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Negative effects of smartphones
Negative effects of cell phone use
Negative effects of smartphones
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This article discusses the distractions and effects of mutli-tasking and using our electronic devices constantly. "Multitasking is never a good idea if you really need to get something done" (p. 26). When we get a text message or look at our phones an addictive chemical called dopamine is released into our brains. Laptops, mobile devices, and interruptions hinder our learning and focus. Although technology can be very helpful, it has caused many negative situations such as car accidents, poor grades, and bullying. Technology plays a distracting and important role in today’s society. We can’t live with it and we can’t live without it. While using electronics our focus is completely on the device. As humans, we do not multi task, we switch back
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.
Technology is prevalent in our personal and professional lives. Everywhere we go; there are multiple screens and multiple distractions. How is productivity when being inundated with information and devices? There seems to be some bragging rights associated with multitasking, however many would argue the opposite. The following examines how multitasking negatively influences personal and professional productivity and how we should make changes to reduce digital distractions.
People may think they are getting things done when they are “multitaskers” , little do people know that when multitasking, it is simply jumping from task to task, and an overload of the brain. “Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,” said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School (Ritchell). A study was done on students and how multitasking with social media worsened them as students. It proved that students who “multitask” are constantly distracted, due to checking their social media about every fifteen minutes (Soltan).
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.
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, a practice used by many people to complete multiple tasks at once, seems beneficial to the user, but recent research shows that this practice causes more distractions. Alexandra Samuel argues in her essay, “‘Plug in Better’: A Manifesto”, that by getting rid of all of the distractions caused by multitasking, the time spent on the computer can be used more efficiently. As businesses in today’s world are using computers to help employees be more efficient in the workplace, each worker should only have to handle one task at a time to maximize their efficiency. Richard Restak argues in his essay, “Attetion Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era,” that by not diverting a person’s attention to multiple activities at once, such person
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).
Since the Industrial Revolution, technology has become an essential tool in human life. Technology impacted lives in society by offering a way to “multitask” by using two or more technological devices. Technology and internet offers the facility to do homework faster through Google, while listening to music on Pandora or YouTube. Sometimes, you can even talk on the phone while you listen to music and do homework. All you need in order to multitask is to have all the technological devices needed. Many people consider technology as a positive change in our lives, because of the facilities it offers us. However, many other persons, like Christine Rosen, think that technology instead of improving our lives, it has only changed it negatively. Technology, in fact has provided us with many facilities, however such facilities are affecting our interactions with the physical space.
It is common to notice that the internet has rewired our brain into multitasking much more than before. However, it was concluded after numerous studies that this kind of digital multitasking does not make us smarter or more swift in our activities, but quite on the contrary negatively impacts our academic performance. A more scientific aspect of why our brain is affected by the large sea of information that is available to us is touched upon by Eric Jaffe. The writer explains that “the barrage of new media distractions is placing new demands on cognitive processing, and especially on attention allocation […] While cause-and-effect is difficult to parse here, in some sense it doesn’t matter. If all this digital media is causing people to multi-task
A quote by Broadbent, an experimental psychologist, says, “Children have lost the ability to self-entertain or control their behaviors without an electronic device in their hands” (The effect). One of the main things that children, or teens, do on a daily basis is attend school. Evidence is shown of this by observing students at school. At schools, teachers are constantly stressing the “no cell phones” rule. “...Several studies have shown that information learned [in school] while partially distracted is often quickly forgotten, so the learning is tragically shallow” (Sullivan). Students are constantly being distracted by electronics and social media. Not only is it harder to learn and remember things when being distracted by electronics, it is also harder to focus on one thing when the phone is constantly beeping or buzzing. Larry Rosen, who is a professor at California State University, did a study of how often students get distracted by electronics while they are studying. NBC News explains the situation: “Rosen’s observers followed 263 students in their normal study environments...and told them to work on an important school assignment for 15 minutes.” It later goes on to say, “The students couldn’t resist texting or using social media. So-called ‘on-task’ behavior started declining at about the two minute mark…” (Sullivan). Not only can electronics distract students from their studies and school work, it can also distract
Nearly everyone believes that electronics has made life easier and more comfortable and that it has enabled us to do tasks that we could not do. Electronics are very advanced technology in the world, while these advancements have brought new aspects of health, freedom and gratification. However, as with almost everything we human beings have created, it has also become a serious problem when concerning eyesight, health, stress, and causes children to become recluse and violent. The overuse of technology may interfere with a students’ ability to learn and attend lessons. Electronic devices are designed to save time and help people to be more efficient. However, it causes addiction, health, and behavior problems.
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
The past two decades have overwhelmed the human experience with technology, along with all its distractions. The direct relationship between the mind and the body’s ability to adjust from these distractions can be extremely difficult .Further research has shown that it has become an addiction for many. Technology has significantly improved our lives as a whole through experiences such as Global Positioning System (GPS), cell phones and social networking allowing us to communicate with different people around the world. These technologies make our daily lives easier and more efficient. However, this also discusses the effects of technology on various aspects of our everyday personal experiences both with each other and with the world around us. On the other hand technologies such as cell phones have become a problem in getting students to focus in class and distracting drivers and thus, resulting in vehicle accidents. Technology is beneficial, but can also become an inescapable distraction in our lives. It is important to view technology as having the ability to make our lives better or worse, yet also as having the ability to change our personal lives and behavioral patterns.
The students who participated in the study varied in terms of their media multitasking usage levels. It is evident that when we multitask, we become less efficient at our cognitive process. We strain our attention limits by trying to do more than one thing at a time. Not only are we susceptible to becoming distracted whilst dividing our attention, but our performance on given tasks is also impaired. It is believed that we multitask to receive some sort of adrenaline rush or to please our senses by continually giving them new experiences (Foehr, 2006).
Technology has grown drastically in the education sector over the last several years. Many college students use technology to further their learning process. Although technology presents many educational opportunities, it also interferes with students’ academic outcome. Several things are believed to be linked with the learning behaviours and technology. Some examples include, lack of attention, unable to multitask and consistent distraction. (Jacobsen, W. C., & Forste, R. 2011; Junco R., 2012; Lepp,, Barkley & Karpinski, 2014; Rosen, Mark & Cheever,2013; Weston & Cepeda, 2013). The aim of this paper is to discuss, do such technological distractions impact academic learning and outcome negatively? It is hypothesized that technology use in