Stress and multitasking in everyday college life: an empirical study of online activity

G Mark, Y Wang, M Niiya - Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on …, 2014 - dl.acm.org
G Mark, Y Wang, M Niiya
Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, 2014dl.acm.org
While HCI has focused on multitasking with information workers, we report on multitasking
among Millennials who grew up with digital media-focusing on college students. We logged
computer activity and used biosensors to measure stress of 48 students for 7 days for all
waking hours, in their in situ environments. We found a significant positive relationship with
stress and daily time spent on computers. Stress is positively associated with the amount of
multitasking. Conversely, stress is negatively associated with Facebook and social media …
While HCI has focused on multitasking with information workers, we report on multitasking among Millennials who grew up with digital media - focusing on college students. We logged computer activity and used biosensors to measure stress of 48 students for 7 days for all waking hours, in their in situ environments. We found a significant positive relationship with stress and daily time spent on computers. Stress is positively associated with the amount of multitasking. Conversely, stress is negatively associated with Facebook and social media use. Heavy multitaskers use significantly more social media and report lower positive affect than light multitaskers. Night habits affect multitasking the following day: late-nighters show longer duration of computer use and those ending their activities earlier in the day multitask less. Our study shows that college students multitask at double the frequency compared to studies of information workers. These results can inform designs for stress management of college students.
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