時尚“網紅”治愈青少年心理問題？

There are many reasons why social media is best avoided during the summer. All those shots of people holidaying in sunny locations can be hard to take when you’re stuck in a rain-swept city. But while scrolling through feeds of friends having a #dreamholiday might be accompanied by mild feelings of envy for the post-millennials among us, for adolescents coming of age in this era of digital saturation, the repercussions can be more damaging. As more people communicate via sites such as Instagram and Snapchat, with their emphasis on physical appearance and the shared intimacies of friendship groups, the spectre of exclusion is magnified, and it gets especially bad during the holidays, when students are likely to be estranged from their peers yet still watching their activities from the sidelines.

度假的時候不用社交媒體的原因簡直太多了。當自己被困在瓢潑大雨的城市無法脫身時，想拍陽光明媚度假地的照片肯定是無能為力的。那些瀏覽主題是#dreamholiday#(夢幻之旅)的朋友圈，可能會讓我們對00后孩子以及生活在這個網絡無處不在時代的年輕人有點妒忌，但網絡的后續(xù)影響更為負面。越來越多的人借助Instagram與Snapchat等社交平臺溝通往來，并且他們把重點放在外在形象以及朋友圈里相互的親密關系上，但這樣一來，彼此間的隔閡就被人為放大，而度假時尤為突出。這時候，學生很可能與同齡人疏遠，但仍在一旁冷眼旁觀同學們的一舉一動。

“Over the last few years, children have been spending an average of six-and-a-half hours in front of a screen per day,” announced the Connected Kids survey undertaken by specialist research group Childwise, in 2015. The group no longer monitors cumulative screen times, as children are more likely to use multiple screens at once, but recent figures found that children spend an average of 2.9 hours on their mobile phones. A report published this year by The Royal Society for Public Health found that spending more than two hours a day on social networking sites increased the possibility of poor mental health and psychological distress among young people.

“過去幾年，孩子們每天花在電腦上的時間是6個半小時。”由專業(yè)研究機構Childwise承擔的研究課題Connected Kids 2015年發(fā)布的報告聲稱道。該機構不再監(jiān)控累計使用電腦時間，因為孩子們如今更可能同時使用多臺電腦，但最新數據發(fā)現孩子們每天平均花2.9小時玩手機。皇家公共衛(wèi)生學會(The Royal Society for Public Health)今年發(fā)布的報告稱：每天花在社交網站上超過2個小時就會導致孩子出現嚴重心理問題以及增加其心理壓力。

Conclusive evidence that our increased exposure to social media is a contributing factor to mental health issues is yet to appear. But our youths are becoming more miserable. The number of 16- to 24-year-olds experiencing mental health problems is increasing: a 2016 report by NHS Digital found that self-harm rates doubled among men, and trebled among women, in this age group, between 2007 and 2014. When your worth is measured by “likes”, is it any wonder?

持續(xù)使用社交媒體是影響心理健康的一大因素目前仍無確鑿證據。但我們的孩子們已越發(fā)郁悶苦惱。16-24歲有心理問題的年輕人數量在不斷攀升：英國國民健康體系(NHS Digital)2016年發(fā)布的報告稱：2007-2014年間，此年齡段的男性自殘比率增加了一倍，女性自殘比率則大幅增加了三倍。如果大家的價值都由“喜歡的東西”來衡量的話，這個社會還有什么希望呢?

Mental illness is of course caused by many factors, and the beauty and fashion world has a lot to answer for when it comes to the question of self-image. But as millennials drift away from traditional media formats and marketing strategies, it’s a strange irony to find that, today, some of the most dynamic voices for teenage empowerment are coming from within the industry itself.

心理疾病當然是由諸多因素造成的，說起自我形象問題，時尚與美容業(yè)可以說難辭其咎。但隨著2000年后一代人與傳統媒體與營銷策略漸行漸遠，如今最為怪異的諷刺是：代表青少年階層的最活躍的代言人卻是時尚美容界人士。

Change is afoot. The west London model Adwoa Aboah might have a US Vogue cover under her belt, which should in theory make her unreachable to most teens, but she has lately become a poster-girl for young women with mental health issues. She shared her own experiences of drugs and depression in a filmed interview with her mother, the artists’ agent Camilla Lowther, for the mental health charity Heads Together in March. Since then she has founded the charity Gurls Talk, a small but influential platform that encourages young women to talk about their concerns.

這種變化正在“上演”。來自倫敦西區(qū)的模特Adwoa Aboah可能會成為美國版《Vogue》封面女郎，從理論上說，她是大多數青少年可望而不可及的人物，但她最近成為有心理問題女孩的榜樣與典范(poster-girl)。今年三月，在為心理健康慈善機構Heads Together制作的視頻訪談中，她與母親、藝術經紀人卡米拉•勞瑟(Camilla Lowther)分享了自己服用毒品與自我厭棄的往事。在這之后，她成立了慈善論壇Gurls Talk，這個規(guī)模小但影響力大的網上平臺鼓勵女孩子說出自己的心理困惑。

Much of her communication has been driven by social media, and her candour is irresistible: about 700 young women came to hear her speak at a Gurls Talk festival last month, sponsored by the US fashion brand Coach. With contributions by intersex model Hanne Gaby Odiele, as well as workshops on self-care and healing, Aboah’s message is hoping to steer the conversation away from lonely aspiration, to activism and inclusivism. Is there any money in it? The pay-off for Coach could be measured by the length of the queue at the customisation bar.

Adwoa Aboah與粉絲溝通交流，主要推動力就是社交媒體，她的坦誠讓其成為人氣女王：不久前，近700位女孩子親臨美國時尚品牌Coach友情贊助的Gurls Talk對話節(jié)，聆聽其精彩演講。在雙性模特漢娜•蓋比•奧迪爾(Hanne Gaby Odiele)以及自我保健與救治工作室的鼎力相助下，Aboah傳遞的信息是希望能把這種對話從孤芳自賞轉向積極投身各種活動以及彼此包容。那么這么做有經濟效益嗎?Coach的收效就是定制店門口排起的粉絲長龍。

A recent London pop-up shop by Emily Weiss, founder of New York-based Glossier, saw 1,400 girls and young women queueing round the block for a chance to meet her. Her fan base is built on the way the brand consults them on what products they’d like to see; a conversation rather than a monologue.

1400位女孩子們在紐約時尚品牌Glossier創(chuàng)始人艾米麗•韋斯(Emily Weiss)新開的倫敦快閃店(pop-up store)門口排起了長龍，為的是與其見一面。其粉絲不斷增多的原因是：她的品牌會垂詢粉絲對產品的具體要求;這就成了雙方的對話而不是唱獨角戲。

The 30-year-old editor of the US-based magazine Teen Vogue, Elaine Welteroth, has also been quick to tackle some of the stigma surrounding depression. With 2.1m Instagram followers, the magazine is determined to amplify the voices of all its readers — whatever their gender identity, sexuality, socio-economic status, disability or faith — to create an empowered, enlightened and well-informed community. And she’s getting a positive response.

30歲的美國時尚雜志《Teen Vogue》主編伊萊恩•韋爾特羅特(Elaine Welteroth)同樣在處理抑郁引發(fā)的恥辱感方面行動迅速。擁有210萬粉絲的《Teen Vogue》下定決心“強化”所有讀者(不管其性別、性取向、社會經濟地位、殘疾程度以及何種信仰)的心聲，于是創(chuàng)建了一個更自主、更知性以及更博識的網群。她的呼吁得到了粉絲團的積極響應。

Vera Papisova, the magazine’s digital wellness editor, says: “Our mental health coverage, particularly articles around anxiety and depression, are some of the most-read articles on our website.” Not that their target audiences are all women, she adds: “It’s also important not to exclude men from this conversation: in 2015, seven out of 10 suicides in the US were white men.”

《Teen Vogue》雜志數字健康編輯Vera Papisova說：“我們的心理健康版面，尤其是焦慮與抑郁方面的文章最受粉絲喜歡。”并非所有目標對象都是女性，她又補充道：“不把男性排斥在對話之外同樣至關重要：要知道，美國2015年十分之七的自殺者是白人男性。”

Many in the beauty and fashion industry are waking up to the fact they need to work differently if they want to engage with this next generation of consumers. A glance around the table at a discussion I attended recently by the pioneering children’s charity Place2Be on the subject of appearance and mental health among young people revealed that alongside the headteachers and psychologists one might expect were cosmetic surgeons, a famous make-up artist and an Estée Lauder executive.

很多美容業(yè)從業(yè)者如今逐漸意識到：如果想吸引新一代的消費者，都得改變工作策略。近日，筆者參加了一場由首倡關注兒童健康的慈善團體Place2Be組織的討論會(主題是年輕人的外在形象與心理健康)，我隨意掃視了一眼參與者，發(fā)現除了意料中的中小學校長與心理學家外，在座的竟然還有一位知名美容專家與一位雅詩蘭黛(Estée Lauder)高管。

Meaningful engagement is still a work in progress. Could social media be harnessed as a force for our greater good? “Being a young person on the internet today can be very difficult, even traumatising at times,” says Papisova. “But social media can also provide a community for people who feel isolated in their hometowns or even in their households. If you look at Instagram and Tumblr, there are lots of people connecting every day using hashtags to lift each other up in a way that wouldn’t be accessible without social media. It might sound trivial, but it can change someone’s life to realise they’re not alone.”

時尚明星與粉絲之間有意義的接觸仍是任重而道遠。那么能否利用社交媒體這股力量發(fā)揮更大作用呢?“如今的網絡青年不易相處，有時甚至會有精神傷害舉動。”Papisova說，“但是社交媒體還可以為那些在家鄉(xiāng)、甚至在自家感到孤立無援的人提供一個精神家園。瀏覽Instagram與博客網站Tumblr，可以看到很多網民每天使用朋友圈相互鼓勵，而沒有社交媒體彼此之間就難以溝通交流。此事或許微不足道，但能改變一個人的生活，讓其意識到自己并非孤家寡人。”