Myth Warning! Children Aren’t Digital Natives and Can’t Multitask

The digital native doesn’t exist and kids (actually everybody) can’t multitask. Paul A. Kirschner and Pedro De Bruyckere published an article about this.

Ever asked someone younger than yourself to help you to use a technology? If so, maybe you were impressed by how fast (s)he solved the technological problem that stymied you. Maybe this is why the idea that young people are media-wise digital natives who need to help us digital immigrants is so attractive. But research shows that this could well be a mistake, and no, they also can’t multitask. 

Marc Prensky coined the term digital native in 2001 to describe an ever-growing group of children, adolescents, and nowadays young adults (i.e., those born after 1984; the official beginning of this alleged generation) who have been immersed in digital technologies all their lives. Because they were exposed to these digital technologies Prensky explains that this group has specific and even unique characteristics that make its members completely different from those of previous generations. These insights aren’t based on extensive research into this generation and/or the careful study of those belonging to it. It’s rather a rationalisation of phenomena and behaviours that he had observed. In his own words, he saw children “surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age” (2001, p.1).

The myth of multitasking

Closely related to the myth of the digital native is the pervasive myth that people can multitask, often heard in relation to either children and women. What is human multitasking? The proper definition is a person simultaneously and/or concurrently carrying out two or more information processing (or thinking) tasks. It would mean that a person is capable of carrying out multiple thinking tasks, each requiring cognition and/or information processing (e.g., reading one’s email or chatting with someone online while listening to a lecture in class or participating in a workgroup).

It’s true humans are capable of doing more than one thing at any one time, but only if all of the activities that they are carrying out are fully automated (i.e., require no cognitive processing) save the one requiring processing (e.g., walking and talking at the same time, though even this has been found to lead to falls and other accidents). But the review by Kirschner and De Bruyckere (2017) again showed that the evidence is clear: multitasking as earlier described is not possible and more importantly, in education such behavior is paired with inattention, shallow information processing, and less/poorer learning.

Both myths - digital natives and multitasking - have been used as arguments to change education. We must avoid the pitfall of assuming that modern day children possess talents and abilities that they don’t actually have. The skills and competences attributed to this generation of learners are the same as any other skills and competences, namely that they need to be properly taught and acquired before they can be applied. Even more important, maybe we need to teach/train them to focus rather than adapt our education to so-called multitasking as it is detrimental to learning.

And no, women can’t multitask either.