Christine Rosen (b XXXXXXXXXXholds a Ph.D. in history from Emory University and has been a scholar at the New America Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. She has written several books,...

Christine Rosen (b. 1973) holds a Ph.D. in history from Emory University and has been a scholar at the New America Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. She has written several books, including The Extinction of Experience (2016), My Fundamentalist Education (2005), and The Feminist Dilemma (2001). She also coedited Acculturated: 23 Savvy Writers Find Hidden Virtue in Reality TV, Chic Lit, Video Games, and Other Pillars of Pop Culture (2011). A commentator on bioethics and the social effects of technology, she has frequently appeared on National Public Radio, CNN, and Fox News and in other venues. Rosen’s essays have appeared in such prestigious publications as the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, National Review, and New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology & Society, where she is a senior editor and where this essay originally appeared in 2008.

Before you read, think about what Rosen might mean by her title, “The Myth of Multitasking.” What does the word myth lead you to expect her judgment to be?

As you read, think about your own experience with multitasking and what you think its advantages and disadvantages are. How well does Rosen’s essay resonate with your experience?