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For many phones, laptops, and tablets have become a new appendage. Without our connection to the internet we feel lost and unaware of ourselves, completely unable to function. The growing reliance on technology has turned into a major challenge throughout educational settings, even if the class is technology driven. Throughout the article Why I Just Asked My Students to Put Their Laptops Away, Clay Shirky address the issue of multitasking interfering with development and learning in the classroom. Being a professor of theory and social media, Shirky has always promoted use of technology in the classroom. However, he came to realize that social media and the internet have developed into resources that are created to pull your attention away …show more content…
from what you are currently doing. By choosing to feed into the things that distract you, you then distract those around you. Ultimately, it is up to the individual to make their decision as to whether or not they take advantage of the lessons and resources, in order to succeed academically. Shirky successfully argues a strong point, by providing personal anecdotes about “unplugged” class sessions, analyzing the effects of social media on students’ abilities to focus, and resolving positive misconceptions of multitasking. A major issue that is growing alongside the development of technology is how reliant individuals, especially college students have become on technology.
Instead of taking notes in a notebook, tests on paper, or making small talk with classmates, many students type notes, complete online tests, and converse with internet friends. Advancement of technology is causing our society to progress into a place where it is acceptable and possible to remain in our own personal world no matter where we are, what we are doing, or who we are with. Students are no longer concerned with getting to know their peers. Why would it be necessary to meet new people if we can just text, tweet, and snapchat our existing ones? After revealing how impactful shutting off technology is in his own classroom, his reasoning is much clearer. Shirky reveals that, “when [he has] a specific reason to ask everyone to set aside their devices…it’s as if someone has let fresh air into the room. The conversation brightens, and…there is a sense of relief from many” (Shirky four). Many students crave face-to-face interaction, but are too afraid to approach another individual who is hyper focused on their technology. When that technology is taken away there is much more room for establishing relationships and connecting with others in person. Not only does technology distract from social interactions, but it also pulls attention away from the lesson being presented or peers in the …show more content…
classroom. Social media is created to distract- with bright colors, sounds, and random bits of information, it is almost impossible to focus on whatever we should be spending our time doing. Even if we are texting, and alert from another app may pop up, causing us to check our Instagram comments, which then leaves us to completely forget to reply to whoever we were talking to. With the innovation throughout our society, almost every source of technology is able to connect with social media. Our laptops no longer serve as a place to do research and type a paper, unless we have strong self-control. Despite how important an assignment or lesson may be, a Facebook alert dinging and sliding across the top of our laptop screen is definitely going to divert attention away from how to complete a math problem or how to correctly cite an article. Shirky made his decision to out rule technology with his students in his best interest. He supports his claim by sharing, “that hardware and software is being professionally designed to distract [which] was the first thing that made [him] willing to require rather than merely suggest that students not use devices in class” (Shirky 19). People are payed to work hard to develop noises, colors, and notifications that capture our attention. By not allowing technology use in the classroom, Shirky no longer has to worry about competing with the intriguing apps on devices. Trying to learn, comprehend, listen, note take, etcetera, while checking social media is not good for our memory. Multitasking can have negative effects on our memory.
Instead of diving up time for each individual task, we try and complete multiple things at one time. While this may allow us to complete things quicker, we are more likely to make mistakes, mix up information, and do poorly. Shirky included data from a paper entitled Laptop Multitasking Hinders Classroom Learning for Both Users and Nearby Peers. This contributed to his final realization that screens truly do distract us. He quotes the paper sharing that, “participants who multitasked on a laptop during a lecture scored lower on a test compared to those who did not multitask, and participants who were in direct view of a multitasking peer scored lower on a test compared to those who were not. [M]ultitasking on a laptop poses a significant distraction to both users and fellow students and can be detrimental to comprehension of lecture content.” (Shirky 21). Through trying to multitask students compromise both their personal success as well as the success of their peers. Multitasking not only distracts the individual, but also those who may be able to view the screen while trying to focus on the
lecture. Overall, Shirky’s decision to rule out technology usage in the classroom was a reasonable choice, despite its benefits. His main goal throughout the article is to support his claim that technology is extremely useful, yet it promotes not communicating, is created to divert attention away from the main task at hand, and teaches us to multitask. This article reveals that the distractions created by technology have caused Shirky to re-adjust his decision to allow student to use laptops, tablets, and phones in his theory and practice of social media class.
While admitting the power of technology, he also points out the adverse effects of excessive use of technology in the education system. He states, “Computers make our worst educational nightmare come true” (279). According to him, improper or overuse of computers hinders learning ability. He reports that over the past few years, computers have been assumed to be a necessity in America’s classrooms and introduced to children from elementary levels. However, technology can be addictive, and students may overuse it, leading to a drop in educational standards.
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
Media technology is helpful in so many ways; on the other hand, it can be disruptive too. In the article “Why I Just Asked My Students to Put Their Laptops Away,” Professor Clay Shirky claims that students are not able to focus on the lesson and easily get distracted with their laptops, leading him to ban the use of technology devices in his classroom. Similarly, in article “Our Photoshopping Disorder,” fashion reporter Erin Cunningham addresses the topic about the use of photoshopped images in advertisements creating unrealistic standards causing harm to people’s health and well-being. Both article oppose the bad habits that people get by using media technology. Shirky and Cunnignham completely agree in their assessment
First of all, using electronics causes people to get distracted. According to Nicholas Carr, in the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” from The New York Times Upfront, “When we use our computers and our cell phones all the time, we’re always distracted.”This sentence stated by Nicholas Carr contributes to my claim of participating in “Shut Down Your Screen Week.” For instance, when students are at home using their electronics they get distracted from doing their homework. This is a way technology is affecting many students. This article by Nicholas Carr supports my argument of participating in “Shut Down Your Screen Week” because many students do get distracted while using electronics causing them not to do their work.
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.
Paul has four main reasons why multitasking is a bad habit of a person when doing school homework. The first reason is doing assignment will take longer to accomplish because there are many distraction activities occurring. Paul uses the example of students using cell phones during class, where if you are paying attention to your phone, then you are not paying attention in class. The result causes students to re-examine their assignment to help themselves familiarize the material. The second reason is students can be tired and sleepy, which can make more mistakes on their assignment as they multitask. The third reason is students lose memory on the assignment they were given which divides their attention from doing other things at the same time. The fourth reason is when we are distracted, the information we received is processed differently making ourselves unable to concentrate. The last reason is multitasking can decrease student's school grades. According to the Rosen study, students who spend fifteen minutes on Facebook will have a lower grade. As comparison learning was more effective in the past, resulting in a new generation filled with
Due to the nature of this study, two separate, different, experiments were done with two mutually exclusive groups of participants. These experiments were based off of two key hypotheses. The first being that these researchers wanted to replicate a previous study performed on this topic, but in a more controlled manner (Sana, et. al., 2013). The second hypothesis that these researchers desired to test was how the multitasking of a classmate would indirectly affect a student’s learning ability (Sana, et. al., 2013). In their studies the researchers used the manipulation of either using a laptop to strictly take notes or to use the laptop and complete tasks while taking notes as the independent variable. The dependent variable for this study was measuring the student’s comprehension of the lecture material presented.
In Renee Wilson’s article, “In Defence of the iGeneration” (2013), she explores her belief of the iGeneration being the smartest generation yet. Through the use of many anecdotes, Wilson reflects on her experiences of teaching the iGeneration and their ability to ignore negative criticism and still show their full potential. In her article, Wilson discusses the iGeneration’s reliance on technology and social media; however, she does not engage the disadvantages of technology, in particular laptops in the classroom, which, as I argue here, is in need of more study. In this essay, I argue that the use of laptops by students in a university classroom is distracting not only to the student, but also to surrounding students. Inevitably, multitasking
Along with technology being a distraction, it can also cause students to be less social.
Students use their cellphones and laptops in the classroom for things unrelated to what is being taught, like checking how many likes a Facebook post has received. Anne Murphy Paul writes, “Texting, emailing, and posting on Facebook and other social media sites are by far the most common digital activities students take on while learning, according to Rosen” (718). Social media and texting during class can take students’ attention away from the material they need to learn. Most students cannot go through the whole class without checking their text messages and social media sites. This distraction can lead to lower grades in school. Paul writes, “Finally, researchers are beginning to demonstrate that media multitasking while learning is negatively associated with students’ grades. In Rosen’s study, students who used Facebook during the fifteen-minute observation period had lower grade-point averages than those who didn’t go on the site” (720). Students like to feel connected to the outside world while sitting in a classroom so they use their laptops and cellphones. Using cellphones and laptops for non-classroom activities can have a negative effect on the way a student
Cell phones may be the top of devices those distract students in class. The ubiquitous problem originates from the cell phones. I’m also a high school student, I can see some of my classmates use it for texting every day in class instead of listening to the teacher. Students also use it for playing video games, listening to music, watching videos. And definitely, while you are playing with your phones, you will not be able to absorb the lesson that the teacher is trying to teach. It’s not easy to do two things at the same time, except you are super. Have you ever tried to draw a circle by your left hand and draw a rectangle by the other hand simultaneously? When you do two things or more at the same time, your brain will just focus on one thing and naturally ignore the other. As Peter Bregman wrote in the Harvard Business Review Blog Network that multitasking can reduce productivity by as much as 40%, increase stress and cause a 10-point fall in IQ.
Multitasking is a poor long-term strategy for learning. People can’t filter out irrelevancy because multitasking has become a habit. A majority of people have the misconception multitasking will help them accomplish tasks in a faster manner, yet it does the complete opposite. Multitasking is not doing a plethora of tasks all at once, but rather switching from one task to another in a continuous cycle. Each time the brain switches task, there is lag time between that adds up. Multitasking distracts people from doing the task before them, so learning and memory becomes spotted and limited, and it doesn’t help that there is technology constantly at people’s fingertips. Multitasking is a poor strategy to to use why trying to complete a job. Multitasking has negative benefits in all aspects of life and is a habit that needs to be broken.
Imagine someone born in the early 1900’s entering a modern-day classroom. They would likely be confused as to what televisions, computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices are. It is also likely that they would be overwhelmed by the instant access to information that the internet provides. Digital media has become a large part of people’s everyday lives especially with the rise of digital media in classrooms. Digital media is growing so rapidly that people who are not adapting to this shift in culture are falling behind and becoming victims of the “digital divide”, this is leaving people misinformed. Digital media has a large effect on the way that people communicate, this is especially evident in the way that students interact with