Field Observation

In my own field research (see appendix A), I observed that most of my peers, myself included are multitaskers. If you walk into any student space; the cafes, the library, in the common and even walking up and down the streets, it isn’t uncommon to see most students my age doing many tasks at a time. We are walking and checking our phones, posting pictures, sending messages and checking our email. If you take a look at our computer screens, we will probably have multiple tabs open because we aren’t done looking at one site when we quickly hop on the next because something caught our attention. In my first field observation, I noted that nearly everyone I observed was doing at least two or more activities simultaneously. Students were often doing one or more …show more content…
I also observed that in every class I am in, students are either using their phones or laptops while class is in session. More often than not, students are not doing tasks assigned during the class lecture but checking their email or social media accounts. From a personal perspective, I noticed that for myself in class I too am multitasking because I may be on my phone or on the computer, working on a handout, and taking notes, all while listening to the teacher’s lesson. The article titled “What Else do College Students “do” While Studying?” written by Ackerman, Calderwood and Conklin describes multitasking and multi-media distractions. The authors conducted a study in which they investigated the duration of distractions among college students during a 3-hour study session. One interesting perspective from this study was the author’s hypothesis as to why students distract themselves from their homework and studies. They said that in their study they found that, “more frequent and longer duration of multitasking behaviors were correlated with lower homework task motivation and lower self-efficacy to concentrate on