New media has created an atmosphere where
it is very common for individuals to be doing more then one thing at the same
time. Multitasking has always been a skill that people learn but it has become
very common due to the simplicity and ease media offers. Adults view this skill
that digital media has to offer as a negative, due to the fact that it is
believed to decline the youth’s attention span. On the other hand it is seen to
be beneficial as it allows individuals to use different parts of their brain at
once and execute multiple tasks simultaneously. Prensky (2001) believes being
able to multitask creates an efficiency level that never used to be attained,
as the resources were not available to society.
Those skilled in the practice are said to be able to move fluidly and
quickly between different areas of work without losing overview or focus (p. 2).
The skill of multitasking has become apart of everyday living, especially for
students and many do not even notice when they are doing it. For example,
something as simple as listening to music while completing an assignment on the
computer is considered to be multitasking.
I personally do not completely agree with
Prensky because of personal experiences with multi-tasking. I am a person who
likes to type out all of my notes in lecture but while I am doing that I often
find myself on the Internet browsing sites that have no correlation to the
material I am learning. While I am “typing my notes” I miss all information
that the professor is talking about because I am too focused on other things.
This has impacted my schoolwork as I realize when it comes time to studying
that I have to learn everything for the first time since I was too busy trying
to multi-task.
Jenkins, Purushotma, Weigel, & Clinton
share that the idea of multitasking means “the ability to scan the environment
and shift focus onto salient details” (p. xiv). It would be nice to believe
that multiple salient details could be focused on within the same time frame,
but between what I have observed in the school setting and from my own personal
doing, I do not believe that this skill is doable. It is nearly impossible to
put the time and devotion necessary into multiple items at the same time. It
would be an outstanding skill to possess but is not obtainable in this day and
age with all that technology offers.
References
Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Weigel, M., & Clinton, K.
(2006). Confronting the challenges of
participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Lloyd,
G. (2015, September 10). Multitasking:
Why it’s actually slowing you down. Retrieved from http://blog.writersdomain.net/2015/09/10/multitasking-why-its-actually-slowing-you-down/
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives,
digital immigrants, part II: Do they really think differently? On the horizon: NCB university press, 9(6).
Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1o90K21
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