👨🏾💻 👩🏽💻 Digital Parenting: Why Media Multitasking Hurts More Than It Helps
If attention is currency, most of us are spending it on the wrong things, having none left for what really matters.
Attention is Money (Literally)
Attention is like mental currency.
You only have so much to spend at once.
Every notification, ping, or open tab is competing for it. Companies know this, which is why apps are designed for the attention economy to capture and hold your focus for as long as possible.
But what happens when our children, whose brains are still developing, grow up in an environment where their attention is constantly under siege?
Picture your teen sitting down to study. Laptop open, textbook nearby. Within minutes, they’re toggling between typing notes, replying to a Snapchat message, scrolling TikTok, and watching a cat video on YouTube.
This is the illusion of multitasking, something that feels second nature to digital natives, but quietly chips away at their ability to think deeply and learn effectively.
💭 Where Are You Spending Your Attention Currency?
Like real money, if you spend it without planning, you’ll run out before you invest it in what truly matters.
The Multitasking Trap
We think we’re multitasking, perhaps it’s watching YouTube, replying to messages, and writing an essay, but what’s really happening is task-switching. Each switch burns energy and fractures focus.
📚 Research shows:
High media multitaskers perform worse at ignoring distractions.
Working memory gets overloaded faster.
Deep focus and retention suffer (Abramova, 2017; May & Elder, 2018).
Multitasking feels efficient because it satisfies boredom and gives quick dopamine hits. But people who multitask actually:
Take longer to finish tasks.
Make more mistakes.
Remember less.
When it comes to deep work, multitasking doesn’t help.
🍳 Imagine You’re Always Cooking…
Think of multitasking like cooking five meals at once, but never finishing any of them.
You start the stew, then start baking a cake, then switch to frying some plantain, and then start boiling the rice. By the end of the day, everything is half-done, cold, or burned.
That’s what constant attention-switching does to your brain. You’re always “cooking,” but nothing’s ever truly done.
You might feel busy, moving from one thing to another, but your mental kitchen is a mess. You’ve scattered ingredients everywhere, left burners on, and lost the recipe halfway.
That’s the hidden cost of multimedia tasking: it gives you the feeling of progress while quietly stealing the satisfaction of completion.
📺 So What Exactly Is Media Multitasking?
Media multitasking is the act of using or engaging with more than one form of media at the same time.
Think: texting while watching a YouTube video, checking notifications during a Zoom class, or flipping between Spotify, Snapchat, and schoolwork all within a few minutes.
It’s not the same as simply doing two things at once, like cooking while listening to music. Instead, it’s switching between multiple streams of digital information, each demanding your attention.
And while it feels like your brain is keeping up, research shows it’s constantly starting and stopping, like a computer with too many tabs open, draining energy every time you switch.
In short, media multitasking tricks your brain into thinking it’s being productive, but in reality, it’s spreading your focus thinner and thinner.
🧠 Cyberpsychology: How Tech Hijacks Focus
Digital design exploits how our brains pay attention, and the result is a brain rewired for distraction.
Infinite scroll & autoplay: Remove natural stopping cues.
Notifications: Trigger the brain’s orienting reflex — that automatic “look now” response.
Likes, streaks & variable rewards: Activate dopamine loops, making schoolwork feel dull by comparison.
And while it feels like a willpower issue, the truth is our brains are up against an entire design system built to steal focus.
📖 Classic Psychology Explains It
Science confirms what is happening in many homes daily: our brains weren’t built for multiple, unrelated streams of input.
Broadbent’s Filter Model (1958): In the context of digital overload, an overwhelming number of notifications and media sources can be seen as the “sensory buffer” being flooded, and the filter is trying to make sense of it all, leading to mental fatigue.
Kahneman’s Capacity Model (1973): Attention is a limited pool, and multitasking drains it faster. Attempting to do many things at once requires allocating less capacity to each, leading to a decline in performance on all tasks.
Uncapher MR, Thieu MK, Wagner AD's Media Multitasking model (2016): Prolonged multitasking has been linked to decreased working memory capacity and poor executive function, which is essential for tasks requiring planning, problem-solving, and sustained focus.
Cognitive impairments can have an impact on both academic and professional performance, as well as overall quality of life.
🏡 What This Means for Families
Our children’s prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that manages focus and self-control, keeps developing until around age 25. If they normalize multitasking now, they risk weakening their ability to concentrate later.
Here’s how you can help:
Model focus. Let your kids see you single-task.
Create focus rituals. Try 25-minute Pomodoro sprints.
Set boundaries. Device-free meals or “one-screen-only” rules.
Talk openly. Ask how multitasking feels compared to full attention.
Make a plan. Build attention habits into your family’s digital-wellbeing strategy.
Practice Mindfulness. Focus on improving attention and reducing stress
👩🏽💻 Community Spotlight: Focus Is the New Superpower
During a recent digital well-being workshop, one student shared a big change in her life:
“I thought multitasking made me efficient. But when I tried studying without my phone for two hours, I remembered more and finished faster. It felt strange at first, but now I see the difference.”
At first, she said it felt boring, “like something was missing.”
But what was missing wasn’t stimulation; it was distraction.
Her brain was detoxing from constant switching.
By the end of the week, she could read for longer, think more clearly, and actually enjoy learning again.
That’s the hidden truth about focus, your brain welcomes it.
It’s giving your brain permission to breathe.
And in today’s noisy world, focus is the new superpower.
Being fully present with a task, a person, or a moment separates real progress from digital busyness.
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Till next time,
Stay Digitally Savvy,
Yetty Williams, Digital Parenting Coach | Cyberpsychology | Founder, LagosMums
Author, Digital Savvy Parenting: What the World Urgently Needs