The Daily Times

Noelani Henson: 2023

Media Multitasking: How Does

It Change The Growing Mind?
Children who frequently use electronic media shown to perform poorly on goal oriented tasks

Think about the last time you were at the grocery store; did you see teenagers with headphones

in? Children scrolling through social media? Babies with their eyes glued to a tablet screen?

Children and young adults nowadays are growing up in a society reliant on technology, with

growing numbers of adolescents across the world having their own phones, computers, and

televisions . Because various forms of media have been made so easily accessible, it is not

uncommon for children to engage in what is called “media multitasking”.

What does this mean? Media multitasking refers to consuming two or more types of media

simultaneously, such as watching tv while on the phone, or doing homework while listening to

music. Curious about the effects of this new, overstimulating form of entertainment, Dutch

scientists conducted an experiment comparing the cognitive abilities of children who media

multitask vs. those who don't; and the results were far from positive.

Researchers at the university of Amsterdam, including Susanne Baumgartner, Wouter Weeda,

Lisa van der Heijden, and Mariëtte Huizinga, began their study by collecting data of 523 children

from 6 different primary schools. They asked the children how often they engaged in certain

multimedia activities, including watching TV, reading,listening to music, talking on the phone,

sending messages via phone or computer etc. Next, they had the participants take a series of tests

to determine the effectiveness of their executive functions.

Executive function, as defined by the researchers, refers to the participant’s working memory,

shifting and inhibition. “Working memory” is an individual’s ability to understand and retain

information, and how well they are able to focus on a single activity. “Inhibition” refers to one’s

ability to ignore potential distractions while performing a task. And finally, “shifting” refers to

how well an individual can fully disengage from one task to fully focus on another. The

researchers predicted that, “Adolescents who engage frequently in media multitasking may have

more problems to focus their attention, to inhibit irrelevant distractions from the environment,

and to shift efficiently between tasks.”

 Researchers were concerned about the effects of social media on children’s ability to focus and perform tasks

To test this hypothesis, the researchers used a series of goal oriented tasks to compare the two

groups. The children first took what is known as the “digit span” test to determine the

effectiveness of their working memory. In this test, they were shown multiple large numbers on a

screen, and then had to type them in their forward and reverse order. Next, the “Eriksen Flankers

task” was used to test their inhibition. In this study, the children were given less than three

milliseconds to see an arrow on their screen, determine which direction it was facing, and then

correctly hit the corresponding arrow on their keyboard. Finally, the “Dots–Triangles task” was

used to test the participants ability to shift between tasks. In this test, the children were shown

pictures of triangles made out of dots. For some questions, they had to count the number of dots,

and for others, they needed to count the number of triangles.

After testing the children, compiling the data into tables, and thoroughly analyzing all possible

causations, the scientists found that media multitasking in children has a negative relationship

with executive function in day to day life. This means that those who were frequently exposed to

media multitasking were shown to have greater difficulty managing their behavior and thoughts

than compared to their media free peers, who performed significantly better on the tests. This

finding is congruent to many other similar experiments in the past, which can be seen as very

worrisome and problematic. The researchers stated in their article that, “the constant

overstimulation provided by media multitasking may lead to an overexcited mind state.

Adolescents who engage in media multitasking frequently may get used to this overstimulation

and lose their willingness to bear less stimulating situations”.

With the increasing use of media and technology in children today, it is vital to recognize the

potential and proven drawbacks that accompany media multitasking. As shown in the research

above, children who are more frequently exposed to media multitasking are significantly delayed

in their abilities to focus on and perform basic tasks. Will they fail to ever have developed

executive functions? How will this affect them in their adulthood? As a society, we need to think

about our childrens’ futures. Sure, it is easy and convenient to entertain them with the screen, but

at what cost?