PBS高端访谈:智能手机对一代人的影响

 　　Now: how our increasingly wireless¹ world is affecting our social behavior, especially among the generation that has grown up with smartphones. William Brangham has that.

　　The promise of social media, as the name implies, is that it connects us to each other, helps up become more social.

　　But according to a recent story in The Atlantic magazine, an increasing body of evidence shows that,

　　for many teenagers, greater use of social media means a far greater sense of isolation².

　　According to the piece, teenagers now spend less time in the company of their friends, they date less, have less sex, and get less sleep than earlier generations.

　　And with this growing isolation comes a rise in cyber-bullying, feelings of being left out, and higher rates of depression and suicide³.

　　The piece is called, "Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation?" And its written by author and professor of psychology⁴ Jean Twenge.

　　She joins me now from San Diego. Welcome to the NewsHour. Thank you.

　　So, briefly⁵, would you just please lay out the case that you're making in this piece that smartphones and social media have had this very detrimental⁶ effect on a younger generation.

　　Well, I have done work on the generational differences for a long time.

　　And right around 2011, 2012, I started to see some negative signs in the data, more depression, more anxiety.

　　The suicide rate was starting to go up again. And I have realized that these are some sudden big changes.

　　Very rare to see such sudden changes in this type of work. I realized 2012, according to the data, is the year when the majority of Americans had a smartphone.

　　So, that made me wonder if that might have something to do with it.

　　So, I looked at the same big data sets of teenagers and found that those who spent more time online or social media or on electronic devices

　　also were more likely to be depressed⁷ and anxious and have risk factors for suicide.

　　You write in the piece that rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011.

　　What is the evidence that these things are caused by access or heavy use of these devices?

　　Well, that's always the question. So, the research that I did was correlational⁸, so, that there's a link between the two.

　　So, proving causation, really, you need a different type of method. But, fortunately, there have been other researchers who have used those types of methods.

　　There's two studies that have looked at adults over time and seeing that, when they use social media more,

　　then their psychological well-being⁹ goes down and mental health problems increase.

　　There was another study called The Facebook Experiment, where people, by a flip¹⁰ of the coin, either continued their normal Facebook use or they gave up Facebook for a week.

　　And those who gave up Facebook for a week at the end of the week were less lonely, less depressed and happier.

　　So those studies really point very strongly in that direction that the causal arrow moves from social media and screen time to lowered psychological well-being.

　　And you feel they confident that this effect could not be caused by other factors in society, the economy, employment, access to health care,

　　so many other things that could drive our sense of well-being?

　　Yes, so I looked at the economy, because I wondered about that, too, because, of course, the great recession¹¹ had a big effect on people. Unemployment really went up.

　　But if you look at the pattern for unemployment, for example, a good indicator¹² of the strength of the economy, unemployment really peaked out at about 2010, and then went down, and is now quite low.

　　But the data for mental health goes in the other direction. It doesn't do a whole lot until about 2011 or 2012.

　　Then it really shoots upward. So, unemployment doesn't seem to be the answer, at least economic factors.

　　And then other factors, it's hard to nail those down, but access to health care probably went the other direction as well at that time.

　　It's difficult to identify any other big social change that happened around 2011 or 2012 that might be linked to mental health, other than smartphones.

　　What about this reaction that I have seen some people making online that this is just yet another generational freak-out,

　　that this is like we did with violent video games or helicopter parenting or marijuana or rock 'n' roll,

　　that we are just flipping¹³ out because we as an older generation don't appreciate what this technology really is?

　　Yes. Well, as a generations researcher, I have of course heard this argument before:

　　Oh, it's just old people complaining about the young generation. Doesn't that always happen?

　　I have always found that argument confusing, because I don't care what older people say.

　　I'm more interested in what young people say now compared to what young people said 10 or 20 years ago,

　　so comparing the generations at the same age and really listening to young people and what they're experiencing and what they're feeling.

　　So I'm not really sure that argument is relevant.

　　Some of the things that you do cite¹⁴, driving less, drinking less, not getting killed as often in cars, not getting as pregnant¹⁵ as often, those don't sound like necessarily terribly bad things to me as a parent.

　　They're not.So this trend is going up slowly, the things you mentioned about driving, also working less, less likely to have sex and get pregnant as teenagers, less likely to drive.

　　These are tradeoffs. So, 18-year-olds now look more look like 15-year-olds did just five to 10 years ago.

　　So, teens are growing up more slowly. The activities that adults do and children don't, they're just less likely to do those things.

　　Some of those, people might identify as being a really good trend, like fewer teenagers having sex and getting pregnant.

　　Others are, I don't know, either one. Driving less, working less, it's not really a matter of, is this good or is this bad?

　　It's that all of these trends come together with them growing up more slowly, taking longer to take on the roles, both the responsibilities and the pleasures, of adulthood¹⁶.

　　Your piece also says that some of the more negative effects fall harder on girls than on boys. And I'm curious why you think that is.

　　Yes, so a lot of the mental health trends are more acute¹⁷ for girls than boys.

　　The increases have been much larger for girls than for boys.

　　And my best guess is, that's because girls spend more time with their smartphones and more time on social media, and their interactions on social media are often more negative.

　　So that might be one of the reasons why that mental health trend is more negative for girls.

　　Last question. If you were advising a parent who is trying to figure out a good mix of allowing their child to have this technology,

　　but try to moderate it in some way, what kind of advice would you give them?

　　Well, I think, first, put off getting teen a smartphone as long as you can.

　　Sixth grade is really common now, even fourth grade. I have a fourth grader becoming a fifth grader. She said half of the kids in her class have a phone.

　　The mental health effects are stronger for the younger kids. So, put that off.

　　And if you feel like they need it for taking the bus, get them a flip phone.

　　Once they have that smartphone, there are apps where you can regulate¹⁸ how many hours a day they use that phone and if they're using it at night, because we want them to get a good night's sleep.

　　And we found that an hour, even an hour-and-a-half a day of use doesn't seem to have any negative mental health effects,

　　but two hours and beyond, that's where we start to see the effects. And most teens are on their phones a lot more than two hours a day.

　　All right, Jean Twenge, a really, really provocative¹⁹ piece in The Atlantic magazine.

　　Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. undefined

1 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

2 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

3 suicide   

n.自杀，自毁，自杀性行为

参考例句：

• The number of suicide has increased.自杀案件的数量增加了。
• The death was adjudged a suicide by sleeping pills.该死亡事件被判定为服用安眠药自杀。

4 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

5 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

6 detrimental   

adj.损害的，造成伤害的

参考例句：

• We know that heat treatment is detrimental to milk.我们知道加热对牛奶是不利的。
• He wouldn't accept that smoking was detrimental to health.他不相信吸烟有害健康。

7 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

8 correlational   

相关的

参考例句：

• Systematic research if anything tends to support such correlational data. 系统研究一下，如果有任何倾向支持这种相关性的数据。
• A descriptive correlational method of investigation was implemented. 样本是高雄地区129位产后六周的产妇接受问卷调查。

9 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

10 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

11 recession   

n.（工商业的）衷退（期），萧条（期）

参考例句：

• Manufacturing fell sharply under the impact of the recession.受到经济萧条的影响，制造业急剧衰退。
• A rise in interest rates plunged Britain deeper into recession.利率的提高导致英国经济更加萧条。

12 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。

13 flipping   

讨厌之极的

参考例句：

• I hate this flipping hotel! 我讨厌这个该死的旅馆！
• Don't go flipping your lid. 别发火。

14 cite   

vt.引用，引证，举例

参考例句：

• It would be an endless task to cite such living examples.这样的实例举不胜举。
• I'll just cite some figures for comparison.我要引用一些数字作比较。

15 pregnant   

adj.怀孕的，怀胎的

参考例句：

• She is a pregnant woman.她是一名孕妇。
• She is pregnant with her first child.她怀了第一胎。

16 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

17 acute   

adj.严重的，激烈的，敏锐的，急性的，尖的

参考例句：

• A period of acute depression can sometimes follow childbirth.分娩之后可能会有一段时间的急性抑郁期。
• The publication comes as the answer to an acute demand.这一出版物是为满足急需而出版的。

18 regulate   

vt.管理，控制，调节，调校，调整

参考例句：

• This system can regulate the temperature of the room.这种系统能调节室内温度。
• They regulate the flow of water by the sluice gate.他们用水闸门控制水的流量。

19 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。