With almost every college student owning smart phones and laptops an issue that arises is students have so many distractions that divert them from their school work. Why do work when you can be doing so many other things? And most students will respond this question by saying why not do it all at the same time? Me personally I could not remember the last time I have done school work without having my facebook and twitter open, my phone out and music playing all at the same time. At times I even multi task with my homework doing multiple assignments at the same time. I would say I am a good multi tasker, I think I could focus just as well with music on and social networking sites out maybe even better because I will get antsy without them because ill constantly be thinking about who is trying to get in contact with me right now. In the Stanford study they performed an experiment on students that believed they were perfect multi taskers and they were put to memory tests while multi tasking as also without it at they found that these students worked a lot slower and had less memory when multi tasking compared to when they worked without distractions. Is our belief that we can multi task really hurting us not just in school but as a generation and is this a trend we should worry about in future? In my opinion I think this is just a hiccup we have to experience because of change. When we began to switch to written language from the world dominated by word of mouth there was a drop off in memorization skills of the people but it was needed to move forward and I believe this is exactly what is happening now it is necessary for progression.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Can you really multitask?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I was really intrigued by the point you made with how multi tasking has been proven to slower memorization skills if put to the test. Personally, I have found multitasking to be a daily part of my life and never feel that it is a problem. A high dependence on technology such as the iPhone, facebook and twitter on your computer screen while doing homework is not an issue that lowers people. In response to your question, I do not think that this is something we should worry about in the future. Our high multi tasking rate is largely associated with advancement in technology which is no time in the near future about to end. Society is constantly going to be innovating new kinds of technology and I don't think that will make multi tasking a problem.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think multi-tasking is something that we must worry about in the future. Some people do have the ability to be on Facebook and still accomplish their work, but there are lots of students, such as the ones in Korea, that struggle due to the various media distractions. That being said, I also feel that having Facebook open or sending a text every 5 to 10 minutes is not actually multi-tasking. This is true as one is not spending equal amounts of time on two things. The focus is more on the paper or assignment rather than trying to do two things at once.
ReplyDeleteI don't think multitasking can be a bad thing. I believe that if you are doing tasks that reflect quality over quantity then yes multitasking is bad because you should only really be focusing on the quality of that one thing. If you are multitasking the quality of the task you are doing isn't reaching its full potential. However, if someone is doing tasks just to complete them, like chores and texting at the same time, I don't think thats a bad thing. When we get to activities like tetxting and school work though that becomes an issue. Multitasking doesn't always have to be a bad thing but when it affects important things like school, then it becomes a problem
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a very interesting issue to address. I can see the idea that it can be a concern for the future, with our generation being antsy about not always having something to do. But on another hand, I can see this benefitting the business world. I think that a lot can be accomplished by being a good multi-tasker. I think that our minds will be able to work quickly jumping from one topic to the next. So yes, I can see the down sides of multi-tasking, but it will be interesting to see how the business world will run with all of our multi-taskers.
ReplyDelete