We are all guilty of this. Scrolling your FYP, with music in the background. Switching between apps to respond to messages, checking your emails when your favourite brands drop you a line. Digital multitasking. The silent killer of our critical thinking ability, yet we all struggle to stop.
We are all guilty of this. Scrolling your FYP, with music in the background. Switching between apps to respond to messages, checking your emails when your favourite brands drop you a line. Digital multitasking. The silent killer of our critical thinking ability, yet we all struggle to stop it.
The Problem
Roughly 40% of adults routinely multitask with digital devices. This has simplified work and communication in some ways, but digital multitasking is correlated with decreased cognitive control and greater distractibility. This leads to higher levels of stress and lower productivity.
The impact may go deeper than attention span; there's now evidence to suggest that constant exposure to the short-content doom scrolling we all do is diminishing our skills to think critically. Social media, being designed for instant feedback and gratification, means we don't need to look past the surface-level aspects of what we consume, leading to minimal cognitive processing.
Even though the brain isn't a muscle, it operates in the same way by becoming stronger and more efficient through practical use. Over-stimulating our brains in the ways we do with our smart devices is causing us to lose our ability to think critically. We're all guilty of it, and it's not really possible to completely detach from digital reality anymore. So, what can we do to help ourselves?
What We Can Do
Find ways to separate what you digital multitask with, so that when you do each of those things individually, you're actually present. Fully immersed, listening, watching, reading, or playing. Whatever it might be, the most important thing is to do one thing at a time and be fully mindful of the fact that you are indulging or partaking in that thing. You don't have to cut out scrolling on your FYP. You don't have to stop listening to music, you don't have to stop playing games. Just don't do them all at the same time, on the same device.
For example, the Kindle. Over 100 million sold worldwide, a device to only read when you can do that on your smartphone. Yet somehow, people still buy a Kindle. They want to separate their reading from their phone and allow themselves to be fully immersed in their books. It completely removes digital multitasking.
This is one of the reasons we created the TRDR+. When you get home and want to avoid text messages, emails, and notifications from your social media apps, then you can turn on your Luxa console and do exactly that. Use the device to your own benefit; we haven't prevented access to any of the things that cause your digital multitasking. We've given you the choice on how to segment your digital life, to make sure you don't suffer the problems of digital multitasking.
Don't log in to your social apps, just the apps you want to actually enjoy in your off-time. Keep your Spotify logged in so you can listen to music, fully hear the lyrics, and the beat. Pay attention to what you're consuming in full. If you're not into music, keep your socials logged in on the TRDR+. Limit your doom scrolling to the evening after work, keep your phone for everything else. If you want to play games for an hour a day, away from everything else, load up NVIDIA GeForce NOW and stream your favourite world to get your mental reset.
How you choose to use it is on you; we did not design this product for it to be used in a specific way. One of the reasons for the way it has been designed is to allow you to regain control of your digital life, for how YOU need it. Some people need to cut their socials off, some want to reduce how much they window shop online. We are all unique individuals with our own interests, and the TRDR+ caters to everyone for that reason. This is a device for everyone.
Sources:
Korte M. (2020). The impact of the digital revolution
on human brain and behavior: where
do we stand?
. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 22(2), 101–111. https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2020.22.2/mkorte
Hasan M. K. (2024). Digital multitasking and hyperactivity: unveiling the hidden costs to brain health. Annals of medicine and surgery (2012), 86(11), 6371–6373. https://doi.org/10.1097/MS9.0000000000002576