The Effects of Media Multitasking - with Susanne Baumgartner

Susanne Baumgartner is an Assistant Professor and Researcher at the University of Amsterdam ~

Admit it. Even if you’ve got the TV on or a movie playing on the laptop in bed, you’re pretty likely to also have your phone with you. If you’re anything like me, there have even been times where you’ve been working on a laptop, talking on your cell phone and catching snippets of Jeremy Kyle on the TV in front of you. Heck, if I look to my left as I read this, I can see my cell phone sitting on the desk next to me, easily within arms reach - and - are you also scrolling Instagram while listening to the intro of this podcast? I see you!

Today, we are speaking with Susanne Baumgartner, who is an Assistant Professor and researcher at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, as well as the Centre for Research on Children, Adolescents and the Media, at the University of Amsterdam.

Her main research focuses on the role of digital media in adolescent development. More specifically, Susanne investigates media multitasking, which we will learn about shortly, and how this can affect the cognitive and emotional development of young people, and their sleep.

In this episode, Susanne shares aspects of her research with us. She explains what media-multitasking is, how it is impacting sleep, how young people are coping in our current digital age and why media multitasking can elicit so much stress. Also, just so we don’t get too existential, Susanne also shares with us some findings that are surprisingly positive and encouraging in relation to the research she has done.

Shownotes:

Check out work from the Centre for Research on Children, Adolescents and the Media here, and see Susanne's impressive CV here.

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