社交媒體讓青少年處於“重大心理健康危機”的邊緣

We know from rafts of research that isolation is bad for us. It's associated with a clutch of diseases including depression, high blood pressure and heart disease. And yet teenagers pursue isolation, not in the sense of having no family or friends, but in the sense of walling themselves off from real social contact.

從大量的研究中我們得知：孤獨對我們是不利的。孤獨與一系列疾病相關，包括抑鬱症、高血壓和心臟疾病。但青少年卻追求孤獨，這裏指的並不是沒有家庭或朋友，而是指他們試圖脫離真正的社會接觸。

And what do teenagers use to build those walls? They use the device of our times - a screen. Screens of all kinds. In whatever form, screens are addictive. And addictive from an early age. Research has shown that given the chance, six-month-old babies prefer screens to real human faces.

青少年又是如何建起這道心牆的呢？他們使用了我們這個時代的設備--一個屏幕。各種各樣的屏幕。不管是何種形式，屏幕都會讓他們上癮。而且很小的時候就會上癮。研究已表明：如果有機會，6個月大的寶寶都會選擇屏幕而不是真正的人臉。

Hand in hand with this addiction to screens we are seeing an explosion of teenage mental health problems. Social media claims to be inclusive, keeping you connected. But it's not. It isolates you from real people. Screens have even been described as being toxic for teenagers .

從對屏幕的喜好中，我們看到了青少年心理健康問題的爆發。社交媒體聲稱是包容性的，能讓你與他人保持聯繫。但實際上卻沒有。它將你和真人隔絕開。人們甚至將屏幕描述爲對青少年有毒。

Psychologist Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University, believes today's teenagers are "on the brink" of a major mental health crisis and pleads, "do anything that doesn't involve a screen".

聖地亞哥州立大學的心理學家讓·特恩戈恩認爲，當今的青少年正處於重大心理健康危機的邊緣，並呼籲他們"要做不與屏幕相關的事情"。

The problem is, she claims, children born between 1995 and 2012 have grown up with a smartphone in their hands, and it has "changed every aspect" of their lives. The number of teenagers who actually see their friends frequently has dropped by more than 40% since 2000.

她說，問題是：生於1995至2012年的孩子是伴隨手中的智能手機成長的，而這"改變了他們生活的方方面面"。自2000年以來，真正和朋友經常碰面的孩子已經減少了40%。

In 2015, only 56% of 17-year-olds went on a date, down from 85% for Generation X-ers. Modern teenagers are slower to learn to drive, or earn money, and spend more time in the parental home. They're "on their phone, in their room, alone and often distressed", she says. Some commentators, however, say we should be encouraging our children to spend more time online.

2015年，17歲的青少年中，只有56%的人會和朋友約會，而20世紀60年代至70年代出生的美國人在青少年時期卻有85%的人會和朋友約會。現代的青少年學車、掙錢的速度更慢，他們會花更多的時間呆在父母家中。他們"在自己的房間裏玩着手機，一個人抑鬱着，"她說道。然而，有些評論員說我們應該鼓勵孩子在網上花更多的時間。

Robert Hannigan, former director of GCHQ, said in August that Britain is desperately short of engineers and computer scientists, and urged children to develop cyber skills to compete in the digital economy.

國家通信總局的前局長羅伯特·漢尼根於八月說道，英國極其缺乏工程師和計算機科學家，並督促孩子們開發網絡技巧，以在數字經濟中競爭。

I'm not the first to say that social media is inferior to real human contact, and harms mental health. Studies show teens who spend three hours a day online are 35% more likely to have a risk factor for suicide. The suicide rate among girls aged 12 to 14 has tripled in a decade.

第一個認爲社交媒體不如真人接觸並損害心理健康的人並不是我。研究表明每天上網3小時的青少年自殺的風險可能要高35%。過去十年，12至14歲自殺的女孩兒漲了三倍。