纽约时报 没收手机解决不了青春期问题

 

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Taking Away the Phones Won’t Solve Our Teenagers’ Problems



By Tracy A. Dennis-Tiwary     JUL 15, 2018    words:  707      New York Times

Apple has introduced new software designed to help users restrict the time they spend on their phones — just change your settings and your favorite app will lock you out after a certain number of hours. It’s been especially welcomed by parents who fret about the habits of their “screenagers” — young people who seem permanently attached to their mobile devices.

苹果引入了一个新的功能希望控制人们用手机的时间。对于家长来说,似乎是个福音,他们受够了孩子沉迷于手机。

screenagers 一个有意思的新词

Even Silicon Valley insiders demanded that Apple make its devices “less addictive.” Some researchers have gone so far as to declare that smartphones have psychologically destroyed a generation of millennials and are fueling the epidemic of teenage anxiety and suicide in the United States. One study notes a spike in anxiety and depression among teenagers in 2011 — around the time of broad smartphone adoption.

硅谷的内部人士也是要求苹果要注意手机成瘾的问题。有些手机甚至指出,手机毁了一代人。【语料:手机的坏处】

But I’ve come to believe that conventional wisdom about the relationship between troubled kids and their favorite technology is wrong.

但是我觉得大众的说法不对,手机不该为孩子们的问题负责。

【我认为的表达: I have come to believe that...

反方态度: conventional wisdom 】

Although some research does show that excessive and compulsive smartphone use is correlated with anxiety and depression, there is a lack of direct evidence that devices actually cause mental health problems.

虽然有些研究的确显示过度的手机和焦虑、抑郁等相关。【让步的表达】但没有直接证据证明两者的因果性

In other words, there simply does not yet exist a prospective longitudinal study showing that, all things being equal, teenagers who use smartphones more often or in certain ways are more likely than their fellows to subsequently develop mental illness.

换句话说「in other words 的使用」,没有可靠的研究显示,长期用手机的孩子会比同龄人更容易得心理疾病

Large studies that fail to follow individuals over time can reveal only correlation, not cause. Luckily, some recently begun studies will be poised to weigh in on causation — but we’ll have to wait years for the results.

目前的研究只是证明了相关性,不是因果性。

In the meantime, we can’t just blame the machines. This is especially important because if smartphones aren’t a direct cause of teenagers’ mental health struggles, their use might instead be a crucial way in which these struggles are expressed. This calls for a different set of solutions.

同时,我们不能简单的加罪于机器。可能正是焦虑的孩子才会老是去用手机

Teenagers are struggling with anxiety more than any other problem, and perhaps more than ever before. There’s a good chance that it is anxiety that is driving teenagers (and the rest of us) to escape into screens as a way to flee fears. Across most types of anxiety runs a common thread — difficulty coping with feelings of uncertainty: something today’s teenagers have more than their fair share of.

对于孩子来说,最大的问题就是焦虑感。【语料: young people 的问题】可能就是这种焦虑感让年轻人沉迷手机

They have uncertain economic lives: Unlike previous generations, they can anticipate a worse economic future than their parents.

现在的年轻人面对的将来比父母辈更不可预期

They’ve also grown up with uncertain truths and unreliable sources of news and facts, yet they cannot easily escape the digital ecosystem that’s to blame.

他们现在生活的年代又充斥着各种虚虚实实的内容

Finally, teenagers have uncertain independence, many having been raised under the whirring of helicopter parents, overinvolved and trying to fix every problem for their children. This suffocates independence at a time when teenagers should be exploring autonomy, limits the development of self-reliance and grit and may even directly produce anxiety and depression.

同时,他们的家长管太多了,导致现在的孩子的独立能力很差【语料:家长要放开手】

When we’re anxious, we gravitate toward experiences that dull the present anxious moment. Enter mobile devices, the perfect escape into a two-dimensional half-life, one that teenagers can make sense of.

当年轻人焦虑的时候,他们开始逃避眼前,去往虚拟世界,这是可以理解的。

dull 的使用

We already know that teenagers go online to avoid feelings of stress, depression and anxiety, and we also know this strategy has more negative emotional consequences than positive ones. With their slot-machine logic and addictive properties, smartphones keep us coming back for more: for distraction, a message from a friend, news, a funny cat meme.

我们已经知道年轻人上网的原因是为了逃避压力、抑郁和焦虑,我们也知道这种逃避解决不了问题

Digital technology is designed to grab our attention, so it exhausts us, distracts us and detracts from our ability to nurture fulfilling relationships. With that in mind, teenagers should reduce their reliance on smartphones, and we must heed the call to make smartphones and social media less addictive while figuring out how they affect us and our children.

如果这些数字科技要的就是消耗注意力,青少年当然要少用,但是我们也要找出影响孩子成长的真正原因【语料:digital technology 的坏处】

At the same time, if smartphone addiction is a reflection of adolescent anxiety, cutting screen time may not solve the broader problems that drive teenagers to their screens. Just blaming the machines is a cop-out, a way to avoid the much more difficult task of improving young people’s lives so they won’t need to escape.

但如果青少年用手机只是为了逃避现实生活里面的问题,那么怪罪手机就是逃避责任的体现了。

cop-out: 逃避责任

Yes, we should devote resources to making smartphones less addictive, but we should devote even more resources to addressing the public health crisis of anxiety that is causing teenagers so much suffering and driving them to seek relief in the ultimate escape machines.

当然,我们要防沉迷,但我们更应该找到导致青少年焦虑的原因。

LAB | 外刊


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