“Multitasking: Destroyer of Human Happiness?”

The ability to juggle dozens of balls simultaneously has always been a fundamental requirement in the public relations profession — especially in New York. That may be why I’ve always been fascinated (and repelled) by the apocalyptic tone of many social critics when they describe the dire effects of multitasking.

“Certain studies find that multitasking boosts the level of stress-related hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline and wears down our systems through biochemical friction, prematurely aging us,” novelist and critic Walter Kirn wrote in the Atlantic. “In the short term, the confusion, fatigue, and chaos merely hamper our ability to focus and analyze, but in the long term, they may cause it to atrophy,” he warned.

Um, that can’t be good.

So I was delighted to read Sam Anderson’s “Defense of Distraction” recently in New York magazine. “This doomsaying strikes me as silly for two reasons,” he writes. “First, conservative social critics have been blowing the apocalyptic bugle at every large-scale tech-driven social change since Socrates’ famous complaint about the memory-destroying properties of that newfangled technology called “writing.” (A complaint we remember, not incidentally, because it was written down.) And, more practically, the virtual horse has already left the digital barn. It’s too late to just retreat to a quieter time. Our jobs depend on connectivity.”

PR professionals have long recognized the benefits of being a world class multitasker: the ability to sift through information quickly, see associations that others may miss and increased passion, energy and creativity.

I’d rather be challenged than bored, anytime.