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The Generation of Multitasking
Research paper on multitasking
Debate over multitasking
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Technology has been always improving over the decades, and now it has improved to the point where it’s a part of a human being’s life. People can’t imagine living without technology anymore nowadays, and especially college students who are always on their phones and laptops during lectures. That leads to what is known as multitasking, which is the ability to take care of more than one task at the same time. Multitasking has been popularized by students, and specifically college students who think that they are actually successful at doing it. Unfortunately, according to Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, after testing students who think they are brilliant at multitasking, results showed that they are terrible at every aspect of multitasking; consequently, it is not successful.
According to The Dangers of Multitasking, the downsides of multitasking outweigh its upsides (Davies 39). Multitasking students can miss many necessary information that they really need to pass tests and understand lessons when they multitask during the lectures, which causes them to get a low grade on their tests. “Many experienced multitaskers have experienced an unexpected thing when, for example, their e-mail service was disabled for a period of time. They discovered that they were actually more productive during that period of time” (Multitasking 758). That means that multitaskers are more productive when they concentrate on one task; so students will do better on tests and in school in general, if they quit or cut back on multitasking during classes. Moreover, “The human brain works more efficiently on a single task and for sustained rather than intermitted or alternating periods of time” (Multitasking 758). So, this does not mean...
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...at multitasking in not successful, but it is rather unsuccessful
Works Cited
Davies, Frances. “The dangers of multitasking: numerous studies have shown that human beings are not designed to handle multiple tasks and this applies to undertaking multiple roles in the workplace as much as in our daily lives. Frances Davies, chairman of Principle People explains the dangers of multitasking.” Plant & Works Engineering Jan. 2009: 39+. General OneFile. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
Dretzin, Rachel, prod. Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Fron. Dir. Rachel Dretzin. 2010. PBS. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
Judd, Terry. "Making sense of multitasking: The role of Facebook." Computers & Education 70 (2014): 194+. Academic OneFile. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
“Multitasking.” Encyclopedia of Small Businesses. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2007. 758-759. Gale Virtual Reference Libraray. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
Gleick says in his article that by the time Michael Hartl “heads for the bathroom…each morning, he has already got his computer starting... And then, as he runs to breakfast, he…[dials] into the campus computer network, and then gets his web browser started so he can check the news while he eats. ‘I figure I save at least two or three minutes a day…” While Michael is trying to get his computer ready at the same time he is getting ready for the day, he has the potential to rush himself through his hygiene activities which could lead him to not fully completing them. As humans we always want the extra moments in our days to stretch to the maximum that they can, even if it means that we have to cut something else in our day short. We like to be able to say we did more because it gives us a boost in our ego for the day. Doing more multitasking in our days does not always mean we did do more. Switching back and forth between tasks could also take up more time than to stick to one task until it is fully done. When we multitask we have to continuously change the way our mind is thinking and what our body is doing. This could take more of a process to repeatedly get started rather than maintain a single thought on a topic and continuously let it
Web. The Web. The Web. 13 Nov. 2013. Bartlett, Bruce.
Students may easily lose their attention and concentration with easy access to such incredibly rich store of information. With such new technologies as television, internet and social networks, people nowadays tend to multitask more often as they have easy access to a large amount of information. However, such easy access may sometimes be a distraction. Study “Your Brain on Computers” reports that heavy multitaskers perform up to 20% worse on most tests compared to performance of light multitaskers. Working efficiency of people, who multitask, is claimed to be significantly lower. The same is with concentration. (Crovitz 353) As a result, they are not engaged in working process. Students tend to be easily distr...
In the chapter “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era,” from The New Brain, written by Richard Restak, Restak makes some very good points on his view of multitasking and modern technology. He argues that multitasking is very inefficient and that our modern technology is making our minds weaker. Multitasking and modern technology is causing people to care too much what other people think of them, to not be able to focus on one topic, and to not be able to think for themselves.
In the article,“Multitasking is actually kind of a problem for kids and adults” by Hayley Tsukayama the author went into detail about how parents and their children view their personal media habits. One of the ways that the parents and children viewed their media habits as was feeling the need to respond to texts and notifications immediately. “More than 1,200 parents and teens surveyed, 48 percent of parents and 72 percent of teens said they felt the need to respond to texts and notifications immediately, almost guaranteeing distractions throughout the day” (Tsukayama). This article can be connected to “The Epidemic of Media Multitasking While Learning” both of the articles discussed the different factors of media multitasking among individuals. The article from The Washington Post website gave great insight on multitasking and rather it is bad for students when it comes to learning. I believe that the issue being discussed is very relevant because if students are easily distracted by technology while in their learning environment it results in them not learning
The Web. The Web. 22 March 2014. Hasen, Richard. The.
Today we live in a society where everything is seconds away from us. With the advances and affordability of quality technology, you would be hard pressed to find someone without a smartphone, laptop, or tablet, possibly all at the same time. Because of the accessibility we find that, in our tech-savvy culture, multitasking has not just become an art form of sorts, but rather an expectation. In the article “Multitasking Can Make You Lose…Um…Focus,” Alina Tugend sets out to explore the idea that although multitasking appears to show productivity, it could be doing the opposite. Throughout her article, Tugend uses studies done by neurologists and psychologists to show how in a world that sees multitasking as an expectation it has actually made us less efficient. She proposes, through studies, that although you might be working on multiple tasks it is as if you’re playing tennis with multiple balls (Tugend, 725).
Multitasking requires that a worker divides his/her time and energy on multiple tasks at the same time. As a result, the care and attention to detail is divided. The amount of focus that could be used to review one assignment is split. In an experiment, Patterson (2017) discovered that students who studied while participating in media multitasking took longer to complete tasks in their classes. This experiment addresses media multitasking in the case of students. While it is not a type of multitasking we normally consider, it does involve performing multiple tasks at one. Instead of putting all of their focus on their assignments, these students’ attention is on the assignment and on their social media. The results of the experiment prove that it when placed in scenarios where people are required to focus on multiple things, it takes more time to complete certain tasks. In this instance, media multitasking caused a decrease in performance. In another experiment, Paridon and Kaufmann (2010) made an observation when studying multitasking in the workplace, stating that people’s reaction time diminished when multiple tasks were completed at once. The believe that multitasking affects people’s performance has also been proven to be true in the workplace, as the speed of people’s production when down when required to complete multiple tasks. Performance can be determined by the speed in which a task is completed.
Multitasking with non-course material results in a student’s attention being diverted from the course material that is being taught. This can result in errors in memory for the student and also a more difficult time learning the information outside of the classroom (Kraushaar & Novak, 2010, p.1). The University of Vermont completed a study in order to determine the impacts of multitasking with a laptop during a university lecture. Through the experiment they were able to determine that “students with a high [and long] frequency of software multitasking during lectures will exhibit lower academic performance than students with a low [and short] frequency of software multitasking” (Kraushaar & Novak, 2010, p.6). This shows that repeated and lengthy multitasking with technology in particular laptops during lecture times can cause extremely negative results in a students academic performances and
Today, multitasking is everywhere, and is very huge in many situations. We are guilty of, multitasking and how it has become a negative and positive impact on our lives. Nowadays, people prefer to divide people in two groups; people who masters can multitask, and those who cannot. Almost everyone place themselves in the former group, thereafter they put the rest of the people in the latter. I personally find myself multitassking many things at once, and never pay attention to it. I believe that doing more than one thing is okay. In order to get things done faster multitasking seems like the answer to the question. In Tugend’s essay, she uses certain techniques that caught the reader’s attention, stating this as “you are reading this article, are you listening to music or the radio, Yelling at your children? Checking emails”? Of course, the reader was expected to read the essay. By persuading them to believe that, what she was saying was true.
Most people believe that they can successfully multitask. Everyday someone around the world is currently trying to do work while watching their favorite television program, writing a paper and checking up on their friend’s status updates online, or simply having a phone conversation with a loved one while reading the news. Completing these actions together are thought to be time saving yet some recent studies have indicated that when people multitask and divide their attention to completing two or more tasks at the same time they are actually being less productive. Rather than performing one single action as a time, multitasking some actions are actually taking up more time than needed. Although it is probably true that doing more than one
The presence of accumulated stress and heavy work load on the brain automatically bring about the student or the employee inability to multitask; knowing fully well that multitasking is one essential key to excellence.
The brain cannot be two places at the same time. Multitasking will prevent students from learning to the best of their ability. Many people believe they are good at multitasking, when in reality the brain
Today, most students find that multitasking helps them complete multiple tasks faster. They think that being able to do more than one thing at a time is beneficial and effective when it comes to completing demanding tasks like homework and classwork. Little do they know, multitasking actually makes people less productive, and it results in decreases in people’s attention span, performance, and most importantly, learning. While multitasking may be helpful for some individuals in completing simple tasks, multitasking is not beneficial in aiding individuals complete more demanding and specific tasks.