Multitasking behaviour of college-going students concerning gender and stream of study

Multitasking is an element of human behaviour that demands an individual to simultaneously engage in two or more activities. For instance, texting or watching videos while walking, speaking to someone while watching television, writing/reading while listening to some songs, etc. Several studies revealed both advantages and disadvantages to multitasking. However, the present study's focus is slightly tilted towards the disadvantages. The paper aims to bring forth the adverse effect of multitasking behaviour among the general masses. It also studied the significant difference between male and female college-going students in multitasking behaviour. At the same time, the significant difference between college students with Arts and Science backgrounds of study was also measured. Descriptive research has been adopted to assess the suitability of the current work. Using the random sampling technique, a sample of 150 college-going students was drawn from the East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. Besides, for collecting appropriate data, an Inventory on Multitasking Behaviour (IMB) developed by Mariammal, C. & Meenakshi, R. in 2019 was applied. The process of administration of tools and t-tests as a statistical technique has derived the findings where no significant difference could be observed between male and female college-going students in terms of multitasking behaviour. The computed mean value for female college students was 25.02, with an SD value of 5.6, while the computed mean value for male college students was 23.64, with SD of 5.31. Similarly, no significant difference in multitasking behaviour was observed between Arts and Science students of East Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh. The significant difference in mean scores between the two Arts students (21.8) and Science students (24.0) led to a 1.92 t-value, measured as “significant.” Therefore, the study concludes that college-going students do not significantly differ in displaying multitasking behaviour based on gender. Still, they display a significant difference based on the stream of study.