Previous researchers have demonstrated that the human brain cannot perform two tasks at once; rather, the brain performs tasks sequentially, alternating from one task to another. Research suggests performing two cognitively complex tasks causes deficits in attention and task performance. With the growing popularity of smart-phones, a critical need exists to investigate the influence of text messaging on important auditory tasks, such as localization. Accurate localization is crucial for individual safety. While there is research discussing the effects of noise distraction on localization, there is little research examining the effects of two simultaneous distractions (e.g. noise and text messaging) on localization performance. This study was designed to investigate the impact attending to a cognitive task, like text messaging, has on the ability to localize meaningful auditory stimuli. Fifteen middle-aged adults with normal hearing localized familiar environmental sounds while seated in the center of an eight-speaker array. Participants were asked to verbally identify the speaker number from which the target signal was presented in four listening conditions, alternating between quiet and noise and text messaging and no text messaging tasks. During each noise condition, environmental traffic noise was presented from four additional speakers around the listener. RMS error was calculated for each listening condition and signal. Analysis revealed that the addition of both noise and text messaging significantly reduced localization performance. The type of signal also significantly impacted performance. These results support the hypothesis that text messaging significantly affects localization accuracy and potentially safety.