ABSTRACT
In today’s fast-paced life, consumers usually engage in multiple tasks at once in a hope to effectively manage their time or to increase the palatability of boring tasks. For example, although we are sure that reading this book is not one of those uninteresting tasks, while reading it you may be listening to music, playing a video or texting with a friend. With increasingly accessible entertainment and information, cutting-edge technologies facilitate a digital life. Increasingly, a single medium is not the sole focus of attention. Studies of college students
have shown that 86 percent of respondents say they utilize media in combination (Alperstein 2005). A survey on media multitasking found that 51 percent of the respondents admitted that they paid attention to one medium more than other(s) and 32.9 percent said that they attend to each media equally at the same time (Pilotta and Schultz 2005). Some 72 percent of smartphone owners say that they use them while consuming other media (Google/IPSOS OTX Media CT 2011). While multitasking in some form has always existed, media multitasking is a phenomenon
that recently has become prevalent, especially among younger generations. Media, which may have once been a sole recipient of attention, is used increasingly in conjunction with other tasks and other media. American children between 8 and 18 years old spend more than six hours per day in media use (Roberts and Foehr 2008). In Europe, media multitasking behaviors such as using TV and the Internet simultaneously have grown 38 percent since 2006 (European Interactive Advertising Association Multi-task Report 2009). The behavior is not only observed in the leisure context, but also in classrooms and the workplace. For example, today’s classrooms may implement wireless technology including additional visual and auditory information to facilitate the learning process. Some schools allow students to use laptops in class. At home, students often turn on the television or computer while they are doing homework. Interactive
media platforms and a proliferation of media options put the consumer in control of their experience to best fit their needs. They choose to interact with and selectively consume media messages. Rather than messages being attended to directly, they may be in the background or periphery or competing against other messages that are being seen at the same time. However, the process of multitasking and its possible effects, both on the consumer and on the perception of the message, have been little studied in the marketing literature. In this chapter we will provide an overview of some of the relevant research on multitasking
behavior, particularly media multitasking. We review the literature in fields that have explored multitasking processing such as psychology and communication as well as identify the gaps and current issues in the body of research. Finally, we discuss potential future research directions in multitasking.
