In the article “Media multi-taskers are ‘deluded’,” by Annie
Murphy Paul the author is of the view that using latest communication
technology tools such as Facebook, Twitter and instant messaging apps students
are unable to concentrate on their studies and cannot go for at least 15
minutes without “engaging with their devices”. The author highlights a recent
conducted by Rosen according to which the students cannot learn properly the
material taught in the class if they are engaged in media multitasking
activities. Annie also proposes that the engagement of multimedia tasking
starts in the early age of 8 which has no doubt become a serious concern to
worry about. Annie argues that even though a person can do two tasks together
but due to this he or she might be deluded and negative outcomes start to
emerge. The engagement of multitasking causes mental fatigue to the students’
due to which they start doing mistakes in their work. For instance, the
students lose their cognitive ability and start to pay less attention to their
tasks. The main reason for these negative outcomes is due to the distraction
that is caused by these multimedia tasks. Another study conducted by the
National Academy of Sciences proposes that students who were engaged in the
multitasking adept less to the work as compared to the group of students who
did not engage in the multimedia tasks. Thus, the article by Murphy shows in
depth how the multimedia tasks have made the individuals especially the
students to pay less attention to their studies and more attention to their
instant messaging and other activities. The author concludes with an important
message that our young generation is not being raised the way the young was
raised in the past and such types of issues should be considered as a serious
matter of concern.
