Screen Multitasking is Hurting our Brains

Image Credit: curiosity.com

This week's chapter focused on media literacy, but some parts of media literacy deal with understanding how much and how harmful screen multitasking can be. Screen multitasking is basically have more than one source of media providing media simultaneously. Things such as having the television on while working on a computer or just scrolling through social media while also having the television on. So it got me thinking, how bad is this screen multitasking and how is it really affecting our brains? So I turned to an article from sciencealert.com that had a neuroscientist explain this. The phenomenon of media multitasking is so common that an estimated 178 million adults in the United States alone regularly use another device while watching TV. Researchers in a test found that the ability to sustain attention was poorer for heavy multitaskers. "Complex working memory is closely linked with having better focus and being able to ignore distractions. With brain scans of the participants of the research found that the area of the brain the is involved in controlling attention is smaller in heavy multitaskers. In the end, multitasking is a part of our society in large part to our shorter attention spans and the need and ability to gain information in a short amount of time. Maybe we should consider dialing back the multitasking in order to improve brain function.

https://www.sciencealert.com/multitasking-is-not-a-good-way-to-train-your-brain-here-s-why