《经济学人》精读19：Me, myself and iPhone

Teenagers are growing more anxious and depressed

Could they hold the culprit in their hands?

Nov 23rd 2017 | LOS ANGELES

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.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.

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 for15-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.

clutch: to hold onto (someone or something) tightly with your hand

coincide: to happen at the same time as something else

causative: making something happen or exist: causing something

千禧一代每天看向手机屏幕150次，过去十年来，青少年自杀率提高了很多，心理学家在努力研究，社交媒体的崛起与自杀率之间有没有联系

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.

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”.

千禧一代的成长环境是很特殊的，Columbine 枪击案，911恐怖袭击，现代最大的金融危机，都是发生在他们还是孩子的时候。大学里心理咨询需求大幅增长。 为什么千禧一代不反叛了，更容忍了，却也更不幸福了

By scrutinising national surveys, with data collected from over 500,000 American teenagers, MsTwenge 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.

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. 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.

malaise: a slight or general feeling of not being healthy or happy

那些花更多时间在社交媒体上的青少年比那些花时间在运动，作业，和社交上的 更容易出现精神问题。

有个实验随机选取一部分人在一个星期内不用facebook，另外一部分人继续使用，结果发现，不用的人感觉比另外一组人更开朗，更少抑郁一些

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 photos of someone else’s exotic holiday or lavish wedding. This distinction is a reminder that social media is what users bring to it—their attitudes shape their experiences, both on and offline. “It’s pretty easy to romanticise someone’s life based on their Snapchat or Instagram,” reflects Sarah, a junior at a high school in Los Angeles. “I try to remind myself that it’s filtered. People only post what they want you to see, so it can seem like their life is better than yours.” Nicole, another junior, agrees. But when asked if she has ever considered deleting her social-media accounts, she looks perplexed. “No. I would feel lost.”

如果我们用社交媒体去和别人交流，这样是好的；如果你只是羡慕妒忌别人美好假期和绚丽的婚礼的照片，那真的很容易产生不平衡

社交媒体上展现的都是光鲜亮丽的一面，有一定的欺骗性，毕竟不是每个人都把喜怒哀乐放在上面和大家分享的...

总结：过好自己的日子最重要，别人再怎么炫，那也是别人的生活，与你无关

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Results

Lexile®Measure: 1200L - 1300L

Mean Sentence Length: 18.59

Mean Log Word Frequency: 3.27

Word Count: 688

这篇文章的蓝思值是在1200-1300L， 适合英语专业大三的水平学习，应该是经济学人里属于普通难度，英语专业八级第二篇阅读也差不多这个级别

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