PBS高端访谈:智能设备对青少年大脑的影响

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: But, first, a new report looks at how digital devices are taking a toll¹ on kids and families.

　　The report issued yesterday by Common Sense Media found half of all young people feel they are addicted² to their devices. Almost 60 percent of adults think their kids are addicted too. And a third of parents and teens say that they argue daily about screen time.

　　Now a new documentary explores this topic and offers ideas about what families can do to navigate³ these waters.

　　William Brangham is back with our look.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The documentary is called "Screenagers," and, in it, Dr. Delaney Ruston explores the complex relationship teenagers have with their screens, both the pleasures they take in sharing their lives online with their friends, as well as the darker side, those who lose control of their digital habits, and spiral into damaging behavior.

　　WOMAN: When I went to hug him, I could feel the bones in his back. And that was scary.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The film also looks at the latest research about the impact all this screen time has on the brains of young people.

　　SHERRY TURKLE, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: You have a brain that is wired for what in psychology⁴ is called seeking behavior, the kind of thing that a Google search gives you, something new, something stimulating⁵, something different.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Throughout the film, Ruston also turns the camera on herself, exploring the real and all-too-common conflicts that flare⁶ up as she and her family haggle⁷ over screen time.

　　DR. DELANEY RUSTON, Filmmaker, "Screenagers": What should the rules be? Because we don't have any right now.

　　TESSA RUSTON: I think the rules should be there is no rule. It's not like I'm on it 24/7.

　　DR. DELANEY RUSTON: When you have it, you're always checking it. And I — don't you think that…TESSA RUSTON: Well, if you put this in front of me, yes, I will go on it, and, yes, I can find something to do on it.

　　DR. DELANEY RUSTON: Tessa, why are you so mad? OK. Just get dressed. I'm sorry you're crying.

　　智能设备对青少年大脑的影响

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I met with Delaney Ruston last week in Washington, D.C.

　　I wonder, what was that — initially⁸, what made you want to do this film?

　　DR. DELANEY RUSTON: Well, I was having a really hard time as a mom with my two kids. You know, my son wanted to play video games a lot and my daughter really wanted more and more social media, and I felt completely out of control.

　　And, as a doctor, I was thinking, what is the impact of all this screen time? I knew, as a mom, that, every day, there was tension in the house, and I felt completely out of control on what to do, what kind of limits to set, how this was affecting them.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Now that you have done all this research, what was it, I'm curious, that most surprised you that you found?

　　DR. DELANEY RUSTON: Well, I think one thing that really helped me to start to be a better parent around this is to learn that the dopamine that's secreted⁹ in the brain's pleasure center when we get new bits of information and we look at the screens, that center of the brain is most activated¹⁰ when we're kids and we're teenagers.

　　So, knowing that they are so pulled into these in a way that we can't even understand has made me not be as angry at them, but realize there's a lot more I need to do as — in my parenting.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, these are little electronic drug delivery devices? I know that's a crude way to put it, but that's what you're saying.

　　DR. DELANEY RUSTON: Absolutely.

　　I mean, it's amazing that there's many studies that look at MRI scans of the brain of kids who play a lot of video games, 20 hours or more of video games a week. And when they compare them to people who are addicted to, say, drugs or alcohol, their brains scans are similar. So, something is really happening on a physiological¹¹ level. It's not just psychological.

　　MAN: We exposed young mice to switching sounds and light.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In the film, Ruston talks with researchers who are studying what multitasking, switching rapidly back and forth¹² between digital devices, does to the brain function of mice.

　　MAN: Afterwards, we looked at the effect on learning and found that the ability of these young mice to learn new things was very much compromised.

　　It took them three times longer or more to learn how to go through a maze¹³ than the non-exposed young mice. We are exposing a whole generation of children to this rapid-paced media, and we have no clue what it does to the brain. And if it's the same as we see in the mice, then this is very shocking news.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, does that kind of stuff terrify you? Or do you think this research is not necessarily analogous¹⁴? I mean, how are people supposed to process this information?

　　DR. DELANEY RUSTON: You know, I think it's a question about how much we're giving kids full potential in everything that they do. And, to me, a big issue is how much time they have with all sorts of skills that they're learning offline, social engagement, competency, talking to people face to face.

　　So, I think, if we're giving them a lot of those situations, that even if there's some concern about attention span and possibly some changes in the brain, I think that humans are resilient enough — and already we're seeing that people are not, you know, dropping like flies from screen time. I don't think we're at that place yet where we need to be really alarmist.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Let's say I'm a parent and I come to you and I say, I have a young kid, maybe a 10-year-old daughter. When should I get her a phone? What would you tell this parent?

　　DR. DELANEY RUSTON: I think, you know, obviously, every kid is different, and that's really important. And every situation in the home is different.

　　But I do worry that it is getting younger and younger. And when we bring them — start having them in elementary school, we have to wonder, when is it too young that they're not going to be able to resist the impulse to check or to post?

　　MAN: Every girl in the picture is locked into her phone. Peralta knocks it into center. David tonight 2-2, a leadoff single here in the fourth, and nobody noticed.

　　We need to — can we do an intervention¹⁵?

　　DR. DELANEY RUSTON: This is all about teaching kids self-control, and what we have learned through the research is that it's absolutely teachable. So, I would really discourage a family from getting a child a device when they don't feel like they are going to be able to control themselves from when they use it.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Ruston has been taking her film across the country recently, holding screenings in dozens of cities, encouraging parents and kids to come, to watch, and to then continue the conversation at home.

　　DR. DELANEY RUSTON: You know what I think is really exciting, is that kids and teenagers actually want to talk about these issues.

　　And I think that it doesn't take that long in homeroom or in some other setting to ask these questions about, what are you struggling with, with your screen time, or what do you see happening on social media? And once we say we want to hear from you, then they care, as opposed to what I see so often is this message of zero tolerance¹⁶, let's just take everything away and get mad at you.

　　That's not going to get kids to open up and feel comfortable to be a part of this, and that's really what this is going to take.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham in Washington, D.C.

 

1 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

2 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

3 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

4 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

5 stimulating   

adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的

参考例句：

• shower gel containing plant extracts that have a stimulating effect on the skin 含有对皮肤有益的植物精华的沐浴凝胶
• This is a drug for stimulating nerves. 这是一种兴奋剂。

6 flare   

v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发

参考例句：

• The match gave a flare.火柴发出闪光。
• You need not flare up merely because I mentioned your work.你大可不必因为我提到你的工作就动怒。

7 haggle   

vi.讨价还价，争论不休

参考例句：

• In many countries you have to haggle before you buy anything.在许多国家里买东西之前都得讨价还价。
• If you haggle over the price,they might give you discount.你讲讲价，他们可能会把价钱降低。

8 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

9 secreted   

v.（尤指动物或植物器官）分泌( secrete的过去式和过去分词 )；隐匿，隐藏

参考例句：

• Insulin is secreted by the pancreas. 胰岛素是胰腺分泌的。
• He secreted his winnings in a drawer. 他把赢来的钱藏在抽届里。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 activated   

adj. 激活的 动词activate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The canister is filled with activated charcoal.蒸气回收罐中充满了活性炭。

11 physiological   

adj.生理学的，生理学上的

参考例句：

• He bought a physiological book.他买了一本生理学方面的书。
• Every individual has a physiological requirement for each nutrient.每个人对每种营养成分都有一种生理上的需要。

12 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

13 maze   

n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑

参考例句：

• He found his way through the complex maze of corridors.他穿过了迷宮一样的走廊。
• She was lost in the maze for several hours.一连几小时，她的头脑处于一片糊涂状态。

14 analogous   

adj.相似的；类似的

参考例句：

• The two situations are roughly analogous.两种情況大致相似。
• The company is in a position closely analogous to that of its main rival.该公司与主要竞争对手的处境极为相似。

15 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

16 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。