Final+Group+Research+Project

DIGITAL AGE DISTRACTIONS CCT205: Group Research Assignment Gabrielle Gallardo: (#########) Sean Kolumbus: (#########) Jamika Kerr: (#########) Submitted: March 1st, 2012

The average attention span at the start of the new millennium was 12 seconds. Twelve years later this average has shaved down by 4 seconds, amounting to a whopping 8 second attention span in the current year of 2012 (The Associated Press, 2012). However, this is not surprising when you consider that information, whether useful or useless to the individual, is not only easily accessible; it is becoming increasingly unavoidable. The Digital Revolution is not restricted to enabling us to seek, but to be sought out through media convergence. Personal affairs are being broadcasted 24/7 through social media websites, and a never-ceasing string of advertisements have forced their way into every building and onto nearly every screen. Media convergence has caused modern culture to be absolutely bursting with distractions.

Whether this places students of Generation Y in beneficial or harmful standing towards the future is debatable. Referring to the age group born in the mid-eighties and onwards, Generation Y has emerged as the first ‘internet savvy’ generation (Pappas, 2012).For this particular issue the target audience would include anyone in the 17-25 age range however it would be specifically college and university students. We believe it would be most effective to target this demographic because procrastination and distraction and procrastination are relevant across many aspects of student life such as social, academic as well as in the workforce.Predictions as to the failures or successes of the new Digital/Conceptual Age range from passive minds suitable only for mindless consuming, or brilliant ones capable of what their predecessors never thought possible. Focusing mainly on the students of this generation and the communications technology made available to them, the effects that recent advancements in technology have on one’s ability to function productively will be explored. Multitasking is one of the many ways in which procrastination can occur as it is an interruption driven practice and as such will be examined.Through this discussion it will be determined that although the distractions of the digital age are seemingly unavoidable, steps can be taken to avoid extreme dependency upon them. In addition, it will be seen that learning to deal with these distractions can become beneficial to students in the Conceptual Age.

Quality researching skills is an important aspect in a students’ educational career, and when it comes to assignments and essays high quality research results in high quality marks. Procrastination is an element of student lives, which can hinder this research quality, especially today in this information age where the internet is flooded with hyperlinks and advertisements that can readily capture and re-direct our attention and away from our ultimate goals. Therefore it is imperative to manage research habits and use your time wisely. In today's information age just about anybody could make or post information on a website, although the information provided to viewers may be false, it can therefore be said that “finding contexts for “backgrounding” topics and figuring out how to traverse complex information landscapes may be the most difficult part of the research process” (Head, 2009). It is important to find a reliable source, and to learn how to surf the web in order to find the information you are looking for, as you will save time and have more reliable and relevant information for your personal use. “No matter where students are enrolled, what information resources they have, and how much time they have, the abundance of information technology and rapid increase of digital information resources make research paradoxical as it is far more difficult to conduct in the digital age than it has been in previous times”(Head, 2009). The internet is continually growing with advertisements, information and pleasantries; games and pastimes. These easily could make us sidetrack from our work and get engrossed in websites such as ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’ and ‘YouTube’ where we look at mindless postings which attempt to pull you in and sink you deeper and deeper into their site. These web developers’ intentions are to keep you jumping around their site, so they get more hits and make more money for their company, through advertising.

Another popular method of research is public and school libraries. “Research shows that students create effective methods for conducting research by using traditional methods, such as libraries, and self-taught, creative workarounds, such as “presearch” and Wikipedia, in different ways”(Head, 2009). In this age libraries aren’t the universal way of obtaining information and researching as the internet can be accessed from your household, additionally sometimes the books you want may not be in, these factors can scare away visitors. “A catalogue of the library resources exists, so that anyone can find everything in the library” (Credaro, 2002). The only problem would be if there aren’t enough copies of the book and they aren’t in stock. Although the Internet is distracting, it “is also an incredibly powerful research aid, but can be time-consuming, frustrating, or misleading” (Credaro, 2002). Research procrastination is a problem caused by the Internet as it is taking over our lives. In order to avoid procrastination, libraries can be beneficial as they were a successful means of research in the past and have always been very effective. Additionally they are devoid of distracting advertisements and hyperlinks. The technology that we use has a vast impact on the way that we function. There is no doubting that the Internet is a near endless reserve of readily available information. However with so much information at our fingertips it becomes that much easier to become distracted and side tracked making procrastination inevitable. Perhaps one of the most pervasive forms of distraction is multitasking; this is because multitasking creates the illusion of improved productivity while often producing the opposite result. As Bell outlines in her article regarding social implications of multitasking, “research has indicated that we have great difficulty performing multiple tasks at once” (Bell, 2005). However one of the main issues associated with multitasking in the context of procrastination and distraction is how multitasking is perceived. Bell argues that multitasking is seen not only as a positive trait but a necessary one to have in the workplace in American culture (Bell, 2005). In reality multitasking often contributes to procrastination and distraction as it is influenced by interruption and the inability to focus all of one’s attention on one particular task at a time. As such one’s cognitive ability to complete said task becomes compromised (Bell, 2005). Another issue that arises when considering the relationship between multitasking and procrastination is the fact that you are much more susceptible to small disturbances if you are focused on more than one task at a time (Du, 2005). As such one not only has to consider that they are working on at that time but any other potential distractions that may arise. This is because our minds are less susceptible to distractions when working on only one task at a time and can therefore return to the task at hand quite quickly as opposed to when one is working on many things it is much harder to regain focus (Du, 2005). Ultimately multitasking has a negative impact on procrastination because although it reduces one’s productivity it is often perceived within North American culture as having the opposite effect as well as the fact that one’s cognitive ability to return to tasks once an interruption occurs is significantly reduced.

With the ever-growing span of readily accessible media, it is essential to question its effects on its users and society. Where and what technology may lead to in terms of the human mind, and in terms of future advancements are concerns that need to be addressed. As the amount of new products increases, the past decade has brought us the advent of affordable and lighter laptops, to tablets, to the current smartphone craze. The ability to retrieve information instantly is quite literally at the tip of our fingers; so much so that it can be arguably described as an extension of our own knowledge. This statement seems presumptuous until it is considered that one’s knowledge consists of what one knows, and what one knows can be said to come from their ability to access ‘facts’ or memories within their own mind. If advancements proceed so far as to allow us to have access to an unlimited number of facts within seconds, is it sensible to memorize such information? Moreover, is it even necessary? Studies show that although current students may be retaining less information than their predecessors, there are making use of analyzation skills that are more superior and relevant than arguably the now passing style of passively gathering and memorizing of information. (Pappas, 2012).

Recent cases of online addiction and impairment to attention span are without a doubt becoming more frequent. With the constant flow of newer multi-tasking distractions and gadgets being designed and released to the general public every few months, many potentially harmful effects have arisen in regards to Internet usage. However, when addressing cases such as Internet addiction or dependency it is important to remember that the majority of the cases focus on excessive usage that affects daily life, rather than regular users (Elgan, 2011). It is also worthy to note that if an individual is ‘addicted to the internet’ it is most likely that the individual is actually addicted to distractions (Young 2010). Whether online or off, technological advancements and their distractions are unavoidable with the ever-increasing need to become a digital citizen. It is not only essential to succeeding academically. The advent of the Conceptual age deems the mastery of digital innovations a required skill. Possible solutions for internet distractions should stem from changes in the habits of individual users. This would be done in terms of how they use the internet, rather than altering or attempting to avoid the technology they are using to access it. There are many possible methods of doing this. One small step to promoting productivity is the separation of work and play on a personal level. For better or worse, the distinction between work and play has become less distinguishable. This observation gives insight to why distractions have become increasingly prevalent in our everyday lives; a prime example being the previously mentioned use of the Internet for research. In Mike Elgan’s article of how to overcome Internet distraction, the idea of disciplining oneself to use different tools for work than play is proposed. He gives the example of making separate social networking and email accounts for both, and designating a machine used for work (i.e. your desktop computer) and machine for play (either your smartphone, or laptop.) (Elgan, 2011) In Daniel Pink’s book, //A Whole New Mind//, he argues that the skills and mindset required to survive in the Information Age are being rapidly discarded. Play is becoming a less taboo element of the workplace (Pink, 186). In a surprising study that measured how distractions affected the productivity and quality of what is produced by workers, it was found that individuals given occasional Internet breaks increased productivity (Surowiecki, 2011). With additional research, through others experiments and through our own, our final project will lean towards establishing these positive habits for internet usage, eliminating distractions and learning how to conduct research more effectively as a student and as a worker.

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