孩子總玩手機會對心理有什么影響

It’s never been easier for kids to spend all day staring at various screens. Besides all the endless options at their fingertips, going outside and seeing other people has been discouraged for over a year now. Regardless of the pandemic, many parents say they worry about how technology is influencing their children’s mental health. Surprisingly, however, a new study suggests there is little evidence of an increased association between adolescent technology use and falling mental health rates over the past 30 years.

對孩子們來說，整天盯著各種各樣的屏幕是再容易不過的事了。除了他們手頭有無窮無盡的選擇之外，一年多來，人們一直不鼓勵他們到戶外去見其他人。拋開這場流行病不談，許多父母表示，他們擔心科技正在如何影響他們孩子的心理健康。然而，令人驚訝的是，一項新的研究表明，在過去的30年里，幾乎沒有證據(jù)表明青少年使用科技產(chǎn)品與心理健康率下降之間的聯(lián)系有所增加。

In other words, this work does not support the popular belief that smartphones and other devices are actively harming our collective mental health.

換言之，人們普遍認為的智能手機和其他設備正在損害我們的心理健康的說法，這項研究并不支持。

In total, this work included 430,000 U.K. and U.S. adolescents, and looked for links between tech use and depression, anxiety, emotional issues, and conduct problems. Additionally, researchers assessed the association between TV consumption and various problems such as suicidal thoughts and depression.

這項研究總共包括43萬名英國和美國的青少年，并尋找科技使用與抑郁、焦慮、情緒問題和行為問題之間的聯(lián)系。此外，研究人員還評估了電視消費與諸如自殺念頭和抑郁癥等各種問題之間的關系。

Social media may cause emotional issues, but no major problems

社交媒體可能會引起情緒問題，但不會造成大問題

Among eight different categories, only three showed any significant changes over time. Social media and TV use actually became less strongly connected with depression. Meanwhile, social media did see a slight uptick in regards to emotional problems. Additionally, the team did not discover any meaningful connections between modern technology and suicidal thoughts or behavioral issues.

在八個不同的類別中，只有三個隨著時間的推移顯示出任何顯著的變化。事實上，社交媒體和電視的使用與抑郁癥的聯(lián)系變得不那么緊密了。與此同時，社交媒體在情感問題方面確實出現(xiàn)了小幅上升。此外，研究小組沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)現(xiàn)代科技與自殺念頭或行為問題之間有任何有意義的聯(lián)系。

“If we want to understand the relationship between tech and well-being today, we need to first go back and look at historic data–as far back as when parents were concerned too much TV would give their kids square eyes–in order to bring the contemporary concerns we have about newer technologies into focus,” says lead study author Matti Vuorre, a postdoctoral researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, in a media release.

“如果我們想了解當今科技與幸福之間的關系，我們首先需要回顧一下歷史數(shù)據(jù)——早在父母擔心過多的電視會讓孩子睜大眼睛的時候——以便將我們對新技術的當代擔憂集中起來，該研究的主要作者、牛津互聯(lián)網(wǎng)研究所的博士后研究員馬蒂·沃雷(mattivuorre)在一次媒體發(fā)布會上說。

“As more data accumulates on adolescents’ use of emerging technologies, our knowledge of them and their effects on mental health will become more precise,” says Andy Przybylski, director of research at Oxford Internet Institute and senior author of the study. “So, it’s too soon to draw firm conclusions about the increasing, or declining, associations between social media and adolescent mental health, and it is certainly way too soon to be making policy or regulation on this basis.”

“隨著越來越多的數(shù)據(jù)積累在青少年對新興技術的使用上，我們對這些技術及其對心理健康的影響的認識將變得更加精確,”牛津互聯(lián)網(wǎng)研究所(Oxford Internet Institute)研究主任、該研究的資深作者安迪•普日比爾斯基(Andy przy。“因此，現(xiàn)在就對社交媒體與青少年心理健康之間的聯(lián)系是增加還是減少得出確定的結論還為時過早，在此基礎上制定政策或監(jiān)管當然也為時過早。”

“We need more transparent and credible collaborations between scientists and technology companies to unlock the answers. The data exists within the tech industry; scientists just need to be able to access it for neutral and independent investigation,” Przybylski concludes.

“我們需要科學家和技術公司之間更加透明和可信的合作，以解開答案。這些數(shù)據(jù)存在于科技產(chǎn)業(yè)中，科學家只需要能夠訪問它們進行中立和獨立的調查。

The study appears in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.

這項研究發(fā)表在《臨床心理科學》雜志上。