After reading the articles in “Digital Distractions," I learned that we forget how much time we get distracted when we are constantly tied into our digital devices. Since technology advanced so quickly, it developed into a part of our work life. In the end of the article, “Hooked on the Web: Help Is on the Way," they mentioned how being addicted to your digital devices can become an illness because of how much time spent in just one day. I decided to experiment and find out how much of a distraction my own devices can be in my life. During the experiment, I will figure how much work can be done during my usual study sessions compared to my focus study sessions. While technology is not the only source of distraction, it is something we are constantly using and was used in this experiment. In my study I observed the amount and type of interruptions during my study sessions and how it affected my study sessions; as a result, I’ve determined that my surroundings distracted me more often than my digital devices.
In my first experiment, I observed my usual study session location. I would sit at an individual desk with my lunch and a list of things to do. There I would be studying during my three-hour breaks on Mondays, so I was able to do more than one assignment. That day I began my chemistry homework, I had noted down that it took about 10 minutes just to start on homework. Within eight minutes of working on my chemistry homework, I started to get distracted. I began looking at my phone and answering my text messages first, then I started skimming through Instagram. I realized when I was ready to go back to do my homework, 10 minutes had passed while I was being distracted. Once I started on my homework again, this time I was able t...
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...tracted from our time to get work done, we can now acknowledge that our surroundings does play a role in our distractions too.
Cited Work
1. Rudman, Gary. “The Techno-Flux Effect.” Changing Society: Readings for the
Engaged Writer. Eds. Jerome Schwab and Amy Love. New Jersey: Pearson, 2010. 75-78. Print.
4. Thompson, Clive. “Meet the Life Hackers.” Changing Society: Readings for the
Engaged Writer. Eds. Jerome Schwab and Amy Love. New Jersey: Pearson, 2010. 78-89. Print.
5. Lee, Ellen. “Just Too Much: Young Folks Burn Out on Online Sharing.” Changing
Society: Readings for the Engaged Writer. Eds. Jerome Schwab and Amy Love. New Jersey:
Pearson, 2010. 89-93. Print.
6. Kershaw, Sarah. “Hooked on the Web: Help Is on the Way.” Changing Society:
Readings for the Engaged Writer. Eds. Jerome Schwab and Amy Love. New Jersey: Pearson,
2010. 93-99. Print.
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 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
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.
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
Google defines distraction three ways, but before I could read through them all, the google image of the 2016 Doodle Fruit Games caught my attention, and I had to click on it. Distractions are everywhere. From phones to computers to televisions and the Internet, disturbances make up daily life. The real question is not how to avoid these disturbances as they surround our life. Rather, the question is: Can these distractions be defined as hysteria and madness, as interruptions and hindrances, or as amusement and entertainment?
In Hermann Maurer’s, “Does the Internet Make Us Stupid?” he shows that Michael Merzenich, a neuroscientist and professor at the University of California in San Francisco is “profoundly worried about the cognitive consequences of the constant distraction and interruptions the Net bombards us with. The long term effect on the quality of our intellectual lives could be ‘deadly’”(Maurer 49). If an expert in the brain field is worried, then others should also be more cautious about the devices they use. Mark Becker suggests that “media multitasking may be uniquely associated with deficits in basic cognitive processes such as the ability to successfully filter out irrelevant information and ignore distraction” (Becker 132). People do not give one task their full attention, they are always multitasking such as doing homework while texting and listening to music. People think multitasking will help them complete tasks quicker; however, in the long run they are changing the functions of their brain and even damaging it. According to Nicholas Carr in his novel “The Shallows”:
In Frankenstein, Victor experiences with this distraction when he “engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit...caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time”(Shelly ). Victor’s eager to produce life was so high that he forgot the people who cared about him back home and dedicated all his time to finish his masterpiece. Shelley portraits the distraction of technology by having Victor isolate himself from the rest of the world until he finishes his invention. Just like technology was a distraction in Shelley’s novel, it also distracts people very often which makes them not finish a task or cause an accident because they were so busy on their phones that they did not notice the person in front of them. Pamela Hill Nettleton, author of the article The Sound of Silence, points out a study done by Microsoft where they observed digital users and concluded that they“ crave continual new stimuli, have trouble filtering out distractions, and struggle to focus on a single task” (Nettleton 20). The reason for this is because people tend to multitask, but instead they lack to finish one task because whatever was on their technology they got so involved into it, that it was hard for them to leave the device alone. As new technology comes out, the more we get drawn into a device and the more distracted.
Cell phones and other electronic technology are sought out to be distractions, but the beneficial outcomes for future generations are worth the minor losses.
Cell phones in hand, and laptops so small they fit in purses. Computers at our homes insure we can get on the internet and surf the web for answers for anything that may need to know. As the growth of technology has evolved the past twenty years we have become more dependent upon it for everyday things. From alarms, calendars, ‘googling’, counting our steps to make sure we stay healthy, connecting us to our friends and family; simple things that we often take for granted. Though our lives are often ruled by the various technology pieces out there to keep us ‘grounded during the day, some pieces of technology are not healthy for our bodies and minds.
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.
Carr also called the Internet is a “chronic distraction.” While researching for his book, he noticed changes in his behavior. For example Carr says “I'd sit down with a book, or a long article, and after a couple of pages my brain wanted to do what it does when I'm online: check e-mail, click on links, do some Goggling, hop from page to page." I can relate to this because I have a Twitter, Facebook, and Instagr...
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.
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.
Have you ever thought how much time do you spend using on a computer in a day/week? Computers are as common in numerous households around the world. People from all age groups are learning to operate computers and anyone who has worked with computers for long periods of time knows that computers can be just as addicting as drinking every night of the week. Take further, Computer addiction can have a number of physical, social, and psychological effects on a person, and it is to be taken as seriously as any other addiction that a person is against, but what are those possible effects of spending too much time on the computer, and what are the causes.
Technology addiction is almost similar to drug addiction. Technology is useful in many ways. Using computer, internet, cellphone, television etc. make peoples’ life easier and comfortable. Young people are the most user of it. They cannot think of a single day without use 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. The reports from students after the study suggest that giving up technology cold turkey not only makes life logistically difficult, but also changes our ability to connect with others.” ( Parker-Pope, “An Ugly Toll of Technology: Inpatients”). Her point is that, for the young generation it is quite impossible to give up from becoming addict...