人们使用 Facebook 的次数越多,对自己的生活就越发感到忧心忡忡。
刷朋友圈越多,对生活越焦虑
译者:邓小雪 & 倪婷
校对:曾擎禹
策划:鲁城华
Teenagers are growing more anxious and depressed
日渐焦虑抑郁的青少年
本文选自 The Economist | 取经号原创翻译
关注 取经号,
回复关键词“外刊”
获取《经济学人》等原版外刊获得方法
THE final bell rings at a high school in downtown Los Angeles, and nearly every pupil spilling onto the pavement either clutches a smartphone or studies a screen, head bowed. A group of boys strolls down the street laughing at a YouTube video, while a girl waiting for her lift home catches up with the Kardashian sisters on Instagram.
洛杉矶市中心的一所高中放学铃声敲响后,学生们涌到人行道上,几乎人手一台智能手机,要么拿着要么正埋头盯着屏幕。一群男孩一边走路一边看着 YouTube 视频哈哈大笑,而一个等待搭车回家的女孩则在 Instagram 上刷着卡戴珊家族的最新动态。
Since 2007, when Apple released the first iPhone, such scenes have become the norm in America. The Pew Research Centre found that three-quarters of teens have access to a smartphone. According to one Facebook executive, millennials look at their phones on average more than 150 times a day.
自2007年苹果公司发布第一代苹果手机以来,这种场景已成为美国的常态。皮尤研究中心发现,四分之三的青少年在使用智能手机,据一位 Facebook 高管称,千禧一代平均每天看手机超过150次。
Over the past decade, the number of American children and teenagers admitted to children’s hospitals for reporting suicidal thoughts has more than doubled. Some have not received help in time; after declining for years, the suicide rate for 15-to-19-year-olds shot up between 2007 and 2015, increasing by 31% for boys and more than doubling for girls. Psychologists are striving to understand whether this increase merely coincides with the rise of social media, or whether something
causative
is happening.
在过去的十年间,因报告有自杀想法而进入儿童医院治疗的美国儿童和青少年的人数已增长逾一倍,还有一些孩子未得到及时的疏解。15到19岁青少年自杀率在多年持续下降之后,于2007年至2015年突然直线上升,男孩自杀率增长了31%,而女孩自杀率则增长了一倍多。心理学家正力图了解这种增长是否仅仅与社交媒体的兴起同步,还是有其他的诱因。
causative
/'kɑ:.zə.tˌɪv/ adjective:acting as the cause of something 起因的;诱因的
There may be plenty of
analogue
reasons for it. “A number of things are pretty unique to young people today. They were born around when the
Columbine shooting
happened, they were kids for 9/11, they were kids during one of the worst recessions in modern history,” says Nicole Green, the executive director of Counselling and Psychological Services at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has seen demand for her office’s services from college undergraduates surge.
可能存在很多类似的原因。加州大学洛杉矶分校咨询与心理服务部执行主任尼科尔•格林说:“今天的年轻人在很多方面都很独特。他们出生于哥伦拜恩中学枪击事件发生的年代,在孩童时期,他们经历了911事件和现代历史上最严重的经济衰退。 ”格林发现本科生对她的心理咨询服务的需求激增。
科伦拜校园枪击事件:
1999年4月20日在美国科罗拉多州的杰佛逊郡科伦拜中学(Columbine High School)发生的校园枪击事件。两名青少年学生配备枪械和爆炸物进入校园,枪杀15人,并造成24人受伤,两人接着自杀身亡。
analogue
/'ænl'ɔg/ N-COUNT : If one thing is an analogue of another, it is similar in some way 相似物;类似物
A big new study suggests a different explanation for teenage
melancholy
—the many hours young people spend staring at their phone screens. That might be having serious effects, especially on young girls, according to the study’s author, Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University and author of “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy”.
一项新的大型研究对青少年抑郁症给出了不同的解释:青少年紧盯着手机屏幕一看就是几小时。根据该研究报告撰写者珍•特温吉的观点,她认为这可能会造成严重的后果,特别是对女孩子而言。身为圣地亚哥州立大学的心理学教授,珍•特温吉出版了名为《i 一代:为何现在超级互联的孩子成长时少了叛逆,更加宽容,但也更不快乐?》的著作。
melancholy
/'mel.əŋ.kɒl.i/ noun: sadness which lasts for a long period of time, often without any obvious reason 忧郁,忧伤
By scrutinising national surveys, with data collected from over 500,000 American teenagers, Ms Twenge found that adolescents who spent more time on new media—using Snapchat, Facebook, or Instagram on a smartphone, for instance—were more likely to agree with remarks such as: “The future often seems hopeless,” or “I feel that I can’t do anything right.” Those who used screens less, spending time playing sport, doing homework, or socialising with friends in person, were less likely to report mental troubles.
通过对50万名青少年进行的全国性调查数据的深入分析,特温吉发现,那些在新媒体上花费了更多时间的青少年(例如在智能手机上使用Snapchat、Facebook或Instagram等),更可能赞同“未来往往毫无希望”或是“我觉得自己什么都做不成”等诸如此类的观点。而那些较少使用电子设备,将时间用于做运动、做作业或与朋友进行面对面交流的青少年,出现心理问题的可能性更小。
As Ms Twenge herself concedes, the study does not prove causality. It is possible that another force is behind the increased diagnosis of depression among adolescents, and that sad teenagers are more likely than their happy peers to seek refuge in their phones. But a growing body of scientific evidence supports the idea that social media can inspire
malaise
.
正如特温吉自己承认的那样,这项研究并不能证明手机与青少年抑郁症之间的因果关系。被诊断为抑郁的青少年人数增长的背后也许还有另一种原因,也可能是与快乐的小伙伴相比,悲伤的青少年更有可能在手机里寻求慰籍。然而越来越多的科学证据支持社交媒体会引发身心不适的观点。
malaise
/mæl'eɪz/ noun: general feeling of being ill or having no energy, or an uncomfortable feeling that something is wrong, especially with society, and that you cannot change the situation 身体不适;萎靡;心神不宁;(尤指对社会的)不满,无奈
One study published in 2016 asked a randomly selected group of adults to quit Facebook for a week; a control group continued browsing the site as usual. Those who gave up Facebook reported feeling less depressed at the end of the week than those who continued using it. Another experiment published in 2013 found that the more participants used Facebook, the
gloomier
they felt about their lives. Additionally, it showed that feeling blue did not lead people to increase their Facebook use.
2016年发布的一项研究要求随机抽样的一组成年人停止使用 Facebook 一周,而对照组则像往常一样继续浏览该网站。一周结束后,与继续使用 Facebook 的人相比,停止使用的人较少流露出焦虑的情绪。2013年发表的另一项研究发现,参与者使用 Facebook 的次数越多,他们对自己的生活就越发感到忧心忡忡。此外,这项实验还表明情绪低落并未导致使用 Facebook 次数的增加。
gloomy
/'glu:.mi/ adj unhappy and without hope 忧郁;愁闷;沮丧
Not all studies are so damning. Past research suggests that social-networking sites can promote happiness if used to engage directly with other users, rather than just to
covet
glossy