Features of Media Multitasking in School-Age Children

Abstract

The paper addresses the phenomenon of media multitasking that is being widely spread among children and adolescents in the context of digital socialization. The previous research has revealed its strong connection with cognitive control, executive functions, and academic performance, yet the specificity and efficacy of media multitasking performance, especially among children while they carry out usual activities, remains insufficiently studied. A quasi-experimental study, including digital tasks of various types on a computer and smartphone, the dots task for executive functions, and a socio-psychological questionnaire, was conducted with the participants of three age groups: 7–10, 11–13, and 14–16 years old (N = 154). The results indicate that media multitasking is connected not with sex, but age; the older the participants are, the more likely they tend to work in a multitasking mode. Furthermore, preference for multitasking has been found to be positively related to higher user activity. Although the total task performance rate is insignificantly lower in the multitasking group as compared to the non-multitasking one, a significant negative effect of media multitasking on total performance time was revealed. The results of the study that indicate a strong connection of media multitasking with the intensity of Internet usage, cognitive functions, and performance time, suggest its considerable role in social and cognitive functioning of children and adolescents.

Media Multitasking in Mixed Reality Learning Situations: What Determines Its Effectiveness?

“…e results support ndings on the prevalence of multitasking strategy among the younger generation, using it to adapt to mixed reality (Colledani et al, 2023). Adolescents more o en choose "average" multitasking strategy, and the percentage of "heavy" multitaskers appears to be small, which is consistent with other studies (Soldatova et al, 2020a). In the current study, no di erences in performance were found between single-taskers, "average", and "heavy" multitaskers.…”

“…For both children and adults, this format is seen as a new digital sociality that has emerged in response to the increased demands of the environment. Empirical data show that MMT is a common activity format among adolescents (May & Elder, 2018;Soldatova et al, 2020a), which is also penetrating education.…”

“…Looking for a more objective MMT assessment, we developed and tested a quasi-experimental study design that replicates the situation of everyday MMT in children and adolescents. e quasi-experiment included simultaneous performance of several tasks on a computer and a smartphone (Soldatova et al, 2020a).…”

An Exploratory Investigation on Exposure, Perception and Patterns of Usage of Digital Technology among Children in a North Indian City

“…We found that about 12% of children used to be occasionally engaged in media multitasking. It was found that multitasking habits increase with age, which is consistent with the results of other studies (Gutnick et al, 2010; Kabali et al, 2015; Soldotova et al, 2019). A study conducted on seven to eleven years old children in Singapore demonstrated that the more actively the children use digital devices, the more they seem to have a higher level of multitasking (Soldotova et al, 2019).…”

“…It was found that multitasking habits increase with age, which is consistent with the results of other studies (Gutnick et al, 2010; Kabali et al, 2015; Soldotova et al, 2019). A study conducted on seven to eleven years old children in Singapore demonstrated that the more actively the children use digital devices, the more they seem to have a higher level of multitasking (Soldotova et al, 2019). Research on media multitasking is still in a nascent stage and there is a need to develop methodologies that can accurately track the multitasking habits of children to assess its impact on time management, social interaction and overall development of younger children (Gutnick et al, 2010; Kabali et al, 2015).…”