Author name: Spencer Thomason

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Research links media multitasking to distractibility

Do you scroll Facebook while watching television? Or listen to music while typing a research paper? Play a game on your smartphone as you listen to an audiobook? According to a new study, you may be hurting your memory and attention span.   Media multitasking– consuming more than one source of media at a time– […]

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Take a break from social media, study urges

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen say we’d all be better off if we quit Facebook.   The study, published on the Happiness Research Institute’s website, followed over a thousand people. These individuals were surveyed about their social media use and well-being– a social science term for life satisfaction and mood. *Almost all (94%) of

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Family

Unplugging may improve social skills, study suggests

A recent study suggests taking some tech-free time may improve tweens’ ability to recognize emotional cues from others.   The study, published in the academic journal “Computers in Human Behavior,” tested two classes of sixth graders (aged 11, 12, and 13 years old) on their ability to recognize nonverbal emotional cues. This was done by asking

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Smartphones “exacerbate the difficulties of growing up,” Melinda Gates writes in Washington Post editorial

Melinda Gates helped invent Microsoft Publisher and Expedia. You’d think she would be well prepared to help her kids navigate technology.   Bill and Melinda Gates are undoubtedly wonderful parents. But, according the Washington Post editorial Melinda penned titled, “I spent my career in technology, I wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids,” she

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TECH TIMEOUT CHALLENGE

Your phone distracts you more than you know

Think you can fire on all cylinders with your smartphone out? Think again. A new study suggests simply your smartphone’s presence drains your brain power.   Researchers recruited 520 undergraduate students and randomly assigned them to one of three groups. One group was asked to leave all their belongings outside the lab. The students in

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