College Students are Distracted: Spending a Fifth of Class Time on Devices: Study

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It appears that college students are busier on their digital devices than their actual studies. A new research, published in the Journal of Media Education, revealed that college students are distracted and spending a fifth of class time on gadgets.

Although it is not surprising to know that students nowadays can be seen on their digital devices during break times, the amount of time they spent on these products as suggested by the study is rather shocking.

Students tend to check their smartphones more than 11 times during regular classes. There are about 12 percent of the students, who do email messaging, texting and other nonclassroom activities 30 times a day. Parents must be so concerned how these new technologies, which do not have anything to do with their school work, were able to get much attention from their kids.

Study author Barney McCoy said that technology definitely helps a lot in society.

"Most of us love technology," said McCoy, who is also an associate professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. "And we want it to benefit us. But technology also affords a view that can be distracting."

"So the question now is, how do we balance this out?" the associate professor stated in a report relayed by U.S. News. "How can we take in all the constructive dynamic benefits that this technology enables us to have, and then also be disciplined enough to recognize that there is a time and place to put it aside, and pay attention and stay focused?"

McCoy, who also teaches multimedia and new courses at the University, conducted the study to raise awareness in the abuse of modern technology. He said that the distraction has risen to another level, which gives parents and teachers so much to worry about.

In 2013, 30 percent of the students admitted that they used gadgets 10 times or more during class hours. In 2015, the numbers increase to 34 percent.

What is more concerning is, the total number of students that self-reported to have not used these digital devices for distraction in the past have dropped from eight percent to three percent in the span of two years.

The study stated that texting is the most common form of distraction followed by email messaging, which is at 76 percent. Social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are also common distraction as reported by 70 percent of the respondents.