From Zits.
In our Junior Seminar on computer-mediated communication, we will be discussing the phenomenon of multi-modal, simultaneous comprehension and production. Is our ability to perform such communication simply an extension of our multi-tasking nature? Is there an advantage to such communication or is it fundamentally changing the way we communicate for the worse? In her book, Always On, Naomi Baron suggests that we are able to successfully utilize such communication without any major deficits in comprehension. In fact, she suggests that during activities like conference calls, it offers a way to utilize lag time during such conversations and to co-ordinate communication more effectively. However, data accidentally gathered in our lab from a simple, monolingual picture naming task showed that a participant who was texting during the task performed significantly slower (twice as long) than those who did not. Regardless of whether it provides advantages or disadvantages, simultaneous communication is a regular occurrence suggesting the importance of exploring this phenomenon.