Check out Irresistible: The rise of addictive technology and the business of keeping us hooked, by Adam Alter. (his Ted Talk can be accessed at https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_alter_why_our_screens_make_us_less_happy Alter (2017) does an excellent analysis of the psychological, situational and physiological factors and… Continue Reading →

McDaniel and Radesky (2018) and many other researchers have been studying the interference caused by use of mobile devices on interpersonal interactions and on relationships – not just student-instructor but also romantic relationships (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016),  parent-child interactions (McDaniel… Continue Reading →

Since we need cognitive control to deal with novel, difficult, abstract, challenging situations, like studying, risky situations with lots of change, and to help ourselves ignore distractions and interruptions, here’s some common sense advice to help you study (and drive… Continue Reading →

What strategies have instructors used to deal with digital distractions in class (students texting or off-task distractions like social media)? What worked for them? Why not ask the faculty who must deal with this every day. Rather than surveying students… Continue Reading →

Here’s some questions for you to ponder in a self-reflection exercise (Emanuel, Bell, Cotton, et al., 2015) Score your answers on a scale of 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree): 1. I feel safer when I have my phone with… Continue Reading →

Check out the pages in the Literature Review site – I’ll be posting some theories about why our tech is so irresistible and distracting and addictive. I’ll be summarizing Cognitive/Attentional Resource theory Knowledge and Intellectual Resource theory Relational Resource theory… Continue Reading →

As a student, you want to be successful – attain a good GPA. Gain knowledge and understanding of your discipline. Develop skills, such as research, writing, presenting, math, critical thinking, meta-cognition, self-reflection, and discipline-specific skills. Be able to think deeply… Continue Reading →

“Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers”. According to experimental research by Sana, Weston, and Cepeda (2013), trying to multitask on your laptop during class distracts you, and even more, distracts the students around you. In their… Continue Reading →

Harrison and Gilmore (as cited in Dietz & Henrich, 2014) found that students self-reported texting not only in class, but also at work, while taking a shower, attending a religious service, and even while having sex! And many researchers have… Continue Reading →