技术负责人担心孩子们智能手机成瘾

Technology Chiefs Worry About Their Children’s Smartphone Addictions¹

Mike Herrick has a 13-year-old daughter who enjoys using her smartphone all the time.

His daughter often sends text messages to her friends, even if they are sitting a few meters apart. At times like those, he wonders about the effects that technology has on people, especially children.

Herrick is a product and engineering executive at Urban Airship, a mobile technology company in Portland, Oregon.

He told the Associated Press, “The power of this age we live in is that it has given everyone access to all this information and the ability to stay connected to people, but how do we manage it better?”

Other technology executives have similar questions. Many say they enjoy their work. But, they also are concerned about the addictive² nature of mobile devices and social media.

The Pew Research Center released a study in August about what parents think about technology in the lives of their children. The study found that about 66 percent of U.S. parents worry that their teenage children spend too much time with computers or mobile devices. Seventy-two percent of parents said they thought their teenagers were sometimes distracted by their phones when talking with them.

But 86 percent of parents said they are very or somewhat sure they permit the right amount of phone or computer time for their children. The study said 36 percent of parents admit to spending too much time on phones themselves.

Apple is trying to assist with some of the problems it helped create when it first released the iPhone in 2007. The company is offering more ways for parents to observe and control how much time they and their kids spend on the devices.

New tools are available to keep children from using applications like Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram completely or just at certain times of the day. Google included similar controls in its latest version of the Android operating system, which most of the world’s smartphones use.

Kevin Systrom is one of the founders⁴ of the mobile phone application Instagram. He is already promising⁵ to limit his 10-month-old daughter’s use of devices and social media as she grows up.

But Systrom also hopes his daughter will accept technology as he did when he began using computers and the internet as a boy. He says his early interest in technology led him to create Instagram. The application now has more than 1 billion users worldwide.

Systrom said “Moderation is key. I think we are in a world where we have to develop opinions on what that moderation is and how to do it.”

Brian Peterson is the co-founder and vice³ president of engineering at Dialpad, a telephone technology company. He says he loves his job and technology. He gave both of his daughters iPads when they were 2-years-old.

At first, they were using applications that helped them to learn skills, like playing a piano. But a few years later, things changed. Peterson noticed the girls spent most of their time watching YouTube videos or doing other things that he and their mother wished they would not do.

Now, Peterson has decided⁶ not to get the girls smartphones until they are older.

He said, “I am just praying by the time that my kids really need a smartphone, they have really good parental⁷ controls.”

I’m Jonathan Evans.

Words in This Story

manage – v. to take care of and make decisions about someone's time, money, etc.

addictive – adj. causing a strong and harmful need to regularly have or do something

teenage(r) – adj. relating to people who are between 13 and 19 years old

distracted – adj. unable to think about or pay attention to something; unable to concentrate

moderation – n. the quality or state of being reasonable and avoiding behavior, speech, etc., that is extreme or that goes beyond what is normal or acceptable

key – adj. extremely important

1 addictions   

瘾( addiction的名词复数 )； 吸毒成瘾； 沉溺； 癖好

参考例句：

• He has removed the stigma of drug addictions. 他已经洗去吸毒的污点了。
• Intelligent people are good at using reason to control excessive addictions. 智慧的人善于用理性来控制过度的嗜欲。

2 addictive   

adj.(吸毒等)使成瘾的，成为习惯的

参考例句：

• The problem with video game is that they're addictive.电子游戏机的问题在于它们会使人上瘾。
• Cigarettes are highly addictive.香烟很容易使人上瘾。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

5 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 parental   

adj.父母的；父的；母的

参考例句：

• He encourages parental involvement in the running of school.他鼓励学生家长参与学校的管理。
• Children always revolt against parental disciplines.孩子们总是反抗父母的管束。