[OrigamiSensei]

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I think you have to ask yourself some questions that dig into your motivation for playing poker.

Why am am playing poker? What do I get from it? What do I want to get from it? How do I get there? What is my skill set? What does my skill set have to be to accomplish my goal. What other options are there to accomplishing the goal? Is my goal worthwhile? Thats not a complete list of questions but you get the point.

The answers should point you toward your personal best choices about multi tabling as well as stakes you play, venue, format et al.

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As a fairly strict single tabler (every once in a while I'll open a second table but it's rare) I'll echo this sentiment of understanding what you want. In my case I'm a married guy in my 40s with an excellent career for whom poker is strictly a hobby. There is no way I will ever risk enough money playing poker that the money involved would affect my standard of living one way or another. My motivation is to be a student of the game and the money is strictly a way to keep score of whether I have learned and applied my lessons well. I play one table at a time and try to play it to the best of my abilities.

For those whose purpose is making money and grinding for bonuses and unmentionable then quality of play on each individual hand is far less important than maximizing overall winrate and income. For them multi-tabling makes a lot of sense. Perhaps the winrate on each individual table falls somewhat but the overall earnings are the key. Also some people are ADD and they are better off multi-tabling and keeping the focus on poker than playing one table and surfing pr0n or IMing or whatever.

The answer will be individual - but whatever you do work your way into it gradually. You don't jump from one table to four or six or eight in an instant and you need the right equipment (i.e big monitors with high resolution and a site that supports resizable tables) to do it effectively.