(radio voice) Scientists say that multitasking can be bad for your health.
I'm Vivian from Germany. Let's talk about that.
♪ (theme music) ♪
- Good Mythical Morning! - This episode is brought to you by the
Rhettandlink.com/store. That's where you can get Rhett & Link merch, including
- the new official Dope Zebra T-shirt. - (Rhett) Hmm.
Well, Link, it's another morning. How're you feeling?
I'm feeling good. I flossed last night, so this morning I have that feeling of
- having flossed the night before. - How often do you floss?
Probably more often than you do. What is this, some kind of indictment? You know
how it feels when your gums kind of swell? It's a pain of cleanliness, and I like it.
I flossed this morning with the little plastic things with the little threader
- on 'em. - You're tellin' me you floss every
- morning? - No, but I did this morning.
- Oh, okay. - It must be... there must be something
- in the water. - Do you feel a painful... pleasantry
- associated with it? - Uh, no. Flossing does not hurt so good,
- if that's what you're trying to imply. - Well, I experience it.
We're not talking about flossing, though, although we encourage it. We encourage
- you to floss. - Right now, as you're watching this.
There's a study-- and when scientists begin studying things, I perk up.
- As opposed to... - Just in general.
- elementary school kids studying things. - When scientists say something, I listen.
Okay? I'm just gonna be honest with you.
Tween girls. This study is about tween girls.
- Okay. Meaning girls between... - A certain age.
- Something and teenage? - I think it's 8-12.
- Okay. - That's sort of what they call that.
The tween age. This study is about how often, how much they multitask.
And that means, like, consuming media, like being on Facebook, going and watching
a YouTube video while they're texting, and while they're watching TV, and doing
all these things. The way that we are consuming media today. This is about
the effects that multitasking is having on them.
But you're talking specifically screen multitasking. It's pervasive amongst
the tween culture these days. No matter what you tweens are doing, you're also
texting at the same time, right? You got your thumbs on your phone and you've got
your eyes... like one eye on the phone and one eye on another screen.
I don't think that actually literally happens, though. There are some people,
but I think that's like an actual vision problem when you can put-- like
- Mr. Mac in high school? - (laughs) Yeah.
He could watch two students at the same time, like...
Or an iguana? (laughs)
I'm lookin' at you, and I'm lookin' at you! Yeah, I'm lookin' at both of y'all
- at the same time! - And you're in different seats!
(laughs) That's not what you're talking about. You're talking about things...
But the study is talking about multiple screens at once, kind of thing.
Well, what the scientists said-- and listen, these are scientists, so people,
don't... you know, take this seriously. It says, "These tween girls are spending
much of their waking hours switching frantically-- (high pitched gasp) Gah!
between YouTube, Facebook, television, and text messaging.
Now, we're from a different error. (laughs)
(laughs) Or era. We are also a result of...
I am willing to admit that we are wrong for being from we're from. We are from
- a different "error." - We are both from an error, which...
- (laughs) - It was a mistake. Mom and dad did not
mean, they did not intend for this to happen, but hey, it happened.
- And I meant to say that. - And we're not brothers.
My point is... I guess I do a little bit of screen multitasking, like... if I'm
watching television. Say if I'm watching Netflix and it has a buffer issue, boom,
I'll have my phone there and I can look at my Twitter feed.
- You take a break during the buffer. - Well, I gotta do something!
Or if it's a commercial on normal television, I'll look at my Twitter feed,
or I'll look at something fanciful on the internet.
- Fanciful. - But I won't do it while I'm watching
- something on television. - You're engaged. You're engaged with
the TV, not that you've got a new relationship that no one knew about.
- Right. - But you, like me and I think most people
our age... If I'm gonna commit to a television show, I commit to it. But I
have started letting the multitasking creep in, where, if I have a question
about something, if I have a question about an actor, or if I have a question
- about a word that's used... - Mmhm.
I break out the phone. I go to Wikipedia. There's a lot of Wikipedia-ing and
IMDB-ing that happens when I'm watching television.
Well, I've also noticed, in a group setting with you, that we'll be having a
conversation, and you will be the first guy to pull out your phone and Wiki
something. And at first I would think, "Oh, Rhett's checked out of the
conversation." And people will just keep talking back and forth, and all of a
sudden you'll re-enter the conversation with information from something from five
- minutes ago. - I'm accessing the global knowledge base.
And if they could just figure out a way to get my iPhone to be permanently wired
to my brain, as I have predicted before, I won't-- you won't have to see me sit there
going on my phone. You'll just be talking and I'll be like, "Oh, you know what
Wikipedia...?" But then I'll actually claim it as my own knowledge. You won't be
able to to differentiate between when I'm accessing Wikipedia and when I'm access--
- asessex-- (stutters and laughs) - Accessing.
- Accessing my cerebral cortex. - And you just told us that, so now we'll
- know when you're doing it. - Whenever I show signs of smartness in
- the future... - I'll know that you're accessing
- something beyond your cerebral cortex. - I'm not "accexing" anything.
(laughs) But, you know, I say that that's rude. Or at least not being in the moment.
You know? You're hanging out with friends, Rhett's all of a sudden... and we've been
in meetings, you know, from a professional standpoint, this is not just tweens.
We've been in meetings where the suits will be on their text device.
Yeah, yeah, that is rude, but they can get away with it. They can get away with it.
- 'Cause they're in positions of power. - But really, what we're gettin' at here is
- not whether or not me and you multitask. - Are the scientists-- is their point that
it's rude for tweens to be multitasking on so many screens? Because I agree.
Well, scientists don't comment on things like rudeness. That would be like a
sociologist or an ethicist. I'm having trouble speaking today. Punch me in
- the face. No, don't. - (both laugh)
- So close. - They don't comment on rudeness.
There is a "Link slaps Rhett" on the Wheel of Mythicality that could happen.
If I were just a little faster, I could have gotten the punch in.
Here's what the scientists said: "These girls who are frantically swishing between
all these different things..." (laughs) "Swishing." Good grace...
- (laughs) - I'm gonna slap myself.
They are most likely to develop social problems.
- What kind of social problems? - Young girls who spend the most time
multitasking between various digital devices, communicating online and
watching video are the least likely to develop normal social tendencies.
So what they're kinda gettin' at here is that these girls...
- Normal social tendencies. - And the reason that they have...
Like, if someone enters the room, you look at them and say "Hi"?
- Yes. Social interactions. - They're just like (high-pitched noises)
Well, no, it's not-- no, no, no. Not at all that. Not, oh, they're texting and so
they are distracted, no. By texting and multitasking, they are creating a
situation in their brains in which, when they have no text or no phone or anything,
and you begin talking with them, they'll be (quiet monotone) looking down like
this like they don't know how to make contact with... (normally) and they don't
know how to read your face. It's almost like an autism type thing or an
Asperger's Syndrome. Like a-- I'm not kidding, don't laugh about it, man!
It's like a mild form of that that we are engendering in the young people because
of all the multitasking. They don't know how to interact. The reason that it's
young girls is just because this was through Discovery Girls Magazine or
something and there's not a lot of boys who read Discovery Girls Magazine.
I've seen plenty of young tweens, guys and girls, who... you start a conversation
with them, and they're looking at my shoes.
- Yeah. - Shoe-gazers.
- Shoe-gazers. - It's like, yeah, you like my shoes?
They're like, (meekly) no, I'm afraid of you and I can't look at your face.
You're not a screen so I don't know how to engage.
(normally) Yeah, and this is a real problem. These kids are growing up and
they're... So, the scientists say... again, they're scientists... they say,
"The antidote for this hyper-digital phenomenon is for children to spend
plenty of time interacting face-to-face with people." So, they're not saying,
necessarily, "Stop the multitasking," which they probably should.
- It's inevitable. - They should tone down on it. But we're
gonna be doing it. We're gonna have the phone and we're gonna have the YouTube
- and the TV and all this stuff. - And the typewriter.
And lots of kids have the typewriter, which really takes a lot of your attention
away from everything else. But the scientists are saying that you basically
need to counteract all the multitasking with your kids interacting with actual
- people. - Yeah, I definitely try to teach my
children, when they meet someone for the first time... You have to tell a kid,
"Look this person in the eye and say, 'Hi, my name is Lincoln.' 'My name is Lily.'"
- You know? You gotta teach 'em that. - Yeah. My kids, since we've been out here
in California, we just moved into the new place, we've had some problems. We've
had an electrician have to show up, we've had a plumber show up, and we've had
an exterminator show up for a rat problem. Whew! That's another episode.
But the exterminator showed up and my three-year-old... we always say, "Go talk
to 'em. Ask 'em what their name is. Get to know 'em." It might distract them from
their work, but you know, my kids are learning to recognize facial tendencies
- and interact. - And this is the universal symbol for
that. Shaking fingers in front of your face.
And my three-year-old walks up to the exterminator and he's like,
- "Are those your favorite pants?" - That's a legitimate question.
- Or disturbing. - And that's a great question!
- What did he say? - He said, "No, these are not my
favorite pants." It was almost like Shepherd was thinking, you know,
- "I gotta come up with something." - That's a good one.
"He's got on pants. Are those his favorite ones? I don't know."
It's also a good pickup line for you single guys out there.
(laughs) (smoothly) Hey baby, are those your favorite pants?
Because they're mine. On you. See, you could, you know, just take it all the way.
- They're my favorite pants on you. - Oh, I was very confused for a second.
I had a magazine salesman, of all people, come to the door. Yes, they still exist.
- Magazines still exist. - Yeah.
And people sell them at your front door. I open the door, the guy steps back five
feet and he says, "I'm just here to sell magazines." And Lando, my two-year-old,
comes up beside me and he looks at him and goes, "Bye!"
- That's the perfect thing to say. - (laughs)
All I did was-- I was just like... and I shut the door, you know? It's like a
telemarketer. Put your 2-year-old on the phone. Bye!
So the application for you parents out there is: get your kids to talk to any
person who comes into your house. If a person comes to your door, just send the
kids out there to interact with them because it'll keep them from developing
bad social tendencies and then they can get on the Facebook and the YouTube as
- much as they want. - And get them to use their allowance
to buy magazines and to pay the exterminator, I think. If you can also
- get that, that's a pretty sweet deal. - Mmhm. Let's spin the wheel.
- Speaking of multitasking... - You're sitting there and I'm spinning
- the wheel. (laughs) - We're spinning the wheel while doing
- the show at the same time. - Our desks look at each other.
You know? We have all of this face-to-face contact. Well, not contact.
Sometimes we just stare at one another for hours on end, just recognizing facial
- expressions. - Because we're not tweens!
(Rhett) Zero gravity. This is when we end the show in zero gravity. And since we
don't have a machine to do that...
(deep pulsing machinery noise)
Woah. All of a sudden they've switched the... switch. Are we in the International
- Space Station? - Ah, this was... I kinda feel like I'm...
grunting a little bit more than I... oh. Come back down in the frame a little bit
- there. - I don't like being up here.
It's kinda turning into an air chair moment.
Yeah, my thighs are giving out. Thanks for watching us... today... it was...
excellent... to be here with you... share a morning...
If I spit right now, it'll come out in just a little ball and just float towards
the camera. But I'm not really in space so I won't do that.
[Captioned by Caitrin: GMM Captioning Team]