The presence of student-owned information and communication technologies (smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc.) in today's college classroom creates learning problems when students distract themselves during lectures by texting and using social media. research on multitasking presents clear evidence that human information processing is insufficient for attending to multiple stimuli and for performing simultaneous tasks. to collect data on how multitasking with these technologies interferes with the learning process, a carefully-designed study was conducted at a mostly residential large public university in the northeast united states. junco, r. in-class multitasking and academic performance. computers in human behavior (2012) at the beginning of a semester a group of students who were us residents admitted through the regular admissions process and who were taking the same courses were selected based on their high use of social media and the similarities of their college gpa's.