Multitasking and Attention Spans

The common perception within the minds of digital immigrants - namely people who have had to adapt to the rise of technology, rather than grow up with it (Prensky, 2001) – is that the attention span of digital natives – those who have grown up with technology- have lost much of their attention span. While attention is extremely important within the mind, it has not disappeared from the younger generation, it merely manifests itself differently.

Multitasking has become the norm for the vast majority of younger students. We are no longer able to sit still and focus on one thing for hours on end, but rather we are able to scan our surroundings and determine the important information quickly and while usually being stimulated in other ways.

A good example of this is actually myself in many ways. When I do homework, I struggle to concentrate in total silence, it is the main reason that I choose not to go to the library. When I do homework, I need to at least have music playing in the background, or better yet, have a podcast of some sort playing. The stimulation helps to keep me focused and ignoring the world around me. Many of my friends do this as well, and this is probably how many people went about doing this assignment. Some people refer to this level of attention as “continuous partial attention” (Jenkins, 2009). It would seem that this skill is one of the more useful media skills presented to us, possibly because it is the most relevant to my own life.

This multitasking power of the digital native may be just what the world needs to continue its progress. With a generation of students who are able to study for exams and entertain themselves at the same time, they are learning skills that will be useful in the working world.

A person is very rarely asked to focus on one thing for an extended period of time, a person may have to be at work for 8 hours, but there is still diversity in their activities, and I believe that we are moving into a more efficient age, and multitasking will lead the charge into this new era of attention.

Works Cited

Jenkins, H (et al). (2009) "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21^st Century". The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. The MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon,  MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5.