With the proliferation of social media and technology, people have been spending a significant amount of time with media. New technological developments have resulted in the recent trend of media multitasking as people have been using phones, computers, and other technology to access media while they do other work. In Christine Rosen’s essay, “The Myth of Multitasking,” Rosen points out many negative effects of media multitasking, including the effect it has on learning. Although people use technology and media to multitask, media multitasking hinders people’s ability to learn. As technology advances, it will continue to play a role in people’s lives, leading to media multitasking. Rosen discusses a Kaiser Family Foundation report’s findings …show more content…
that in 1999, people spent 16 percent of their time on multitasking out of the time they spent using media, but by 2005 the amount had risen to 26 percent (3).
People increased the time they spent on media multitasking with the rise of new technology that people could use. Since 2005, technology has advanced greatly, especially in a way that allows for convenience and easy access to media. In a recent report by David Bauder, a Nielson company study found that ”[t]he typical American adult is using media for a full hour a day more than just last year, with smartphones accounting for most of the increase” (1). Alongside the growth and ubiquity of technology, people have extended the use of media in their lives. For many people, media is a given as a part of everyday living. Furthermore, in Bauder’s report on the Nielson company study, there is an “indication that there's a lot of multi-tasking going on” because people have increased phone and tablet usage while still using other media in similar amounts (1). Phones and tablets have the benefit of being mobile, smaller, and …show more content…
easier to use while doing other tasks, so people are able to multitask with ease. Rosen draws attention to media multitasking statistics from 2005, but the way people are able to media multitask now because of current technology adds to Rosen’s argument. The effortlessness of multitasking allows people to use different media at the same time as they do something else, even at times when they are learning and should not multitask. People will continue media multitasking because of technological growth, but this may cause them to use media in a way that makes learning more difficult. Subsequently, learning becomes tougher when people try to media multitask.
Rosen supports her argument through evidence of multitasking’s impact on learning. She utilizes research done by Russell Poldrack, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, which found that “people use different areas of the brain for learning and storing new information when they are distracted” (3). The research reinforces Rosen’s argument by showing that people cannot learn and remember information well when they try to multitask, but they can when they are focused. People are able to work more efficiently through focusing on one task. Additionally, by presenting facts and scientific findings, Rosen bolsters the trustworthiness of her argument. The evidence she uses in her argument is also reflected in other articles. An article by Caitlin Probst explains that research shows “our brains don’t have the capacity to fully focus our attention on two things at once,” which then “hinders information processing and productivity” (3). If people are distracted or trying to multitask as they work, instead of being more productive like some people think, they are really being less productive and not paying as much attention to their work. In the face of research and a logical approach to how multitasking affects the brain, there is strength in Rosen’s argument on how media multitasking impacts learning. In my personal experience, I have noticed that I work better and put more
thought into my work when I am focused on a task. When I pay less attention, I have more difficulty remembering what I am learning. Sometimes my work suffers when I try to multitask because I do not pay attention to my work. My personal experience upholds Rosen’s argument on how multitasking is detrimental to learning. If people media multitask as they try to learn, they could find that they did not learn as well as they wanted. In the end, technology enables people to use media to multitask, but multitasking interferes with people’s learning. Rosen’s argument on the negative effects of multitasking addresses why people should not multitask while they try to learn, but current technology makes media multitasking easy. People can use technology and access different kinds of media while they try to remember and learn new information, but they may not succeed as well as they could if they focused on one task. Media usage is commonplace and technological advancement is prospering, but how people choose to interact with media and technology deserves some consideration.
As human beings, it is becoming more of a second nature to us to multi-task. As the world is technologically advancing more and more every day, there are becoming more distractions. Social-media is flourishing, reality TV show ratings are going up, and humans even unintentionally check their phones every two minutes. In this day of age, multi-tasking is proving to promote inefficiency rather than productivity.
In the article, “Multitasking Can Make You Lose…Um…Focus,” Alina Tugend centralizes around the negative effects of multitasking. She shows that often with multitasking, people tend to lose focus, lack work quality, have an increase in stress, and in the end she gives a solution to all these problems. Tugend conveys her points by using understandable language, a clear division of subjects, and many reliable sources, making her article cogent.
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
Many would remark that multitasking is a skill that can be trained like all others. However, a lot of neuroscience has went into proving that multitasking is a myth altogether. The article “The Myth of Multitasking” is written by Nancy K. Napier for Psychology today is here to debunk the myth of the brain’s capability to multitask. The article states that the brain is incapable of doing two things at once. Instead, the way that we fool ourselves into thinking that we can multitask is how quickly our brain switches from one task to another. Our brains can’t perform tasks simultaneously as our focus is a narrow beam. So, to compensate for this, our brain switches between these two tasks very quickly, almost as if we are doing them at the same
Rosen stated that “how do we teach focus in a world that is constantly drawing our attention elsewhere? One strategy that we are using in classrooms around the world is called “technology break.” He explained that this strategy work by teachers leading students check their social media, messages, emails, or text only for a minute after that they have to turn their phones silent and facing down ,and work for fifteen minutes after the 15 minutes had pass they repeat the process again. I guess this strategy is all about controlling anxiety which is what really cause the used of technology. I really don’t believe we can teach people to focus in more important things than elsewhere because this is all about using and adjusting to technology the right way. If people were to have more activities outside their home and school, there would be a very huge number of people using less and less technology this
Are technology and the media shedding the very fabric of the existence we have known? As technology and the media spread their influence, the debate over the inherent advantages and disadvantages intensifies. Although opinions vary widely on the subject, two writers offer similar views: Professor Sherry Turkle, director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, in her article “Can You Hear Me Now” and Naomi Rockler-Gladen, who formerly taught media studies at Colorado State University, with her article “Me Against the Media: From the Trenches of a Media Lit Class.” Turkle asserts that technology has changed how people develop and view themselves, while at the same time affecting their concepts of time management and focus (270). Similarly, Rockler-Gladen believes media and its inherent advertising have had a profound effect on the values and thinking of the public (284). I could not agree more with Professor Turkle and Ms. Rockler-Gladen; the effects technology and media have worried and annoyed me for quite so time. The benefits of technology and media are undeniable, but so then are the flaws. People are beginning to shift their focus away from the physical world to the virtual world as they find it easier and more comfortable. The intended purpose of technology and media was to be a tool to improve the quality of life, not shackles to tie people to their devices. I no longer recognize this changed world and long for the simple world of my youth.
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
Technology has always been 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.
To understand this better, a research study was conducted by Eyal Ophir, Clifford Nass and Anthony Wagner, to see the results on cognitive control in media multitaskers. Firstly, they gave a two hundred sixty-two university
The smartphone is not only a phone but a computer itself which allows us to access social media sites and the internet whenever it is convenient for us. In 2011 the smartphone companies sold over one million of these devices, which means that four out of every ten people have a smartphone. Us as human beings are social animals and we crave the need and sense of communication and the technology based smartphone just intensifies that craving. (Bousaid) But, what are we really doing to ourselves when we are constantly worried about our smartphones? We have went from a world of in person communication to always wanting to communicate through our smartphones, but this is destroying our ability to communicate with other human beings in a face-to-face conversation. But, our communication styles are not the only thing that is suffering from the newest technology. In an education based field, children are becoming more distracted and distant causing a decrease in the learning that is being done (Bousaid). NBC News reports, “people who are interrupted by technology score 20 percent lower on a standard cognition test. A second demonstrated that some students, even when on their best behavior, can 't concentrate on homework for more than two minutes without distracting themselves by using social media or writing an email”(Sullivan). In the career field the smartphone 1 also hurts the productivity that is being done, research has been conducted that shows that only eleven minutes of work can be done before the employee becomes distracted by their smartphone, which means that these employees are constantly distracted by their smartphones. The decline in our education, communication and career choices can all be linked to smartphones and the constant evolution of our
Like mentioned above some studies suggest that the millennial generation is rewiring the brain with extensive multitasking training, demonstrated by the teenager who can simultaneously switch between four social media accounts, watch TV, and do homework. They are retraining the brain to adapt to the speed of information the brain processes. This rewiring allows their minds to continuously have multiple tasks that have to be processed in more rapidly. This research proves that millennials are evolving the brain to keep up with the forefront of
This have create so much ease for the access of information and entertainment. The use of the Internet have constantly increase the amount of user capability to multitasking, as of September 2009 there have been up to an increment of 30% in the US (Gali Einav, 2010). With technology as a rapidly growing trend, consumers find it relatively a necessity to own a smart phone. Having to view the news without the interference of having to wait through commercial or advertisement, the internet has created a passive platform for advertisement to be display passively. With the Internet supporting throughout multiple kind of device’s platform, the hassle of viewing the news will not be an issue for any consumers as long as they are logged on. This has caused a great deal towards the mainstream media, by creating participating communities around the media events. Consumers may choose to desert and choose the Internet as a substitution of traditional news media with the assumption of users being a more active consumer, rather than passive (Scott L. Althaus & David Tewksbury,
Using computer, internet, cellphone, television, etc. make peoples’ lives easier and more comfortable. Young people are the most users of it. They cannot think of a single day without using a technical device. Tara Parker-Pope is an author of books on health topics and a columnist for the New York Times. In her article, she expressed that, “The International Center for Media and the Public Agenda at the University of Maryland asked 200 students to refrain from using electronic media for a day.