Authors: Dr. Adorable Kimulya
Abstract: There is a growing concern among parents and educators regarding students reading attention and comprehension in the face of continued use of social media, including unprecedented switching from academic work to social media; replacing their reading time with entertainment and /or chatting with friends. This study investigated the effects of social media context-switch notifications on university students’ reading attention and comprehension across university students in Uganda. The study utilized cross-sectional explanatory design using interview guides, a standardized academic reading passage, a reading comprehension test, an attention observation checklist, individual’s gadgets’ notifications tuned on. This is what simulated fulltime social media alerts. A total of 320 students from Gulu University, Mountains of the Moon university, St. Johns Baptist Ggaba Teachers’ Institute, Rwenzori International University, and Victoria University were sampled using stratified random sampling. Data was collected using a controlled reading task, a reading comprehension test, and a notification exposure checklist. Findings revealed that students frequently switched from reading activities to respond to what they deemed essential, following social media notifications. This significantly reduced sustained reading attention, concentration and comprehension. The study concludes that context-switch notifications act as cognitive disruptors, not only during academic reading, but also during other reading activities. Institutions should emphasize student self-regulation strategies, guiding them to disable all social media notifications to ensure digital literacy remains uninterrupted.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20199554
