Multitasking is having a large effect on children, in both the classroom and there daily life. Few studies have been developed to focus on how multitasking affects children as they get older. The sources also relate specifically about how multitasking affects children in school and there daily lives. By multitasking while studying your brain functions different then if you were only focusing on one thing. There is a strong lack of knowledge learned when doing this. Also studies have show that many children find less time to interact with their parents because of the large amounts of time multitasking have found. Because of today’s popular culture kids are trying to multitask to much and its affecting them in school and in there family life.
Doing very simple tasks such as ironing some clothes and listening to a radio is as simple as multitasking can get. But when children use there electronics to become multitaskers it’s a completely different story. They become so fixated on what they were supposed to do, that they have to double the amount of time just to finish what they started. Doing homework while instant messaging, listening to music, and watching television becomes more of a concern for parents everyday.

Family life is becoming a concern for children and how they act around there family member. A specific study by Anthropologist Elinor Orch, director of UCLA’s center on everyday lives of families. Because of the large scale of multitasking with children in there homes, they become so fixated with what they are doing they don’t give parents enough attention. The study was done over a four year periods which ranged from thirty two families in California. What they found was that most parents aren’t as occupied with multitasking and they don’t know how to relate to there children. Orch says, “We also saw how difficult it was for parents to penetrate the child’s universe. We have so many videotapes of parents actually backing away, retreating from kids who are so absorbed by whatever they’re doing.” This study shows exactly how multitasking can create negative affects on family life.
Because of the large increase in multitasking with children it has a large affect on there family life. Not only because of school work but also how they act around there parents. The problem is the lack of communication with children and parents. Because of multitasking parents seem less adapted then their children are with new technology. Children listen to music, talk on the phone, email, and instant message. While parents struggle by using a computer and talk to someone at the same time. It seems that this generation is very skilled with technology with computers and parents lack the skills that the children have.
Another main concern in multitasking with children is the affects technology has on there daily life. A survey was done in 2005 with 2,000 third-twelfth graders in the Washington DC area. This article was written by Rob, Grah “Media Multi-Tasking.”
The facts show that there is a dramatic increase in media multitasking since 1999. Vicky Rideout one of many who directed this study says that “these kids are spending the equivalent of a full work week using media, plus overtime.” This is because of an increase of internet access and televisions in children’s bedrooms. Around sixty-eight percent of they have TV in there bedrooms and forty-nine had a video game player. This is a concern because these elements are the reason for the surge of Multitasking children. Since 1999 children with internet access in there rooms has increase twenty-seven percent, from forty-seven to seventy-four percent in 2005. The study also showed that nearly one/third either instant message, watch tv, listen to music, or talk on the phone while doing there homework. Graham says that “multitasking is a growing phenomenon in media use and we don’t now whether its good or bad or both.” This shows that because of a lack of studies done for children multitasking there isn’t enough information to find specific reasons of the end result.
Many study’s have been done to find out the percentages of increase of media in children’s rooms. But there is not enough done to find out what could happen to them as they get older. Patricia Greenfield, PHD, of the University of California says “there’s been a growing concern that in spite of all the hype, we may not have an adequate research base from which to asses what we know about the developmental consequences of children’s use of interactive technology.”
One negative affect it is having on children is the increase of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in many states. An article written by Marily Elias of USA Today “Education.” Says that it all starts soon after children reach the third grade.
This is because the academic courses become harder, and there need to be constantly be entertained. They then become less interested in there studies. Michael Rich a Harvard pediatrician and director of the Center on Media and Child heath in Boston said” There are few media literacy programs in school to help children sort out advertising acclaim and understand how media can affect them.” The schools need to enforce this programs to teach children the correct way to multitask so they don’t become so distracted in the classrooms and at home.
I belive that this is a large concern for the affects of children’s education. By having such a large amount on children with ADD its very hard for schools to take on all these children. I myself also struggle with ADHD my entire life and it has affected me in school and my daily life. The schools I attended did help me dramatically in special class to help train people with this disease. By learning how to cope with it and do better in school. But not everyone is so lucky to have these programs in school. Many children struggle with this disease and don’t have classes at there school to help them. Also many students feel embarrassed to join these specific classes to help them in school. So they decide to take on the full force of school work without any help. This is either there own choice or possibly the parents aren’t interested in believing that there son or daughter has this problem.
Another source disagrees with Michale Rich’s claim that children should be taught correctly how to multitask. Marily Savant author of “Multitasking” feels that there is not reason for children to be multitasking let alone be taught how to do it correctly. Her main claim is that doing multiple things at once distracts the person from focusing on just one specific thing. She thinks that it would be a disadvantage to take notes during class because you can’t concentrate on what the teacher’s saying. She also says that “teens think by listening to music it helps them concentrate, when it just takes away their boredom.” By doing this it takes away there attention span and becomes more of a distraction.
By becoming exposed to multitasking at a young age there are severe consequences. Three specific sources show that because of a young development of multitasking there ability to focus and develop analytical skills. It also affects the brains learning systems, and over long periods of time become stressful, and mental and physical dysfunctions. In an article written by Lori Arantai, “Teens Can Multitask, but what are the costs” Jordan Grafman,of the National Institute of Neurological disorders and Strokes believes that “There is special concern for teenagers because parts of their brain are still developing.” The problem is the teens don’t gain depth of knowledge of any task they are doing while multitasking. Agreeing with this statement is Stephen Monsell professor at Exeter University says, by multitasking its less likely they will create a cohesive product of work. By multitasking it creates a problem of executing a task successfully because it will take two times as much time on completing it.
As for the affect of multitasking on the brains learning system a study was done by Karin Foerde and Barbara Knowlton of UCLA. The participants in the study were in there 20’s who learned a simple classification task. They took to sets of cards one tested people with no distractions and the other tested them while being distracted. The study showed that the people who were not distracted did much better than those who were.
The subjects who where distracted completed the task while listening to beeps from a pair of earphones. The study shows how there lack of recalling information from the test. Russel Podlack who conducted the study said, “Our study indicates that multitasking changes the way people learn.” He also states that its ok to multi-task but to never do it when trying to learn something you would like to remember. Yet most children in America still do this everyday with cell phones, instant messenger, TV, and the internet.
Agreeing with the previous source is the FAA federal aviation administration and the University of Michigan which conducted a similar study on young adults. The author of “Study:Multitasking Makes Kids Less Efficient Learners” by Elizabeth Guerard. Researchers found that the capacity for multitasking in people is very limited. Participants lost time in performance speed when switching tasks and they lost more time as the task became more complex. These implications may have a significant impact on the younger generation that have become well adjusted to emails, internet, and school subjects. Dr. Joshua S. Rubinsein research psychologist with the FAA said, “The study shows that when students are switching back and forth rather than concentrating on one task at a time they will be less efficient, learn the material more slowly, and be more likely to make errors.” While multitasking your are using different areas of the brain.
Dr. Jane M. Heary told the New York Times, “I think the piece were missing with today’s kids is to stick with one thing and be effective at it.” What becomes very apparent in multitasking is by doing it excessively people are at risk of heath complications caused by stress related instances. Because of a high demand for multitasking some people think this should be taught in schools. Rubstein says, “it’s a tough question: how do you train kids to do things well or to fit into a society that requires constant stimulation.” Heath related illness is extremely negative to peoples daily life. By doing multiple thing at once a few times a week could be harmless to children. But having to do these tasks several times a day could be a problem. What could happen is a person could become very overwhelmed by the multiple task to be completed and they become very stressed out. Another issue is because of such a high demand for multitasking schools also believe that they should be taught this in school. I find this to be a large problem because most children don’t need to be multitasking and that it will affect there lives dramatically. In there school work and there family life. What would happen is they would be learning the skills to multitask but it would affect there study habits and it would take them double the amount of time to complete a task. An interesting article that I read in the New York Times by Steve Lohr pointed out why its dangerous to use cell phones and multiple test done to agree with his statements. The evidence that they found shows the many limits of multitasking. According to the studies it would be very wise to not multitask while working in an office, studying for exams, and while driving in a car. What they found was that some multitasking can help people improve there concentration. Such as checking email once an hour and listening to soothing music while studying. But many distractions come from listening to music with lyrics, AIM, and television shows. David E. Meyer of the University of Michian says, “Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes.” I believe that what he is saying is true because your not just concentrating on one thing your doing multiple things. Rene Marois believes the same as I do and says that, “ But a core limitation is an inability to concentrate on two things at once.”
Mr. Marois and several researchers at Vanderbilt university did studies on two groups of people. The study was done with two groups of people participating in a study involving sounds and images. The participants were asked to respond to both sounds and images. The first group was to press the correct key on a computer while listening to one of eight sounds. The others were to speak the correct vowel after seeing one of eight images. When given one task there was no delay in time, but when given the second task there was a delay up to two second. This may seem unimportant but Marois says that “talking on a cell phone while driving a car is dangerous. A one second delay response time at 60 miles an hour could be fatal.”
Researchers at the Future of the Mind at Oxford University did a study with a group of eighteen to twenty one year olds, and a group of thirty-five to thirty-nine years olds. The test was simple they had ninety seconds to translate images into number, using a code. The younger group did ten percent better when not interrupted. But when the both groups were interrupted by either a phone, text message or a instant message, surprisingly the older group had the same speed and accuracy as the younger. What’s most interesting about this study is that several of the participants have changes there living styles. Such as Mr Westwell how is thirty sick years old who has modified his work habits since completing the study.

A study done by Webmd.com disagrees that children can’t multitask at a young age. The study shows that a singe piece of information to relate to actions develop at the ages of 11 and 12. While at the ages of 13 to 15 they became capable to remember multiple facts in correct order or reorder the information. At the ages of 16 and 17 the ability to multitask continued to develop. The researchers say “the study lends support to brain imaging data that suggest that the frontal cortex doesn’t fully mature until the late adolescence.” PhD associate professor Monica Luciana says, “we need to keep their cognitive limitations in mind, especially when adolescents are confronted with demanding situations in the classroom, at home, or in social gatherings.” Teenagers are still developing there skills in multitasking during there teen years. They are still learning the skills to manage many pieces of information at the same time.

The study done by Webmd.com is very interesting in how they believe that the development of children able to multitask is during there later teen years. But I think that its occurs at a younger age. I agree that the brain is still developing during teen eyras for children. And that they do being to process more information and are capable of multitasking more often. But I still think that they can multitask at younger stages in there lives. The study done by the FCC shows that they are capable of multitasking at the age of eight. Some examples are listening to music or talking on the phone while doing homework. Or looking writing emails and instant messaging people while studying. This is a concern because if they are multitasking at this age when there brains become more developed they will be doing this even more frequently during there teens years.
The most interesting of all the studies was done by a group of Microsoft workers. The workers took around fifteen minutes to return a serious mental task. While responding to incoming emails or instant messages. “I was surprised by how easily people were distracted and how long it took them to get back to the task,” said Eric Hirovitz, a Microsoft research scientist. At a conference at the National Bureau of Economic Research. The conference included projects and several email messages. They also looked at firm revenues, peoples yearly income and information technology by recruiters. The recruiters used the most emails as the groups were analyzed and they were also the most productive of all the groups.
I startling fact that I read in a New York Times article written by Steve Lohr. Jonathan B. Spira, chief analyst at Basex, a business firm, estimates the cost of interruptions in the work place because of multitasking cost the American economy ruffle six hundred billion dollars a year. I found this fact quite mesmerizing because multitasking helps office workers completes tasks faster. But in the long run it is really hurting the economy in a big way.
One of my sources specifically focuses on Zach Breslin a middle school student who was interview by Suzanne C. Ryan of The Boston Globe. The student spent most of his time watching the Simpson and Seinfeld while doing homework. He says, “ I never read. Unless its for school.” This is a problem since students read books, magazines, and newspapers for pleasure an average of 43 minutes a day. A study also shows that lives of eight to eighteen year olds found that because of exposure to multi-tasking kids spend eight point five hours multi-tasking. Because this article talks about exposure to A television who doing homework they believe this can lead to shorter attention spans, obesity, and aggressiveness. The problem is most parents don’t have rules or limitations enforced for watching television. I think that by having very or no restrictions on the use of television by parents is a problem. By doing homework or studying while watching tv can affect a child in there school work. While watching tv and studying the brain doesn’t retain half the amount of information that a person is trying to remember. Also the reaction time to answering questions is much slower. So over time it takes a student more time to retrieve the information they have learned.