Electronic media use, reading, and academic distractibility in college youth.
Activities that require focused attention, such as reading, are declining among American youth, while activities that depend on multitasking, such as instant messaging (IMing), are increasing. We hypothesized that more time spent IMing would relate to greater difficulty in concentrating on less externally stimulating tasks (e.g., academic reading). As hypothesized, the amount of time that young people spent IMing was significantly related to higher ratings of distractibility for academic tasks, while amount of time spent reading books was negatively related to distractibility. The distracting nature and the context of IMing in this population are described.
Levine
Laura E
LE
Psychology Department, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, Connecticut 06050, USA. LevineL@ccsu.edu
Waite
Bradley M
BM
Bowman
Laura L
LL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D004581:Electronics / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D011932:Reading; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires