But many of them are not as good at it as they would like to think they are. I've seen young professionals surf and text their way through meetings, only to leave without clearly understanding what was discussed and agreed upon. I've seen them hand in reports and make comments that are clearly a half-baked attempt to keep up. Multi-tasking is only effective if the tasks are done well. But we have given these people an excuse not to learn focusing skills ("the younger generation just doesn't work that way"), and thus have not set them up for success.
Yes, the old folks (and I'm only 34) could adapt our ways of doing business to suit the younger generation. But the young folks would do well to try meeting in the middle. Demanding that long-established routines change overnight to suit their own tastes is both selfish and wrong. But it's been suggested over and over again - the old folks just don't get it, and they need to step aside and stop blocking progress.
So, some 'postmoderns' have, ironically, adopted an essentially modernist viewpoint: that there is a duality between the old way (always bad) and the new way (always good). They try to put the old ways in a box, the better to discard them.
I, for one, refuse to be shut inside either box. Let's all learn the difference between when we should multi-task, and when we should focus on the one most important thing in our lives at that moment.
1 comment:
I was thinking about this exact issue earlier today - I would do well to embrace some of the post-modern modernisms, but there are good reasons that some of our old ways of doing things exist. The middle seems to be the place to be.
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