- “Working while receiving texts or email reduces workers’ performance IQ by 10 points“: From the conservative but reliable The Economist.
- “Study: Allowing smartphones in class lowers grades–even for students who don’t use them” from BigThink.com, a website whose credibility and reliability I am not familiar with. The Proquest research tool tells me nothing.
We’ve long known that the myth of multi-tasking is a self-serving rationalization. Anecdotally I’ve found that I use a smart phone to avoid interaction with sales people or strangers on public transportation. I’ve also found that students who have laptops open or phones out during class are far more likely to misunderstand instruction (but they always swear it wasn’t because of the technology).
Social media and communication devices in the classroom are an addiction. Ask someone on a phone to put it away and they get angry – like trying to take a drink out of a drunk’s hands (I used to be a bouncer in rough little bar in Hays). Everyone thinks it doesn’t affect them, or that they can handle it. “It’s my [body/time/etc].” The user can’t see how it negatively affects the interactions of those around them.
