Well we all do it, or attempt it at least. Andrew mentioned in class that we as humans are HORRIBLE at multi tasking, which is actually pretty comical because most of us think we are great. If we are so bad at this multi tasking thing then why do we all still continue to attempt it when we know that eventually something will have to give.
According to experts there is actually only a very small amount of people in the world who are actually decent at multi tasking in their daily lives, 10% to be exact. That leaves approximately 90% of the population being lousy at this task and you and I most likely are one of them. Arthur Markman, a psychology professor at the University of Texas Austin, states “dividing attention across multiple activities is taxing on the brain, and can often come at the expense of real productivity.”
Most of us al ready know that by doing two things at once, you are not giving it a 100%, yet we see it all over. The most common form of multi tasking I see every single day is students listening to music while doing homework or studying. I have found that listening to music certainly does not benefit me at all but for others it may work, or at least they think it does. As i decided to find out if this was true or not I came across something that made total sense. Listening to music while doing math or something more scientific may not be as problematic as it would be if you were writing an english paper or studying for your language class. This makes total sense because while doing math you are not using the language part of your brain verses writing a paper you are trying to comprehend two linguistic processes, one being the lyrics you are listening to and the second the words you are trying to compose for your paper.
Professor Gloria Mark, a professor in the department of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, along side her colleagues monitored 36 people over a period of three days and captured facial expressions with cameras, and logged heart rates and skin conductivity to determine stress. Results actually showed that humans switch activities roughly every three minutes through out the day. This is a perfect example of our inability to focus in today’s modern world. With all of the technology and resources constantly around us its almost our nature to switch tasks so frequently. My advice to you is to take one day at a time and one task at a time. Plan accordingly so you don’t have to cram all of your school work etc to the last minute. Block out enough time each day to do what you need, and make sure you are fully focussed on that one thing!
I found a fun video that Ellen DeGeneres did on our society and their multi tasking habits. Hope you enjoy!
I did a blog post on listening to music and doing your homework so I found your post interesting. I argue that listening to music is beneficial when doing your homework because of statistics shown that there is an increase in GPA and focus level when having your headphones in. But, I agree with your argument that multi-tasking typically effects the outcome in certain scenarios and lowers the level of work done. Here is an article that argues your point on listening to music while doing homework. http://www.mindthesciencegap.org/2012/10/08/does-music-help-you-study/
I really appreciate your article. Since I write a similar blog focus on multitasks, your blog gives a new angle of analyzing why multitaskers act worse than normal people. I agree to your opinion that due to the modern world we have no choice but to live in a multi task daily life although I think some more experiments on this topic can be mentioned in order to be more convincing. But your blog is really a great work!
Interesting topic! I wanted to know more about the effects of multitasking in the classroom,, since it is not uncommon to see students shopping online or surfing the web while in class. One study (link below) tested these effects by allowing an experimental group of students to use their laptops in class to browse the web, while a control group were told not to use their laptops during the lecture. Afterwards, researchers tested each student’s memory of topics discussed in the lecture. Not surprisingly, it was found that students in the experimental group had more trouble remembering lecture content. Although this was only one study, the evidence presented here is enough to argue that multitasking during class might have a negative impact on students academically. Therefore, Andrew’s rule about not having laptops in class can be validated with scientific evidence, and this rule certainly stands to benefit us as students.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02940852
I really liked how you discussed listening to music and studying or doing homework because that it’s something that I do almost ever day, and I’ve always wondered wether or not it effected my work at all. I also wonder wether or not the kind of music you listen to makes a difference, and this study looks specifically at the effect classical music has on math scores- http://music.arts.usf.edu/rpme/effects.htm
I agree with your statement that listening to music while doing homework could potentially be more harmful than helpful. However, there are lots of people out there that believe that listening to music helps them a lot. According to this article, listening to music while studying is beneficial, check it out if you want to learn more about another point of view!