Media technologies have changed the way we do a lot of things, and one of the most obvious to us college students--and potentially detrimental--is how they have changed our studying and learning patterns.
Barrett's post on how technology has changed the way she studies made me think about my psychology class last year. As the professor was introducing himself and going through his whole "first class of the year" speech, he warned us not to use technology while in his lecture because, apparently, it is literally impossible to multitask. While we may think we are listening to a lecture and absorbing the information while texting a friend or looking something up online, what's really happening is we are just switching back and forth very quickly between the two (or more) things that are holding our attention. He also mentioned that, like Barrett is discovering, physically writing down notes helps you retain more information than typing does.
I think it's much easier now to get lost in technology when you should be focusing; if you're typing notes on your laptop, that Facebook tab starts to look a lot more appealing. Everything's so much easier to access--and you look like you're still doing work while you're online shopping--unless of course you're the person sitting behind someone on their computer, in which case you end up getting caught up in whatever website the person in front of you is surfing. It doesn't just change our own attention habits, it affects others' as well! I can't tell you how many times someone in the row in front of me has gotten on some random website, and then I'm suddenly focused on what dresses they are planning on buying or this random person they decided to Facebook stalk. It's all about self-control, people, but sometimes we just don't have it. Technology is an enabler!
No comments:
Post a Comment