QuickTip: How Media Multitasking Can Affect Your Attention Span
Release Date: 03/27/2026
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QuickTip: How Self-Compassion Can Help to Motivate
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QuickTip: 3 Ways (That Are Not Meditation) to Practice Mindfulness
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QuickTip: Should You? Or Could You?
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QuickTip: What’s the Difference Between Self-Care and Coping?
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info_outlineHere's a quick, three-minute tip where we break down a mental health or personal development topic in 180 seconds to help you shift or reframe your perspective.
Today’s topic is a further exploration of multitasking but this time specifically looking at media multitasking and some of its effects on brain and mental health.
Media multitasking is the term that’s used to describe the art of consuming media through multiple devices or streams at the same time. So scrolling through Instagram while watching TV or listening to a podcast while reading your email.
While multitasking in general can contribute to negative side effects like increased stress and lower productivity, research has shown that media multitasking can significantly affect our attention spans and memory.
For example, a 2022 study published in Front Psychiatry found that college students who engaged in media multitasking were more likely to experience symptoms of anxiety and depression because they were less able to control their attention.
An earlier study by Stanford University researchers also found that regular media multitaskers can struggle to filter out irrelevant information, meaning they can get easily distracted from what they’re trying to focus on. The same study also found that regular media multitaskers were less successful at controlling their memory and switching between tasks than people who did not engage in as much media multitasking.
While the realities of modern life make it easier and may even encourage media multitasking, being aware of some of the side effects, including the fact that we become more susceptible to irrelevant and potentially even negative information, can be helpful.
Because even if you’re going to media multitask, which most of us are at some point, if you start to notice yourself feeling more anxious or stressed than normal or having difficulty remembering what you have to do that day, you can always try putting down one of your devices or taking a brief break all together as a way to recalibrate.
Research cited: "Cognitive control in media multitaskers." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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*Disclaimer: The information contained in this episode is for the sole purpose of being informative and is not considered complete. It should not replace consultation with a qualified professional.