Media Multitasking Case Study

This article compares media multitasking among Malaysian and American college students. Malaysia is a growing Asian economy, and Malaysians are said to be heavy users of multimedia technology, according to the Malaysian English local newspapers. Both Malaysians and Americans media multitask or task switch in high levels. Media multitasking have been associated with impulsivity, distraction, inattention, and lower academic performance. The study answers three questions on the relationship between media and multitasking, the relationship between media multitasking and distractibility and impulsivity, and the difference in usage of media while studying among American and Malaysian college students. In this study, 597 college students from Malaysia

The PCA results divided the various media multitasking while studying into IMing while studying, emailing while studying, and social networking while studying. According to the PCA results, Malaysian students showed a positive significance by social networking while studying and texting while studying, and the American students showed a positive significance by social networking while studying only. The American students had more phone calls during a typical day, and a greater distractibility for academic reading. However, Malaysian students reported more media usage during a typical week, and IMed more frequently for longer periods of time. Malaysians reported engaging in more emailing and IMing while studying in comparison to Americans; Malaysian college students use the Internet while studying for non-academic purposes. There was not significant difference between American and Malaysian college students in the amount of social networking while studying. According to the study, American students engaged in social activities while studying, but Malaysians engaged in leisure and maintenance activities while

The authors hypothesizes that cell phone use and the degree of comfort using cell phones in class has a negative correlation to academic performance. One hundred and eighteen undergraduate university students between the ages 18 to 39 years participated in the study. The participants were given a survey that questioned the participants’ cell phone use, academic year, GPA, and other demographic information. The questions on the cell phone use required the participants to record their comfortability of texting in class, an average number of people called or texted in a day, the average number of cell phone calls and text messages sent and received and the average number they checked for messages. Spam messages were