Academic-Media Multitasking During Schoolwork and Digital Performance: Cross-National Evidence on Associations from ICILS 2023
Using ICILS 2023 data from 35 education systems, this study reveals that while academic-media multitasking is widespread, it is consistently associated with lower computational thinking skills and shows a heterogeneous, near-zero relationship with computer and information literacy, with off-task behaviors driving negative outcomes more than information-seeking activities.
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In the modern classroom, the line between learning and distraction has blurred into a single, glowing screen. A student might be writing an essay or solving a math problem on a laptop, yet that same device holds the door to a social media feed, a video stream, or a text message thread. This phenomenon, known as academic-media multitasking, occurs when students try to do their schoolwork while simultaneously engaging with unrelated digital content. For years, educators and psychologists have worried that this constant switching of attention drains the brain's limited capacity to process new information, much like trying to hold too many heavy objects at once. While small studies have hinted that this behavior hurts grades, it has remained unclear whether the harm is the same for every type of learning, or if the impact changes depending on where a student lives and what kind of school they attend.
To answer these questions with greater clarity, researchers Armel Landry Batchi-Bouyou, Päivi Häkkinen, and Ronny Scherer turned to a massive global dataset. They analyzed information from the 2023 International Computer and Information Literacy Study, which tested more than 128,000 eighth-grade students across 35 different education systems. The team looked at two distinct types of digital skill. The first, computer and information literacy, measures a student's ability to use technology to find information, create content, and communicate with others. The second, computational thinking, is a more rigorous skill that involves breaking down complex real-world problems into logical steps and designing algorithmic solutions, a process that requires sustained focus and the ability to hold multiple pieces of information in the mind at once. By comparing how often students reported multitasking with their scores on these two very different tests, the researchers could see if the type of digital task mattered.
The results revealed a story of two very different outcomes. When looking at general computer and information literacy, the connection to multitasking was complicated and varied wildly from country to country. In some nations, students who multitasked more actually scored higher, while in others, they scored lower. This suggests that in places where access to computers is less common, the act of multitasking might simply signal that a student has a device and is engaging with the digital world, which is a positive step. However, when the researchers looked at computational thinking, the picture became starkly consistent. Across nearly every education system studied, students who multitasked more frequently performed significantly worse on tasks requiring logical reasoning and problem-solving. The more a student checked social media or switched tasks while working, the lower their score on these demanding cognitive tests.
The study also broke down exactly what students were doing while they were supposed to be working. It turned out that not all digital distractions are created equal. The most damaging behavior was checking and using social media. This specific activity was strongly linked to lower performance in both general literacy and computational thinking. In contrast, using the internet to search for information was not significantly linked to lower scores, suggesting that looking up facts might sometimes be part of the learning process rather than a distraction. Interestingly, listening to music or watching videos showed a different pattern; while these activities did not help with the complex logic tasks, they were not as harmful as social media and, in some cases, were even associated with slightly better scores on general computer skills. This indicates that the brain's reaction to a background video is different from the intense attentional pull of a social media notification.
The researchers also examined whether schools could change these outcomes through instruction. They found that when schools taught students about safe and responsible technology use, the relationship between multitasking and performance shifted. However, this did not mean that simply teaching safety rules made multitasking less harmful in a simple, direct way. Instead, the data suggested that in schools with strong instruction on digital citizenship, the negative impact of multitasking on general computer skills became more pronounced. This implies that as students become more aware of how to use technology responsibly, the cost of using it irresponsibly becomes clearer. The study concludes that while banning devices entirely may not be the answer, schools need to move beyond simple rules and focus on helping students develop the self-control to manage their attention during complex tasks. The evidence points to a clear reality: while students can navigate the digital world with ease, the ability to maintain deep, uninterrupted focus on a difficult problem is a fragile skill that suffers the most when the screen is constantly pulling them in a different direction.
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