2008 Woodie Awards
Handling multiple tasks not so difficult
Barbara Harrington/Staff Reporter
Issue date: 12/7/07 Section: News
Jill Sparenberg said she cannot effectively perform multiple tasks at once.
Sparenberg, a senior elementary education major with the middle level option, has been a desk assistant at Lawson Hall for the past two-and-a-half years.
As a desk assistant, Sparenberg checks equipment out to residents, distributes mail, helps residents who lock themselves out and answers phone calls.
While Sparenberg handles her desk assistant responsibilities, she said she oftentimes also studies and talks with Lawson residents.
"This is the best job to have on campus," Sparenberg said. "You can have some social interaction while getting your homework done."
Aside from her job as a desk assistant, Sparenberg said she is not the best multitasker.
Sparenberg said she is more efficient at completing tasks when she is only focusing on one thing at a time, rather than switching back and forth between different projects.
"Whenever I have big papers to write, I like to have nothing going on for a day and sit down and write the paper all at once," she said. "I don't like to break it up, but I know some people only like to write a page and then take a break."
Students like Sparenberg are becoming increasingly uncommon.
According to the 2006 Kaiser Family Foundation study, "Media multitasking among American youth: prevalence, predictors and pairings," during a typical week, 81 percent of eight- to 18-year-olds spend some of their time using more than one type of media at once.
Another study done by the foundation, "Generation M," reported these young multitaskers spend nearly a fourth of their time on media switching back and forth between different mediums.
Dr. Jordan Grafman, chief of the cognitive neuroscience section of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, said part of the reason so many people are multitasking is because of new technology.
With new gadgets such as the iPhone and BlackBerry, people have access to over five different types of media, all at the touch of a button.
Sparenberg, a senior elementary education major with the middle level option, has been a desk assistant at Lawson Hall for the past two-and-a-half years.
As a desk assistant, Sparenberg checks equipment out to residents, distributes mail, helps residents who lock themselves out and answers phone calls.
While Sparenberg handles her desk assistant responsibilities, she said she oftentimes also studies and talks with Lawson residents.
"This is the best job to have on campus," Sparenberg said. "You can have some social interaction while getting your homework done."
Aside from her job as a desk assistant, Sparenberg said she is not the best multitasker.
Sparenberg said she is more efficient at completing tasks when she is only focusing on one thing at a time, rather than switching back and forth between different projects.
"Whenever I have big papers to write, I like to have nothing going on for a day and sit down and write the paper all at once," she said. "I don't like to break it up, but I know some people only like to write a page and then take a break."
Students like Sparenberg are becoming increasingly uncommon.
According to the 2006 Kaiser Family Foundation study, "Media multitasking among American youth: prevalence, predictors and pairings," during a typical week, 81 percent of eight- to 18-year-olds spend some of their time using more than one type of media at once.
Another study done by the foundation, "Generation M," reported these young multitaskers spend nearly a fourth of their time on media switching back and forth between different mediums.
Dr. Jordan Grafman, chief of the cognitive neuroscience section of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, said part of the reason so many people are multitasking is because of new technology.
With new gadgets such as the iPhone and BlackBerry, people have access to over five different types of media, all at the touch of a button.
The Daily Eastern News encourages on-topic, civil discussion on its articles posted online. It is our policy not to screen comments before they are posted or edit them after they are posted. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language. The DEN also reserves the right to turn off all comments on any story it deems necessary.
Comments violating copyright law will also be removed.
Users who repeatedly violate this policy will be banned from commenting.
If you have any questions on our comment policy or wish to report a comment that you feel violates these standards, please e-mail a link to the article to our Online Editor at DENNews.com@gmail.com.
Be the first to comment on this story