PBS高端访谈:当下的青少年女孩在社交媒体上遭受性骚扰

 GWEN IFILL: In the eight years since Apple unveiled its first smartphone, an entire generation of young users has spring up who never knew a world without a device in hand.

That's the starting point for the latest addition to the "NewsHour" Bookshelf, "American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers," by journalist and author Nancy Jo Sales.

She recently sat down with Hari Sreenivasan.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Joining me now is author Nancy Jo Sales.

So, what are the challenges that American girls are facing today that are different from the ones they have always faced?

NANCY JO SALES, Author, "American Girls": Girls use social media lot. They're on their phones a lot. And I think most parents are aware of that.

So, really, the question is, what is happening there, and how are these kind of — some regrettable trends that we have seen happening for some time, such as the sexualization of girls, bullying¹, how are these moving on to phones and on to screens? And what is this environment doing to the life of girls and boys?

HARI SREENIVASAN: You paint a picture almost of these young girls at this kind of intersection² of the existing angst that a teenage girl has, combined with this technological³ leap that we're all taking together, combined with pornography.

NANCY JO SALES: Yes, I think the kind of elephant, maybe dinosaur⁴ in the room right now is pornography. Pornography has been available online for some time.

But I don't think we have really begun to have a conversation about what that is doing to kids. And we know that they're watching it. They're teenagers. They're going through puberty. They're curious. They're watching pornography.

But this tends to be more and more violent pornography that is also, one could I think reasonably say, very degrading to women. And this is where a lot of teenagers now find their sex-ed. And porn is also — the porn aesthetic⁵ is also really engulfing⁶ social media. And social media is just full of really explicit⁷ sexual content.

And whether or not your child wants to see it or intends to see it, they are likely to see it.

当下的青少年女孩在社交媒体上遭受性骚扰

HARI SREENIVASAN: What happens to all of us when there's, on the one hand, kind of hyper-sexualization, hyper-masculinization on the boys' side and girls' side? And this — if this is the new sex-ed, they have really reduced the female body down into this thing they can swipe across.

NANCY JO SALES: Yes.

I mean, I think it's really challenging for girls especially to have an expectation to produce images of themselves in order to get validation⁸, the validation that everybody seems to want of likes and friends and followers⁹.

It's very challenging to them, I think, to have an expectation to produce images of themselves which are sexualized in which they look — quote, unquote — "hot," and also to have to navigate¹⁰ through all these emotions that come through comments that might be on these pictures that are about how just hot they are or how not hot they are.

HARI SREENIVASAN: You capture a lot of different conversations, and there seems to be this conundrum¹¹, where you ask them, well, if this is all the stress that's associated with making sure you're checking up on your likes and your pictures and who liked you and what did they say, why are you on it? And they seem to say, well, I can't get off it.

I don't get that.

NANCY JO SALES: Yes, I talked to more than 200 girls in 10 states over 30 months.

And one of the things that struck me the most was how self-aware they are, how articulate they were, how analytical¹² they were about this very thing they were engaged in so much of the time. And they're quite aware of the ways in which it's really toxic¹³. And yet they can't leave it, because this is — this is the swamp they're swimming in. This is the world they're enmeshed in, where you have to be on it, or you're not part of the conversation, you're not part of what's happening.

It's — a girl in New Jersey¹⁴ described it as a second world that we live in. You know, there's the real world and then there's the second world that we're simultaneously¹⁵ in kind of all the time.

HARI SREENIVASAN: And this is also affecting just their relationships with one another, even in a non-sexualized way: Who's my best friend and what's my best friend allowed to say or do to me? Or, you know, it's just different than the conversations that I had growing up and deciding who to hang out with.

NANCY JO SALES: It's different to communicate from behind a screen, and this is true for adults as well. I mean, we know this from multiple, multiple studies that when you communicate from behind a screen, you're more likely to say things that you wouldn't face to face. You're more likely to become aggressive and even, some studies say, unethical.

Now, think about that. Like, we have children now growing up on phones, learning to communicate with each other and be people from behind a screen in an environment in which it's OK to do stuff that you wouldn't do if you were with the person.

I think that's really something that I think parents really need to think about when they think about how they're kids are growing up now.

HARI SREENIVASAN: You have a 15-year-old daughter.

How did these conversations go? She obviously was living with you at the time you were working on all this research. You go on all these trips. You talk to all these girls. You come back, and then what?

NANCY JO SALES: We talk about it all the time, like, on a daily basis, because to talk to her about what is going on in her life is to talk to her about what is going on, on social media, because that's part of what teenage life is about now.

So, I just try and have it be an ongoing¹⁶ conversation as if I were asking her about what happened in school today, you know, and just kind of find out what's going on with your friends. And sometimes really dramatic things come up, and I think a lot of parents have seen that.

HARI SREENIVASAN: What surprised me — and I'm wondering what surprised you during the reporting of this? But there were — you had stories about women — or young girls that were getting plastic surgery so they could look better in selfies.

But when you went across all these different young women, what shocked you?

NANCY JO SALES: The way that comments on pictures were so very sexualized, like, almost like catcalling, which if this happened in the street, we would say, well, that's really insulting.

But on social media, the culture of social media is such that you're supposed to say, oh, thank you, an emoji with heart eyes, like, you said I'm hot. And I'm just really — I'm really concerned as a parent and as a woman about what this is doing to a generation of girls.

For example, the book, it opens with a girl being asked to send nudes¹⁷. A boy that she doesn't know very well says to her, really demands of her really, send nudes. She's not — he's not her boyfriend. And so, you know, all kinds of thoughts start to go through her head. Like, wow, should I be flattered? Should I be outraged¹⁸? Should I be insulted? Is this — should I do it? Should I not do it? Well, if I did it, what would it look like?

And these are new kinds of things for anybody to have to think about, especially 13-year-old girls.

HARI SREENIVASAN: All right, the book is called "American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers."

Author Nancy Jo Sales, thanks so much for joining us.

NANCY JO SALES: Thank you.

1 bullying   

v.恐吓，威逼( bully的现在分词 )；豪；跋扈

参考例句：

• Many cases of bullying go unreported . 很多恐吓案件都没有人告发。
• All cases of bullying will be severely dealt with. 所有以大欺小的情况都将受到严肃处理。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 intersection   

n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集

参考例句：

• There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
• Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。

3 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

4 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

5 aesthetic   

adj.美学的，审美的，有美感

参考例句：

• My aesthetic standards are quite different from his.我的审美标准与他的大不相同。
• The professor advanced a new aesthetic theory.那位教授提出了新的美学理论。

6 engulfing   

adj.吞噬的v.吞没，包住( engulf的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• A photographer had fused the lights,engulfing the entire house darkness. 一位摄影师把电灯的保险丝烧断了，使整栋房子陷于黑暗当中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A professional photographer had fused the lights,engulfing the entire house in darkness. 一位职业摄影师把保险丝烧断了使整所房子陷于黑暗当中。 来自辞典例句

7 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

8 validation   

n.确认

参考例句：

• If the countdown timer ever hits zero, do your validation processing. 处理这种情况的方法是在输入的同时使用递减计时器，每次击键重新计时。如果递减计时器变为零，就开始验证。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Although the validation control is a very widespread idiom, most such controls can be improved. 虽然确认控件是非常广泛的习惯用法，但还有很多有待改进的地方。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

9 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

10 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

11 conundrum   

n.谜语；难题

参考例句：

• Let me give you some history about a conundrum.让我给你们一些关于谜题的历史。
• Scientists had focused on two explanations to solve this conundrum.科学家已锁定两种解释来解开这个难题。

12 analytical   

adj.分析的；用分析法的

参考例句：

• I have an analytical approach to every survey.对每项调查我都采用分析方法。
• As a result,analytical data obtained by analysts were often in disagreement.结果各个分析家所得的分析数据常常不一致。

13 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

14 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

15 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

16 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

17 nudes   

（绘画、照片或雕塑）裸体( nude的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He also drew Chinese opera figures, nudes and still lives. 他还画戏曲人物画、裸女、瓶花静物等。

18 outraged   

a.震惊的，义愤填膺的

参考例句：

• Members of Parliament were outraged by the news of the assassination. 议会议员们被这暗杀的消息激怒了。
• He was outraged by their behavior. 他们的行为使他感到愤慨。