I have a theory about multi-tasking and self-defense. I theorize that our eGeneration and our eSociety of today makes us easier targets for criminal activities. I theorize that today's eGeneration through technology are making themselves easier and easier victims.
Multi-tasking has been a pet peeve of mine for years now. I guess it comes from being a person living in his winter years. I also attribute it to being in the computer industry as a Quality Assurance and Release Management Analyst. It reminded me of when the industry first spoke of a computer with the ability to multi-task making if faster and better, yadda yadda yadda.
The brain is like a computer in that it tends to process one thing and one thing only at a time. What both the industry and people think of as multi-tasking is actually very rapid toggling between tasks. This is the brain focusing quickly on one topic, then the brain switches to another, and another, and another and so on. A computer with multi-tasking is actually a system that toggles between memory and several computer chips so quick the mind of humans cannot detect it.
Where does this come in regarding self-defense. First, our society has come to embrace multi-tasking as the end all way for human's to get things done. They tend to rely on that belief system and that results in their inability to see the forrest for the trees for the branches for the leaves.
This rapid toggling has a price that each human has to pay. When you switch from one topic to another rapidly you lose the time necessary to re-immerse your mind in one topic or another. This is what scientist refer to as the "switching costs." This cost includes that more complex tasks or focus suffer greater than the most simple of tasks. Researchers say multi-tasking or quick switching/toggling can only work with the simplest of tasks and all bu tone of those tasks must involve something they refer to as "automaticity." An example is when you are good at folding cloths, you can probably fold those clothes while conversing with someone or easier, watching a television program.
Multi-tasking academic work such as your studies at University, a common occurrence with the younger eGeneration, results in shallow, intermittent, and less flexible learning.
What all this means is in our society of instant gratifying multi-task world we are wearing out our brains. There are fundamental biological limits to what the brain can pay attention to and this is the crux of self-defense, attention or awareness.
In this eGeneration we are easily distracted, at a rate of a distraction every two minutes maximum. We tend to roam around hooked into headphones/earbuds, phones, music devices or iPad computers. Each beep, blurb or call causes our minds to shift from an awareness of our situations and closing our minds off from informational awareness leaving us targets for criminals.
Look at the OODA used in violent situations. A criminal will rely on some action against you to keep you stuck in the observe and orient stages. If you are already stuck in an action of listening to eData then your not even aware of a criminals approach. You have just provided them with a greater chance of over whelming you and achieving their goals. If you are now a multi-tasking eInformation geek he knows that your observer, orient and most important decision loops are far more easily looped back to the observe stage.
Think about it, if the mind/brain are becoming shallower and relying on distractions for every day society connections then that same brain/mind is going to be fluid constantly shifting in the first three layers of the OODA loop and even when the A or act part of the loop arrives it will have a tendency to look toward shallower acts over the ones that are important to survival, etc.
As a side, as for teaching and learning self-defense. Are we creating a mind-set through technologies that mean taking the time and effort to learn and encode necessary defensive strategies, tactics and techniques that can not be achieved unless it is quick, simple and then left behind in leiu of encoding.
Transference of information and physical learning from short-term memory, where most multi-tasking occurs and often is lost before encoded, is a process called by scientist as "encoding." We need deep contemplation and concentration, or encoding is unlikely to occur. We need to practice and train in a fashion that allows us to concentrate so that it moves up out of short-term memory into long-term memory. In addition for self-defense it must go even into a higher encoding memory, instincts. Instinctual actions comes from deep down in the lizard brain recesses below long-term. That memory is such that it influences what the mind does with long-term memory under stresses such as anger, fear and the adrenaline chemical dumps. If the connections are not there then you won't encode and it won't be there when you need it.
This is my theory about multi-tasking, the eGeneration and self-defense. It needs vetting but I suspect that other scientific research will support this theory and we may find more are victimized simply because they are caught up in the web of technology.
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