自從蘇格拉底預言書寫文字會削弱人的記憶,人們就開始對科技的潛在危害瑟瑟發抖。不過至少蘇格拉底不必擔心社交媒體上癮的問題。最近有研究人員稱,社交媒體可能導致更多的青少年陷入抑郁。而對于智能手機對孩子注意力的侵蝕,很多父母也深感恐慌。 1、科技毀童年? 當然?,F在的兒童和青少年時刻手機不離手,每天都泡在社交媒體上,分享自己的狀態。與此同時,他們還要面臨學校的壓力、同齡人的壓力和荷爾蒙的刺激。他們每天都把自己今天在做什么、自己今天的樣子通過Snapchat和Instagram等社交媒體展示給成百上千的“朋友”。Snapchat還發明了一個叫做Snapstreak的功能,刺激用戶持續與其他好友發消息。這個功能因容易致癮而受到了英國兒童保護機構的批評。英國安全網絡中心對1500名8到17歲的兒童和青少年進行的一項調查顯示,有八分之一的孩子在過去一小時內上傳過自拍。就連一些硅谷高管都希望他們的孩子不要沉迷于科技產品。 2、研究說明了什么? 從各種研究數據來看,當代兒童首次擁有智能手機的平均年齡是10歲左右,約半數美國和英國兒童在12歲時已經有了自己的社交媒體賬戶,大約有四分之一的青少年表示他們“幾乎一直在線”。在2015年的一項研究中,有大約十分之一的女孩表示,她們平時上學的時候,每天使用社交媒體的時間超過三個小時。而這些重度依賴社交媒體的女孩,一般其困難分數(一種用來衡量精神健康的指標)往往較高。在安全網絡中心對8至17歲兒童和青少年進行的一項研究中,有22%的受訪兒童和青少年表示,有人曾在社交網絡上用照片和視頻霸凌過他們。圣地亞哥州立大學心理學家珍·特溫格領導的一項研究表明,花更多時間在互聯網上的美國青少年,其快樂程度一般低于喜愛其他活動的同齡人。特溫格還指出,社交媒體或許是導致青少年抑郁癥人數升高的原因之一。 3、是否有反方觀點? 人們之所以將青少年過得不快樂的鍋扣在社交媒體頭上,或許是因為他們想當然地覺得,青春期就應該是“歲月靜好”的。不過牛津大學互聯網研究院和卡迪夫大學的研究人員在分析了12萬名15歲青少年的數據后指出,隨著青少年的社交程度上升,在某種程度上,他們的幸福感實際上是提高了的。當然,長時間玩手機肯定是有負面效應的,不過吃早飯、保證充足睡眠等才是更重要的因素。不過研究人員們的結論也許并不全面,畢竟智能手機和社交媒體都是新生事物,而且它們的發展極其飛速,確實影響了孩子們深度、及時學習的能力。要知道,Snapchat還是一家2011年才創立的公司。 4、智能手機和社交媒體是否將是童年的常態? 早在社交媒體被發明出來之前,童年就早已不是很多人回憶中的童年了。美國2013年的一項研究發現,家長越認為他們居住的社區不安全,他們的孩子就越容易對電視上癮,并且越容易變得肥胖?,F在很多孩子抱著手機或平板足不出戶,或許也正是由于同樣的原因。當然,社交媒體的確在快速改變青少年的溝通方式。Snapchat的創始人伊萬·斯皮格2016年接受《華爾街日報》采訪時曾表示:“人們不知道他們的女兒為什么每天拍一萬張照片,但他們沒有意識到,她不是在保留照片,而是在聊天?!? 5、社交網站難道沒有年齡限制嗎? 當然有,只不過執行是個大問題。比如臉書、Instagram、Snapchat和推特都要求用戶必須年滿13歲以上才能注冊賬戶。(有些國家的規定更加嚴格,比如韓國規定,用戶必須年滿14歲才能注冊谷歌賬戶,在荷蘭,這個年齡下限是16歲。)不過大多數網站都要求注冊者誠實填寫自己的出生日期,因此報個假出生日期注冊賬戶還是很容易的。 6、誰在反對兒童使用社交媒體? 很多父母只想把孩子的手機扔進垃圾桶,然后把他們趕到樹林里玩。不過也有越來越多的人致力于推動更具體的目標。比如部分兒科醫生和精神健康專家正在游說臉書關停Messenger Kids應用,這個應用是臉書專門向6到12歲的孩子推出的。醫生們認為,這個年齡段的兒童“還沒有到能夠把握網絡社交的復雜性”的年齡。還有一些曾就職于谷歌、臉書等科技公司的員工成立了一個叫做“人道科技中心”的組織,專門提醒人們哪些科技產品會令人上癮。還有一位參與設計了iPod的前蘋果高管呼吁蘋果公司研發一種“網絡行為監控器”功能,好幫助用戶監控他們的孩子玩手機的時間。 7、社交媒體巨頭們聽進去了嗎? 至少他們已經擺出了傾聽的姿態。今年一月,蘋果的兩個大股東敦促蘋果公司向兒童家長提供某種定制策略,使他們可以限制孩子玩手機的時間和他們對社交媒體的使用。他們要求蘋果進行更多研究,以解決“社會日益增長的不安”。幾天后蘋果回應道,公司已在研發更多針對孩子家長的功能。另外,谷歌的YouTube Kids應用被曝含有不雅視頻后,谷歌也對該應用添加了優化的家長控制功能。 8、政府會介入嗎? 可能會。在臉書CEO馬克·扎克伯格今年四月參加國會聽證會時,馬薩諸塞州參議員埃德·馬基就尖銳地問到了兒童的問題。他敦促扎克伯格支持他2015年提出的一項旨在保護16歲以下兒童網絡隱私權的法案,馬基還將這些科技巨頭比作煙草行業。英國衛生大臣杰里米·亨特也威脅要對谷歌、推特、Snapchat等科技公司進行監管,理由是這些科技公司沒有有效防止未成年人的使用,從而使家長不得不面臨兩難選擇——要么就只能向孩子投降,任由他們使用這些平臺,否則橫加干涉的話,就會使孩子與同齡人孤立起來。 9、下一步怎么辦? 隨著歐洲的《通用數據保護法案》即將生效,任何公司將不得在未經其家長同意下,處理來自16歲以下兒童和青少年的數據。今年四月,臉書旗下的即時通訊工具WhatsApp已將歐洲用戶的最低注冊年齡從13歲上調到了16歲。SnapChat也將不再處理任何需要家長同意的青少年數據,包括保留地理位置數據等。不過這種一刀切的方式也讓家長面臨了新問題。皮尤研究中心的一項調查發現,家長和孩子之間最常見的溝通方式居然是發手機信息。所以這樣一來,家長等于是在說:“按我說的做,但是別學我”。(財富中文網) 譯者:樸成奎? |
Ever since Socrates complained about the written word ruining memories, people have been wringing their hands over the potential harms of technology. At least Socrates never had to worry about his Snapstreaks. Now researchers say social media could be making more teens depressed, and there’s plenty of parental panic about the attention-sapping effects of the smartphone age. 1. Is technology disrupting childhood? Absolutely. Consider that today’s smartphone-wielding teens and pre-teens are glued to their phones, posting on social media and revealing data about themselves even as they deal with the traditional adolescent stew of school, peer pressure and hormones. They’re figuring it out in front of an audience of hundreds if not thousands of “friends” commenting in real time on what they do, and — via Snapchat and Instagram — how they look. Snapstreak, a Snapchat feature that congratulates users for consistently messaging their friends, has been criticized by England’s children’s commissioner for being addictive. A survey by the U.K.’s Safer Internet Centre of 1,500 8-to-17 year olds revealed that one in eight had shared a selfie in the last hour. Even some Silicon Valley executives want their offspring low-tech. 2. What does the research show? Among the data points from various surveys: The average age for getting a first smartphone is about 10, and half of all kids in the U.S. and the U.K. have social media accounts by the age of 12. About a quarter of teens say they are online “almost constantly.” In a 2015 study, about 1 in 10 girls in the U.K. reported using social networking sites for more than three hours on a normal school day — and those that did were more likely to have a higher difficulties score, a measure of mental health. In a Safer Internet Centre survey of kids age 8 to 17, 22 percent said someone had posted an image or video to bully them. A study led by Jean Twenge, a psychologist at San Diego State University, found that U.S. teens who spend more time online are less happy than those who pursue other activities. In other research, Twenge posited that social media is contributing to a rise in teen depression. 3. Is there a contrary view? One obvious problem in blaming social media for miserable young people is the supposition that there has ever been a halcyon time for teenagers. Researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute and Cardiff University analyzed data from 120,000 15-year-olds, and concluded that, up to a certain point, teenagers’ well-being actually rose as their connectivity increased. While too much screentime can have a negative effect, the research showed other factors, such as eating breakfast and getting enough sleep, were more important. But perhaps the main problem with the research is how fast smartphones took off and social media developed, making in-depth and timely studies difficult. Snapchat was only founded in 2011. 4. Isn’t it just part of being a kid these days? Childhood changed long before social media arrived on the scene. A 2013 U.S. study found that the more parents feel their neighborhood is unsafe, the more kids are likely to watch TV and be overweight. The same forces have left more kids stuck at home in front of a smartphone or tablet. That said, there’s no question that social media is rapidly changing how teenagers communicate. “People wonder why their daughter is taking 10,000 photos a day,” Evan Spiegel, the founder of Snapchat, told the Wall Street Journal in 2016. “What they don’t realize is that she isn’t preserving images. She’s talking.” 5. Don’t social media sites have age limits? They do, though enforcement is a huge challenge. On Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter you generally have to be at least 13 years old to create an account. (Some countries have stricter rules: The minimum age for a Google account is 14 in South Korea and 16 in the Netherlands, for instance.) Most sites ask new registrants to honestly self-report their date of birth, which makes their age limits rather easy to circumvent. 6. Who’s up in arms? Certainly many parents just want to throw the phone in the rubbish and make kids go play in the woods. But there’s also an expanding group arguing for a more targeted response. A collection of pediatric and mental health experts are lobbying Facebook to discontinue Messenger Kids, a version of its Messenger app for children ages six to 12, saying young kids are “not old enough to navigate the complexities of online relationships.” Another group of former employees from Google, Facebook and elsewhere created the Center for Humane Technology to raise alarms about the vulnerabilities caused by addictive products. An executive who helped create the iPod called on Apple Inc. to create a digital-activity monitor to help users of its devices keep track of their — and their kids’ — time online. 7. Are the social media giants listening? They’re at least trying to appear to be. In January, two big shareholders of Apple urged the company to give parents a way to customize their child’s iPhone to limit screen time, hours of use and access to social media. They asked the company to conduct more research and address a “growing societal unease.” Within days, Apple replied that more features for parents were already in development. Google is adding better parental controls on its YouTube Kids app after reports that it hosted inappropriate videos. 8. Will governments step in? They might. During Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg’s April appearance in the U.S. Congress, there were pointed questions about kids from Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts. The lawmaker pressed Zuckerberg to support a bill he introduced in 2015 to expand online privacy protections for children up to the age of 16. Markey has also compared the tech giants with the tobacco industry. In the U.K., Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has threatened to regulate Google, Twitter, Snapchat and other companies, saying their failure to prevent underage use left parents with an “invidious choice” — giving in to children too young to use their platforms, or isolating them from their peers. 9. So what’s next? What’s forcing the hand of tech companies is the incoming General Data Protection Regulation in Europe, which will ban any company from processing data from users below 16 without parental consent. In April, WhatsApp, the internet messaging service owned by Facebook, raised its minimum age for users in Europe to 16 from 13. SnapChat will no longer process any data that might require parental consent, including retaining geo-location history. Changes like that put parents in a new bind, since a Pew Research Center survey found that text messaging is the most common way to keep in touch with kids. So it might be a case of do what I say, not what I do. |