Distraction: noun
-
1.
a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else.
"the company found passenger travel a distraction from the main business of moving freight"
Consciousness: noun
- the state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings.
- the fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world.
- the awareness or perception of something by a person.
Growing up in America today is to be a part of a society that is rapidly and constantly changing. The fact is you are surrounded by technology and information and spend a large portion of your time interacting with it. But what is it doing to your brain?
As we saw from the video in class, our brains are not wired for multi-tasking. Some tasks require more concentration than others. Some of us are better at doing a few things at once. Studies show that women are better multi-taskers than men because of all the responsibilities they genetically inherit through childbirth.
One of the biggest problems addressed in the video was that people are slower when switching between tasks. Meaning they are not concentrating on what they are doing and therefore do a poor job on the task at hand.
Specific Instructions: For this post think about something you do that requires your full attention. Example: Homework. Then think about your habits with technology while trying to concentrate. Do you listen to music while doing homework? Is that bad? Do you respond to texts while doing homework? Go online and find evidence to support your response. Please include the link to the site you use in your response. -5 points if you respond with no link. Do not copy other people's posts, ideas or links. You will get a 0 for plagiarizing.
If you missed the video in class please watch the first 8:40 minutes of this documentary:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/
Take the test and see for yourself: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/06/07/technology/20100607-distraction-filtering-demo.html
1.
a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else.
"the company found passenger travel a distraction from the main business of moving freight"
Consciousness: noun
- the state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings.
- the fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world.
- the awareness or perception of something by a person.
Growing up in America today is to be a part of a society that is rapidly and constantly changing. The fact is you are surrounded by technology and information and spend a large portion of your time interacting with it. But what is it doing to your brain?
As we saw from the video in class, our brains are not wired for multi-tasking. Some tasks require more concentration than others. Some of us are better at doing a few things at once. Studies show that women are better multi-taskers than men because of all the responsibilities they genetically inherit through childbirth.
One of the biggest problems addressed in the video was that people are slower when switching between tasks. Meaning they are not concentrating on what they are doing and therefore do a poor job on the task at hand.
Specific Instructions: For this post think about something you do that requires your full attention. Example: Homework. Then think about your habits with technology while trying to concentrate. Do you listen to music while doing homework? Is that bad? Do you respond to texts while doing homework? Go online and find evidence to support your response. Please include the link to the site you use in your response. -5 points if you respond with no link. Do not copy other people's posts, ideas or links. You will get a 0 for plagiarizing.
If you missed the video in class please watch the first 8:40 minutes of this documentary:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/
Take the test and see for yourself: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/06/07/technology/20100607-distraction-filtering-demo.html
If you missed the video in class please watch the first 8:40 minutes of this documentary:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/
Take the test and see for yourself: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/06/07/technology/20100607-distraction-filtering-demo.html
I listen to music and text while doing homework. Music isn't a distraction. It actually helps tune out my surroundings and focus on my work. Texting can be both good and bad. It's good in case I need help with something and can ask but bad when I don't need help and someone else does, or I just don't feel like doing homework. I took the test and my result was that I'm a low multitasker.
ReplyDeletehttps://studyskills.com/students/organizing/homework-multi-tasking-or-distracting/ concluded that: "Multi-tasking is good for certain situations, but it does not work for learning. Your brain needs to focus in order to process and learn new information. When you “unplug” your distractions, you will get your homework done much faster, learn more while doing it, and ultimately increase your grades." I think it depends on the person, not in general.
Terrific source. Great work Emily.
ReplyDeleteSomething that requires my full attention but I get distracted is also homework. I do listen to music while doing homework but I agree with the link Emily found because I think it's a bad thing that I do this. It does greatly distract me and I don't get the same results because I'm distracted and not fully paying attention to what I'm doing. My phone does distract me a lot and I do reply to texts while doing homework which is bad. http://education.seattlepi.com/listening-music-doing-homework-affect-grade-school-1365.html this link concludes that music with lyrics are distracting but if you must listen to music to focus more than listen to instrumental music.
ReplyDeleteI think reading and doing my homework are two things that I have put alot prime focus on. Just like the previous comments, I listen to music while doing these activities but instead of getting distracted, I don't (this was finally supported during the test we did in class and said i am a high multitasker)However, if I'm talking to someone or singing along to the song, I realized I have to read a page over again or I start to write the down what the person is saying. Another thing I noticed that I do while reading is I tend to say the words in my head. There is an article that calls this subvocalization. It hinders the multitasking by if I speak the words on the page, I am not reading any faster: http://lifehacker.com/5949297/want-to-read-faster-stop-saying-the-words-in-your-head-as-you-read
ReplyDeleteI like to listen to music or have the tv on when I do my homework. Its easier to listen to music when I'm doing math homework. But with something that requires more thought like government or english I have to give my full attention to the task. I do text while doing homework but if I'm trying to write a paper I disconnect everything and focus to get the work done. This article I found talks about teenagers increase in multitasking http://www.beachpsych.com/pages/cc126.html
ReplyDeleteAfter going through many different routines while doing my homework, I have realized that I do not get distracted easily at all. I actually find that music relaxes me and takes my mind off of everything else that is going on in my life. It feels as if it is just me, my homework, and a pen. Many people cannot concentrate and work effectively with music playing in the background, but I think that because of the fact that I am an athlete and am always listening to music at practice, training, and even running in the park, music just clears up my mind and helps me to focus on that one thing that I am currently doing at that time. I would consider music to be my safe haven, honestly.
ReplyDeletehttp://education.seattlepi.com/listening-music-doing-homework-affect-grade-school-1365.html
I decided on the above article as my support because, in a nutshell, it kind of describes me and my music during my homework. I completely agree with the article-it does depend on the type of music that you listen to while doing your activity of choice.
I'm not a person who is easily distracted (but sometimes I do find my head in the clouds), but I do listen to music when I do my homework. I do pay attention to what I listen to when I do my homework though. If I'm doing something that involves a lot of thought and writing I would try my hardest to listen to instrumental tapes (no lyrics) so my mind isn't clouded up and when I'm doing something like math that's just numbers I listen to anything and everything. This article proves that my methods are good: http://college.usatoday.com/2012/09/10/should-you-listen-to-music-while-you-study/
ReplyDeleteI do feel as though you only multitask as good as you can if you're doing things you love and enjoy deeply.