Multitasking and Me: A Love/Hate Relationship

I sit here cross-legged in a big comfy chair downstairs in my living room as I type this blog post. My cell phone is somewhere in my room (I honestly haven’t looked at it in a few hours), and I am wondering how in the world does a 14-year-old girl sends and receives 27,000 texts in one month. It’s astounding! Allison Miller has accomplished this amazing feat by texting at every opportunity: between classes, after soccer practice, and basically any other time a cell phone is allowed to be in her hand. Miller claims to be able to hold up to seven different conversations at once. Apparently she can even talk to one friend on her phone as she is texting another one.

I can barely listen to Pandora while working or reading without getting too distracted much less being able to hold conversations (either virtual or physical) with others. I can barely text and walk at the same time and have had to put more than one real life conversation on hold because texting and talking is simply impossible. Clearly multitasking is not one of my strong suits. I simply get too absorbed in whatever I am doing and forget that anything in the world exists beyond my current activity. Even when I try to multitask, once I make the move from the first activity to the second, I inevitably end up finishing the second activity regardless of what the first activity was. I just hope I actually remember to go back and finish any remaining activities.

While I lament my inability to perform more than two things at once, there are some perks.  By only concentrating on one activity at a time, I feel that I am able to finish it at a faster pace. I think I also am better equipped to retain information from whatever I just did and have a better chance of actually learning from my experience. Even though these reasons may be trite or cliché, they are nonetheless true and I am better person, student, and worker for it. 

All Hail Sources!

I will admit I was interested in the NY Times article, “Growing Up Digital, Wire for Distraction”. I enjoyed the structure of the piece, employing the use of a main character of sorts as we follow the life of 17-year-old student Vishal Singh. I enjoyed hearing the perspectives of Vishal and his friends on how the Internet has impacted their lives personally and academically. I also liked hearing the perspectives of Vishal’s teachers and parents, and how respected experts view the current generation’s technology habits. It wasn’t until I read Don Tapscott’s response on Huffington Post that I realized what the NY Times article was missing: sources. Tapscott’s response quoted studies and research that provided objective evidence of how the Internet and other forms of technology have influenced the current generation.

The biggest reveal was that there is no actual evidence to support the claim that the Net Gen is more distracted than or not as intelligent as previous generations. We’ve been reading article after article making these claims about how destructive the Internet or video games or cell phones have been to our minds and our ability to process information, and every time this claim was made, only anecdotal evidence was given as proof.

Tapscott, author of the book Growing Up Digital, did not fall into the same trap. Instead he actually provided evidence to the contrary. For instance, how IQ scores have actually been increasing over the years, and how the current generation volunteers more than previous generation and follows the D.A.R.E motto and just says no to drugs and alcohol. He also made note that the Internet is not the sole reason for anything. It is not a simple cause and effect for why it seems that some seem to struggle more concentrating in today’s age. Tapscott makes a lovely analogy saying, “[when] it comes to the poor performance of the bottom tier, blaming the Internet is like blaming the library for illiteracy.”

In conclusion, Tapscott provides a sound, objective analysis on this controversial topic of how the Internet is changing us in how we act and think. He doesn’t rely solely on anecdotal evidence one way or the other. He also doesn’t blame the Internet for students’ apparent lack of concentration and intelligence. He makes the incredibly astute observation that the Net Gen is not suffering from attention deficit disorders; they are simply just bored sitting in classes being taught using old methods that simply don’t translate in today’s society. 

The Truthiness of Wikiality

It is the go to for information for all situations. It can settle a bet between friends, provide you with instant information on thousands and thousands of topics, or give you the perfect factoid that your research paper was missing. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that is free to the public to view, edit, and create. There are over a million articles with thousands of administrators and editors attempting to keep all the information accurate and organized.

Because of its format, there are obvious risks involved when using Wikipedia as a source. While most of the information on Wikipedia is correct, there are “WikiTrolls” those who knowingly upload incorrect information; there are also times when users may unknowingly upload incorrect information by mistake. Even though wrong information is taken down, there is always the possibility that for the brief moment you are conducting your research for your final paper, you happen across this bad information masquerading as truth. This risk begs the question of if Wikipedia should be used as a source at all?

In a post from The Official Blog of the Delaware Division of Libraries, this exact question was raised and answered. In 2005, a study was conducted to test Wikipedia’s reliability. Several scientific articles from Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica were compared. Back then, Wikipedia held its own with having four factual errors to every three found in Encyclopedia Britannica; however, Wikipedia was not nearly as organized or well structured. Seven years later in 2012 a similar study was conducted. This time Wikipedia articles often scored better than a standard encyclopedia based on accuracy, references, style, and quality.

Now to answer the question, I would say Wikipedia is a reliable source. Note that it should not be your only source of information. For me, Wikipedia serves as a great starting point that gives you a great overview of information with lists of references that can lead you to sources to further your research. 

Social Media and Me

Being a young adult in this technological revolution, I feel that my attitude towards social media is far different from most. While I have a Facebook, I forget the last status update I wrote. I do not have Twitter, Instagram, or Vines. I’ve never been one to keep a journal whether a physical or virtual one. I’m not a member of any website (Youtube, Reddit, etc.) and have never commented on anything in my life. 

I just recently purchased a smartphone and can go entire days without looking at it which I am quite okay with that. When asking or answering questions, I choose to call rather than text. Not only do you get immediate feedback, you can also ask any follow-up questions and can clearly explain something without worrying about using 140 characters or less.

My relationship with social media is totally influenced by my family. Compared to my family, I am a social butterfly basically because I have a Facebook. My family has never been one to embrace technology. We didn’t get our first computer until I was seven, Internet coming even later. 

Because of all of this, I see myself as an exception to the social media norm.  I still choose face to face interaction over a virtual connection more often than not. I have no problem getting completely immersed in a subject. I can read article after article about baseball, including those devoted to players, entire teams, or simply the history surrounding the beautiful game. I can read a book in a day barely wanting to take breaks to eat. I am also known in my group of friends for my marathon study sessions where I can easily study for five hours or more at a time without even realizing it. So when reading about how much the Internet has changed our society both in how we interact with each other and our ways of thinking, I feel that these articles do not completely apply to me.