Final

For my final blog post, I am posting a summary of everything that I learned with this project.  I was researching the question “Do students have a hard time concentrating on a singular task (namely homework) with the internet (namely facebook) being everywhere?  From my video surveys I found that most people spend their online time on Facebook.  Most responses were that they logged on at least 5 times a day.  And from research, that means about 4 hours a day on Facebook alone.  Grades have dropped 20% since Facebook came into existence.  My own roommates’ grades have dropped as being freshmen in college, without parents being around to tell them what to be spending time on.  I find it extremely hard to concentrate when I’m trying to do school work, Facebook and the internet are there at my fingertips.

Video of Surveys...

Alright guys, here is the link for the interviews I conducted.

Enjoy :)

Some More...

Since I opted to present this project tomorrow, I’m posting what I planned to post at the end of this week today so that I can talk about it in class tomorrow.

First I want to talk about this video clip which is from the t.v. show The View.  I find the statistic true that grades have dropped 20% when kids are multi tasking homework with Facebook.  And they discuss Twitter as well.  Something I do disagree with is that kids type in slang. I feel that now that it’s progressed there’s a lot less chatspeak.  And my typing of this blog in formal typing is proof that I do know how to type.  In fact I type out full words and punctuation when I’m sending texts as well, and it’s my mother and father that send me texts like this: “gr8 job 2day lin-z” I think they’re trying to be cool? Who knows.  I feel that kids can switch between chat speak and formal typing, especially as we have to type up so many essays.

I wanted to talk about another article… 

“s a perfectly clear explanation for the lack of ability to stay focused for more than a short period of time. Next time you go on the Internet, make note of how many different activities you are concentrating on at once. More often than not, when a typical University of Massachusetts student goes onto the Internet he immediately checks his Facebook, signs on to his UMail account, logs-on to SPARK to check for assignments, and browses ESPN.com for sports highlights. Seem accurate? In this situation, the Internet allows us to think about four to five different topics all at the same time, creating a fragmented stream of consciousness in a multi-tasking environment. It discourages us to think deeply about certain topics that require profound and extensive examination.”

So true.  I decided to make a note of everything I do when I “typically” log on.  So here’s my list:

Facebook.com

AACreditUnion.com (check my bank account)

Catmail.arizona.edu

Textsfromlastnight.com

Yahoo.com (other email)

I also occasionally browse…

Amazon.com

Cakewrecks.blogspot.com

Postsecret.com

UAccess.com

Arizona.edu

Espn.go.com

You get the picture. So it’s definitely true that I get so distracted and I think I can multitask because the internet allows me to. I guess its just something I (and everyone else) has become accustomed to…

“Groups of people who have expressed mutual concerns are mobilizing to organize media reform movements. One group that has been founded is called “Action 4 Media Education” that supports and promotes media education in homes and schools. Their goal is to educate children to think critically about the media. Raising awareness is the first step that we as a society can take to combat this issue.”

I think raising awareness to this problem is definitely a good idea.  And lately there have been a lot of articles and studies done on it.  But I also think not enough is being done.  I had some issues trying to find stats and blogs on the internet and it’s effects on people.  I think it’s a bit ridiculous actually that there aren’t more people speaking out.  

Negative GPAs?

Okay, so to continue my last blog post, which I ended talking about Facebook and how it affects school work… I found a couple studies done back in 2009 talking about these effects.  The first was done in Australia and is here… 

Some things that they say:

“Researchers from the US have found that students prone to accumulating friends, uploading photographs, chatting and "poking" others on Facebook may devote as little as one hour a week to their academic work.”

I asked my roommate if she agreed with this and she nodded her head and told me that in college she’s spent more time on Facebook than anything else.  I can back this up; my three roommates and I can be all sitting in our living room and all of us should be working on homework but instead we’ll all be on Facebook, AND not talking aloud to one and other but all talking on Facebook chat. Or one of us will go to the library to have silence so we can concentrate on homework, and then we end up just talking to each other on Facebook again. So there’s no point in even going to the library.

“They found that 68 per cent of students who used Facebook had a significantly lower grade-point average than those who did not use the site.”

I would agree with this as well.  If you think back to before you had a Facebook, I know for me, we all spent more time on homework, because if you sat down to work on homework at the computer, you would do it, you wouldn’t go sit on Facebook and rot your brain for hours on end.

Another article I read is a response to the “Growing up Wireless…” article I talked about in my last post.  This one invites readers to post and talk about what they have to say about how technology is affecting their lives.

“I think technology can impact a students grades really well. Technology such as texting takes your mind off of school work, and have a side conversation going. Everyone would rather text, than do homework. However technology has also gave us plenty of good tools to retain information. Its how we use technology is the advantages and disadvantages.”

I think that’s an important thing to note; there are advantages and disadvantages to technology.  I wouldn’t be able to be making this blog on all of this if we didn’t have the internet and the capabilities for blogging.  However some blogs can waste the blogger’s time and his/her grades can drop because of obsessive blogging.

“I think my habits are somewhat affecting my grade, but not to severely. I do take longer doing homework because I get distracted, so homework that would take 1 hour might take 3, but other than that it doesn’t affect me that much.”

This post seems like it came right out of my own mouth. Wow. So true.

Anyways, although I’ve kind of beaten around the bush, I’ve found that GPAs are being affected negatively by all this technology. I concentrated mainly on Facebook in this post, but that’s because it’s mainly what distracts me.  I know students also get distracted by many other means of technology such as video games, computer games, texting, etc also distract some students.  Studies found that in the past decade, GPAs in college have dropped 1.3% and while that isn’t something that’s noticeable, it’s a definite change because of our technological era.

Growing Up Digital....

I wanted to discuss an article that my Technology teacher showed us; it was in the New York Times, and entitled "Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction."  As the title suggests, this article is about how technology advancements are affecting “how people think and behave.”  The main story in the article is about Vishal Singh’s life and how technology has been affecting it.  It starts with how even though Vishal, 17, has had all summer to read his summer reading, he has waited until the last minute to do it.  And this is in fault of his obsession with filmmaking on his computer.  The article is meant to argue that technology is negatively affecting our society, especially for students; that school work is being put on the back burner because of our technology.  But I question, is this true? If Vishal had lived back in the 1970s when say, my parents, had been growing up, would he really have been more encouraged to do his homework?  I think kids look for an excuse to not work on school, and technology is just this generation’s excuse.  For example, I’m writing this on the plane to go home to Texas for Thanksgiving Break, and I don’t have Internet.  As I’m composing this in word to post later, I keep pausing every five minutes or so just to stare out the window for minutes at a time.  It’s simple why I do it; distraction. Procrastination.

“Jacob L. Vigdor, an economics professor at Duke University who led some of the research, said that when adults were not supervising computer use, children ‘are left to their own devices, and the impetus isn’t to do homework but play around.’”

I have to disagree with this statement, especially from my own experience.  While yes, some of the time I will sit on my computer for hours on end, mostly facebooking, I will work on homework when it’s needed.  Of course none of us want to do homework, I mean lets be honest here, the question in life that I encounter the most now that I’m in college is “Facebook or Homework?”  Usually we multi-task and do both.  So I guess the better question for the world to be asking is, is technology creating a multi-tasking world that is making us put less effort into the singular tasks we should be performing? And I think the answer is yes.  I can’t think of the last time that I wrote a paper without getting on Facebook every 10 minutes or so (oh wait, yes I can! Right now. But this is only because I don’t have internet.) It’s not like anything exciting is happening on Facebook, I just don’t think my brain can concentrate for huge chunks of time anymore, I’m so used to multitasking.

I asked 20 people:

“How often do you go on Facebook each day?”

             Less than 30 minutes: 2

            1 to 3 hours: 6

            3 to 5 hours: 8

            6+ hours: 4

That right there should disgust many critics of my generation.  Most of us spend anywhere from 1 to 5 hours on Facebook each DAY. Multiplied times 7, we’re “wasting” up to 35+ hours on a singular website per week.  But when we’re on Facebook, it doesn’t feel like we’re wasting time at all.  (also in case anyone is wondering I just spilled ice water all over my leg… perfect)

Anyways, I’ve come to realize that the internet, along with having the social life of a freshman in college, my grades have dropped, just like Vishal in the article.  In high school I had a 3.7 GPA, and currently, at almost the end of my first semester of college, I have a 2.5. I feel like such a winner.

Survey

Okay, today I want to talk about the questions that I have now specifically asked 7 people.  I recorded (will record more) them all answering these questions and I will string all the videos together at the end and post it probably on my last post.  I feel these questions will briefly sum up what I'm trying to figure out, which is how distracting the internet is for students nowadays.

The 7 people I interviewed (plan on interviewing) are as follows;

1.     Shawn Kaylor: Shawn grew up in Puerto Rico with his mother and moved to the U.S. when he was 19 for educational purposes. He is a Sophomore at the U of A.

2.     Alexus Saltzberry: Alexus grew up in Tucson with her father and step-mother and has attended many schools. She is a freshman at the U of A

3.     Karen Rios: Karen also grew up in Tucson with her parents and 4 siblings. She is a freshman at the U of A

4.     Kristine Menase: Kristine as well grew up in Tucson with her parents and 3 siblings. She is a freshman at the U of A

5.     Maddie Connolly: Maddie grew up in Seattle Washington with her parents and older sister. She is a freshman at the U of A

6.     Peter Green: Peter grew up in the suburbs of London, England with his parents and older sister. He is a sophomore at Loughborough University

7.     Lindsay Appleby: (me) I grew up in Southlake Texas with my parents and younger brother.  I am a freshman at the U of A.

Here’s a preview to what one person said…

1. How many times a day do you log onto facebook?

“I’m always logged in I guess, and I would have to say that I spend at least 5 hours on it daily”

2. Would you consider Facebook to be a distraction while you’re doing homework?

“yeah definitely.  And if we’re being honest, I usually do Facebook instead of homework, I can’t really remember the last time I did my homework without having Facebook up”

3. Does it make it harder to write essays when you’re being tempted to log onto the internet?

“Yes, especially when we have to research using the internet”

4.  What would you say is the biggest distraction to you while doing homework?

“Definitely Facebook… Or my roommates, but we usually chat it up on Facebook even when we’re in the same room”

5. Would you say it is harder now to concentrate on homework than five years ago?

“Yeah, I didn’t have a Facebook 5 years ago, or my own personal computer.’’

Now vs. 1996

Well, it's been quite a while since I've posted on here! Later today or sometime tomorrow, depending on her schedule, I hope to have a vlog from one of my roommates discussing how the internet has affected her studies as a freshman in college vs when she was a freshman in High School.


Here is my article of the week; http://www.slate.com/id/2212108/
It's an article written back in 2009 about how the internet has changed since 1996.


Some interesting quotes from it:
"In 1996, Americans with Internet access spent fewer than 30 minutes a month surfing the Web, according to Steve Coffey, who's now the chief research officer of the market research firm the NPD Group. (Today, we spend about 27 hours a month online, according to Nielsen.)"


"The biggest site, by far, was AOL.com; 41 percent of people online checked it regularly. Many didn't do so on purpose: With 5 million subscribers, AOL was the world's largest ISP"


"To produce the directory, Yahoo employees—actual human beings—reviewed new sites and cataloged them according to a strict hierarchical taxonomy. When you typed in what you were looking for—say, "new magazine," "sexy site," or "advice on taxes"—Yahoo would search its directory and return sites that it had already reviewed. "


"There was no instant-messaging software; the first big IM client, ICQ, hit the Web early in 1997"


"The MP3 file format was invented in the early 1990s, but very few people traded music in 1996—the files were too big to cram down modems, and Winamp, the first popular MP3 player app, was published in 1997."


I think it is important to realize that at the speed that the internet is changing shape, it becomes easier and easier to become distracted.  As the article states, in 1996 those who had internet spent less than 30 minutes a month on it, where as now more than 27 hours a month is spent online.  And I'm willing to bet that most high school and college students spend at least 27 hours a WEEK online.  Facebook has revolutionized the internet, and when there's nothing better to do, we just simply log on and stare at the screen.