Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essays on multitasking and its effects
Essays on multitasking and its effects
Term paper about media multitasking
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Essays on multitasking and its effects
The vast technological advancement of the past 20 years has changed the modern landscape; individuals, from all age groups, are increasingly using smart phones, tablets and portable computers. These advents, designed to allow users to easily and quickly access information, has led to increased media consumption. It has been found that an individual often consumes different types of media simultaneously, a phenomenon known as media multitasking. The influx of accessible technology to the general public has corresponded to an increase in media multitasking. This increasing trend, especially in younger people, fortifies the importance of understanding the short and long-term effects that media multitasking has on cognitive functioning and attention; …show more content…
Their study utilized a Media Multitasking Index (MMI) that assessed individual’s media consumption, and divided participants into two groups: high media multitaskers (HMM) and low media multitaskers (LMM). In studies testing filtering ability, HMMs were less selective for irrelevant information (from the environment) entering their working memories, which made them more susceptible to distractors (Ophir et al, 2009). Using two- and three-back tests, Ophir et al. (2009) found that HMMs showed detriments in filtering out irrelevant representations in their memories. Perhaps the most surprising finding of the study was that HMMs also showed lessened abilities in task switching exercises. The study claims that LMMs’ can be distinguished from more distractible HMMs’ due to their ability to employ top-down attentional control (Ophir et al, 2009). This finding shows that LMMs possess a better ability to singularly focus on tasks, which Ophir et al. views as a favorable trait in daily life. Essentially, frequent task switching acts as a self-perpetuating problem: the more frequently one engages in task switching, their top-down attentional control and ability to task-switch
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
Technology and our exposure to it are changing our lives; of this there is no doubt. The issue regarding what form that change will take and the effects of it on our physical and emotional health, however, are more contentious, and experts’ opinions on it run the gamut. In “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of our Era”, neurologist Dr. Richard Restak examines what effect technology has on our brains, and posits that technology, as well as the increasing demand on our brains to perform multiple tasks at once, is causing a decrease
Though there are some positive effects, the adverse impact of technology on education has been extraordinary. The technology community has worked hard to bring useful technology into our classrooms, all with good intentions to broaden our knowledge. With these good intentions also came about unwanted side effects such as distraction and disruption in the classroom. I can clearly remember many of my teachers yelling at us to put our cell phones, iPods, and iTouch phones away especially during lecture and exams. The yelling was not without just cause, students cheated with their devices along with updating their Facebook pages during class too.
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.
As a college student, using the internet and technology is a daily task. Everything you need for your classes: schedules, homework, quizzes, even tests are all online. The debate on technology and the brain suggests that technology may have an effect on brain, effect multi-tasking, and cause addiction.
Television, or screen time, has become a large part of today's society. Whether it's by way of smart-phones, a television, a computer, or a tablet, screen time has negative effects on the cognitive ability of children and adolescents. It has even been proven that it can lead to Alzheimer's disease when a person, in the age range of 20-60 years old, views an hour more than the recommended amount of screen time a day (Sigman 14). In children, the amount of screen time viewed has a relationship with the likelihood of developing a deficit in his attention span; the longer a child views screen time, the more likely he is to be diagnosed with an attention disorder. Screen time, or television, can cause attention disorders and other problem with cognitive abilities in children and adolescents that effect the education they can comprehend.
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 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.
The essay begins by exploring the area of multitasking behaviours, and cognitive theories surrounding the area of divided attention and its effects on daily life. From here, the phenomenon of binge drinking among college students is discussed, in particular the effect it has upon remembering in an everyday context. Finally, the tendency of college students to spend large amounts of time listening to music is evaluated, with a particular focus on why it is that music can make individuals feel a particular way, tapping into the area of cognition and emotion. This essay will discuss in detail the contribution of cognitive psychology to our understanding of these behaviours.
Audience reception is a critical area of focus and research when approaching media audiences. It is dependent on the context of viewing, making media use and media consumption within the home environment and other contexts an interesting area of study. During the 1980s the emergence and increasing use of television increased media research into consumption in an everyday context, addressing the domestic, the family and its contribution to daily life. The importance can be displayed through the centrality of the position of the television and how the arrangement of a living room is commonly based around this. According to David Morely (1986) patterns of television consumption can only be understood through the context of ‘family leisure activity’ (Schroder, Drotner, Kline, Murray, 2003: 8). Therefore in order to discuss whether the aspects within the home environment and other contexts differ in terms of consumption, it is fundamental in exploring family viewing and the patterns of everyday life. With the rise of new media and constant technological developments, media within the home have succumbed to fragmentation. Televisions can be used as an illustration, traditionally located in communal areas to the shift of location in every bedroom, along with the vast amount of channels available, the different platforms we can watch it on and developments that allow catch-up. ‘Furthermore the set has acquired a range of accessories and attachments such as videocassette recorders (VCRs), personal computers and remote controls, which have significantly modified the way it is used (Lee, Becker and Schonbach, 1989: 71). The diverse amount of media platforms available both in and outside our homes has somewhat merged, making it difficult to d...
A computer is a wonderful tool that can help us with many things. The question is why are computers more than a curse than a blessing? Many children this generation have advanced in computers and technology more than their elders, and the ones above them. The internet is wonderful when researching for homework, but it is not good when it is becoming a bad habit and going on it. Computers have many effects on people and the youth. It can lead to less physical activity for many children and teenagers. Many times computers are being abused for all the wrong reasons. One thing that it affects the most is your vision and can lead to glaucoma a type of eye disease. Many of us are not aware of all the health issues that are caused by computers.