budding blooms. (At least, that’s what they were saying in Around the World in 80 Days.) Obviously that wasn’t true. The minds of the people of the 1800s would probably explode if they set foot in the world of today. Why is that? Their minds haven’t progressed to the level of today’s technology.
Phones aren’t going away. Facebook, the Internet, movies are an indispensable part of today’s culture. The job of the people is to be able to work well and work with the technology that we have present. Not only should it be okay for students to multitask, it should be encouraged. We are the generation that will be dealing with the futuristic technology portrayed in movies. When we are adults, that will be our reality, and if we can’t text and do homework at the same time, then the future technology is going to overpower us. It is so important, because of the growing acceptability of the wild-fire communication we have, that we as students hone the skill of a multitasking focus.
Right now, students’ test scores are lower because of multitasking. Students are tired because they spent so long trying to do two things at once. That’s true. How many people can play the cello like Yo-Yo Ma the first time they pick up an instrument? The answer: no one can. And they never will play like Yo-Yo Ma if they don’t practice. Gaining a multitask focus is something that our generation has to practice at, and perfect. Teachers are always talking about the short attention span of students. We have to get in front of some sort of digital screen or we will fall apart. The reason is that because we have been born into a generation of such technological development, our minds have been conformed to the ability of doing two things at once. The generation before us discouraged multitasking because they have been left out of the loop. They don’t seem to realize how wired we are to partake in the revolution of multitasking.
There is, of course, an appropriate time and place for multitasking because we haven’t mastered it yet. At home? Yes.  At church and such single-focus places? No. In the classroom? Maybe. Having such a distraction at our fingertips is extremely tempting. Many people give into that temptation. It comes down to whether or not we have respect for the wishes of our teachers. If they are okay with the use of cell phones in their classroom that is a personal choice. If not, we have to respect that decision.
It’s time for us to recognize the evolution of the acceptability of a multitasking mind. We need to decide as a society whether we are going to support that evolution or suppress it.