Limits to multi-tasking

Warning! warning! Geezer rant follows!

On the way back from BJ's today, I stopped to treat myself to a bagel and lite lunch at a well-known bagel place in this vicinity, which happens to be near an area college.

I almost stepped back out after I stepped in because the first thing I ran into was the queue. Naah, because the bagel faeries had a grip on me and because I can chew again and I don't pass up any chance to do it. Also, I observed that the line was comprised mainly of students from said college. I assumed that this meant they possessed a certain level of intelligence and sociability, and thus these six groups of two or three young persons would efficiently pool their orders.

Now if that doesn't date me, what does?

In all these groups, every last one of these young persons stepped up to the counter separately and placed a separate order, effectively trebling the amount of time it took the line to move.

In one of my more regular blog hangouts, there was just speculation about the multi-tasking capacity of the rising generation. Apparently it has its limits, at least when one links the idea of multi-tasking with everyday computational skills.