Sie sind auf Seite 1von 6

How Technology Harms Our Productivity 1

Meaghan Sherer

Seton Hill University

How Technology Harms our Productivity

12 February 2015
How Technology Harms Our Productivity 2

“This is the quality that validates us, this is how we become real to ourselves-by

being seen by others” (Deresiewicz 92). William Deresiewicz, a former English

Professor at Yale, believes that our generation is too wrapped up in the thought that

everyone needs to know what is going on in our lives. He believes that this generation

does not see the value of solitude, something his generation grew up with, because we

feel that solitude is the same as loneliness (Deresiewicz 95). The majority of young adults

today are so wrapped up in their phones that they fail to see how it is harming their

productivity.

Teenagers and young adults love their phones. There are so many things to do and

so many possibilities to choose from to check up on what your friends are doing: texting

them and asking them, or going on various social media apps such as Twitter, Snapchat,

Instagram, and Facebook. With these various gateways to see what our friends are doing,

we are always connected with them even if we are not with them. The bad thing about

having the ability to always being connected with everyone is that we end up constantly

checking the various apps; sometimes while doing schoolwork. Doing this harms our

productivity because we interrupt our thought process of the subject we are involved in.

However, some of us try and multitask; constantly switching back and forth between the

projects we are working on and our phones. Dr. Wiemer, who has edited The Teaching

Professor newsletter since 1987 and writes the Teaching Professor Blog, has a strong

opinion of the notion of multitasking. “They think they can do two or three tasks

simultaneously and not compromise the quality of what they produce. Research says that

about 5% of us multitask effectively. Proof of the negative effects of multitasking in

learning environments is now coming from a variety of studies” (Weimer). The “they”
How Technology Harms Our Productivity 3

she refers to, is college students, so this statement directly pertains to the inability we

have to do school work and be in the loop with everyone else at the same time and do the

two efficiently. One study was conducted where half of the class was allowed to use

phones during a lecture and the other half was not. After the lecture the entire class was

given a quiz on what was just taught. The students who were not allowed to use their

phones scored significantly higher than those who were allowed access to their phones

(qtd. in Weimer). I believe this to be true because I have done this in class where I have

been texting, not paying attention to what is going on, and be completely lost when I

become engaged again in the discussion or caught off guard if the teacher asks me a

question.

Another example is a study conducted at Michigan State University in the Writing

and Digital Environments Research Center. Students in a first year writing class were

asked to keep a diary of all the writing they did over the course of a two-week period.

This writing included blogging, texting, gaming; anything and everything. For each entry

that made they had to record the time, genre, audience, location and purpose of the

writing. The study’s lead author, Jeffery Grabill, was surprised of the minimal amount of

the total writing was for schoolwork. After the two week study, Grabill had follow up

interviews with students involved in the study and found that “students often described

their social, out of class writing as more persistent and meaningful to them than their in

class work was” (Keller 159). Josh Keller, the author of the piece this example was

selected from, is a reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education. His main focuses for

the majority of his articles are on issues of higher education for faculty, administrators

and students. This example, to me, shows that our generation is more concerned with our
How Technology Harms Our Productivity 4

social lives and how we communicate with our friends rather than how we try to excel in

school.

In Deresiewicz’s, The End of Solitude, he talks about how he grew up in the

generation of TVs and was “trained to be bored” because consumer society wanted

people to feel bored in order to stimulate the market. He goes on to say that he liked

being in solitude at times because it gave him a chance to be with his thoughts and reflect

upon himself. In today’s age we are so scared to be isolated “from the herd” that we

constantly have the need to be checking updates and checking on what our friends are

doing and what is going on in the world. “Some degree of boredom and loneliness is to

be expected…but technology amplifies those tendencies” (Deresiewicz 96). This is the

irony of “social” media, due to the fact that we have become so dependent on social

media for keeping us occupied when we have nothing to do, we have become slaves to

the idea of never wanting to be alone. I find myself checking my phone if I am

somewhere alone such as waiting for food in the Cove. I am just sitting there with no one

to talk to so I go on my phone; because I am bored. This goes along with the thought of it

harming our productivity because we are essentially “alone” while working on

schoolwork so we have the desire not to be in solitude. Most of us do work alone so we

will not be distracted by our friends talking to us. However, having our phones next to us

while working defeats the purpose because we are not alone if we are constantly checking

updates, harming our productivity by interrupting our thought process of whatever it is

that we are working on.

Therefore, you can see now that the thought of social media harming us is not just

coming from our parents annoyed with our inconsistent study habits flipping back and
How Technology Harms Our Productivity 5

forth between schoolwork and our phones. There have been studies done to prove that

multitasking harms our efficiency of obtaining and storing information. I believe, in a

way, that this generation specifically, has become addicted to the feeling of never

wanting to be alone, something older generations might not understand. In order to

overcome this desire to be connected all the time, we need to sort out our priorities; do

our schoolwork without our phones staring at us from next to our computers and turn off

notifications so we will not be tempted.


How Technology Harms Our Productivity 6

References

Deresiewicz, William. "The End of Solitude." From Inquiry to Academic Writing

Second ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2008. 91-96. Print.

Ellis, Y., Daniels, W. and Jauregui, A. (2010). The effect of multitasking on the grade

performance of business students. Research in Higher Education Journal, 8

<http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/10498.pdf>.

Keller, Josh. Studies Explore Whether the Internet Makes Students Better Writters. From

Inquiry to Academic Writing. Second ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2008. 159.

Print.

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen