CRAY Colloquium: The Cognitive Costs of Technology Use: Attention, Multitasking, and Stress

The computer science colloquium takes place on Mondays from 11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. This week's speaker, Gloria Mark (University of California, Irvine), will be giving a talk titled "The Cognitive Costs of Technology Use: Attention, Multitasking, and Stress"

Abstract

We are undergoing a fundamental shift in how we think, work, and focus in the digital age. While personal technologies are designed to extend our capabilities, my research shows that they often lead to increased multitasking and stress—factors that can hinder performance. To understand technology use, I study people in their real-world environments using sensors and other mixed methods. In this talk, I’ll begin by showing how our attention spans on screens have significantly decreased over the past two decades. I’ll discuss how this change is connected to broader sociotechnical changes in our lives. I’ll present different types of attention people experience and their relation to mood and wellbeing. AI is also influencing how we pay attention and reason. Finally, I will discuss solutions at both the individual and collective levels for gaining agency with attention, sharing insights on how people can recognize and work with their natural attentional rhythms.

Biography

Gloria Mark is Professor Emerita at UC Irvine and a leading researcher on how digital technology shapes the modern mind. For more than two decades, she has studied how our tools alter the way we think, focus, and feel. A Fulbright Scholar and member of the ACM SIGCHI Academy, she has authored over 200 papers focusing on the human side of technology. Her work has been featured on The Ezra Klein Show, CBS Sunday Morning, NPR’s Hidden Brain, Freakonomics, and Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, among many others. Her award-winning book, Attention Span, named the #1 Best Business and Management Book of 2023 by The Globe and Mail and a Next Big Idea Book Club selection, explores how our attention has become the defining struggle of the digital age. Through her writing and her Substack, The Future of Attention, she envisions a future where technology empowers, rather than overwhelms, and where we can flourish together.