Tag: texting

Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction | TheLedger.com

Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning.

Researchers say the lure of these technologies, while it affects adults too, is particularly powerful for young people. The risk, they say, is that developing brains can become more easily habituated than adult brains to constantly switching tasks — and less able to sustain attention.

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9 Out Of 10 Students Text During Class, Study Shows

According to a recent Wilkes University study, 91 percent of students text during class.

Two Wilkes psychology professors, Deborah Tindell and Robert Bohlander, circulated a survey that questioned respondents on their text messaging habits and attitudes toward texting in class among 269 students. They found that:

  • 99 percent of students think they should be allowed to have their cell phones in class
  • 95 percent bring phones to the classroom
  • 62 percent believe texting should be allowed in class, provided it doesn’t distract others
  • Around 10 percent have sent or received texts during exams>
  • 3 percent used texts to cheat during exams

Close to 25 percent of respondents said that others’ texting has made it difficult to focus in class and 75 percent reported being distracted by a ringing phone.