智能手机正在让所有人都变笨
2024-11-10 12:19阅读：
2007年，苹果公司联合创始人史蒂夫·乔布斯发布第一代iPhone智能手机，这种手持设备随后彻底改变了人们的思维方式和互动方式。
随后的几年，随着安卓系统的智能手机也进入市场，数字革命全面铺开。如今，一个人穷富暂且不论，如果没有智能手机，几乎寸步难行。
智能手机带给人们很多便利，比如导航定位，这样你就不用再一边开车一边靠一份厚厚的地图来找路。但智能手机也带来很多弊端，主要是对我们的心理和情绪健康造成损害。
贾斯廷·库尔森在最近为美国家庭研究所撰写的一篇文章中指出，这一问题在涉及儿童群体时会变得尤其严重。
库尔森援引了澳大利亚最近的一项研究，该研究追踪了屏幕使用时间对12个月到36个月大的幼儿的影响，这一年龄段是孩子发育的早期阶段。他写道，幼儿每多花1分钟看屏幕，其语言发育速度都会显著下降，因为这减少了他们参与有意义的人际互动的机会。
日本一项研究表明，花大量时间看手机的幼儿，其发育得分也较低。库尔森写道：“到孩子满三岁时，其累积效果将是惊人的。想象一下，这个孩子每天接触1100多个成人词汇，三年来少了840多次表达自己的机会，而且几乎错过了200次参与对话交流的机会，这个孩子的世界会遭受多大程度的削弱。”
雪上加霜的是，父母经常埋头玩手机，不和孩子交谈、不带他们阅读，而这些都是帮助孩子提升社交、语言和批判性思维技能的关键。
因此，智能手机正在让所有人都变笨，尤其是我们的孩子。
我们怎样才能挽回损失？首先，作为父母，我们不能再把手机当成电子保姆，在我们做其他事的时候代替我们陪伴孩子玩耍。
孩子们渴望亲密关系和与人互动，尤其是与父母和兄弟姐妹。没有这些，他们就难以突破自己有限的世界。没有这些，他们就像一株被关在暗室里的植物，会慢慢枯萎，永远无法
具有同阳光下植物一样的潜力。
因此，不允许孩子们进入我们的世界，就剥夺了他们在更广阔世界中茁壮成长的能力。
我们还需要给孩子读书，这样他们才能掌握语言，拓展想象力。库尔森引用的一项研究发现，如果家长每天和孩子一起读一本绘本，一年下来就可以让孩子接触到大约7.8万个单词。与没有此种经历的同龄儿童相比，这些孩子能更好地适应学校生活。
这意味着父母不能再只顾自己刷手机，而忽视孩子的认知和情感需求。这需要作出牺牲。牺牲，虽然很遗憾地成了过时词汇，却对所有人的幸福至关重要，无论年龄大小。
也许是时候让所有人都放下手机、重新彼此互动了，尤其是和我们年幼的孩子。希望这样做能让我们挽回已经造成的损失，我们的社会和子孙后代将因此更加健康。
Smartphones make us all dumber
Devices take the place of crucial human interaction
By Timothy S. Goeglein
In 2007, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs announced the launch of the
first iPhone (smartphone), a hand-held device that would radically
change the way we think as well as interact with one another.
Within a few years, with smartphones operating on the Android
system also entering the market, the digital revolution was in full
bloom. Today it is nearly impossible to do anything without owning
a smartphone, regardless of one’s economic status.
Want to go to a baseball game or a movie? You can get your ticket
only by downloading it to your smartphone. Printed tickets are no
longer available.
Need to get your new printer up and running? You must download an
app to your smartphone to activate it.
While there are many advantages to smartphones — for instance, GPS
systems, so you no longer drive while unfolding or trying to follow
an unwieldy map to find your destination or being able to text a
friend to tell them you are running late — there are a lot of
disadvantages — mainly the toll they have taken on our mental and
emotional health.
This is particularly true when it comes to children, as Justin
Coulson points out in a recent article for the Institute for Family
Studies.
Citing a recent Australian study that tracked screen time and how
affected children between 12 months and 36 months old — the very
early part of a child’s development — he reports that for every
minute a toddler spends watching a screen, there is a significant
decline in their language development as they have less exposure to
meaningful human interaction.
A Japanese study showed that toddlers who spend significant time on
smartphones also have lower developmental scores.
He writes: “By age three, the cumulative effect is staggering.
Imagine a child’s world diminished by over 1,100 adult words per
day, over 840 fewer opportunities to express themselves, and nearly
200 missed changes to engage in the back-and-forth of
conversation.”
Compounding this problem is that parents often have their heads
buried in their smartphones and are not talking with or reading to
their children, key elements that help a child’s socialization,
language and critical thinking skills.
Thus, smartphones are making us all a bit dumber, particularly our
children.
How can we reverse the damage?
First of all, as parents, we need to stop looking at smartphones as
a digital babysitter that will entertain our children while we do
other things.
Children crave relationship and interaction, especially with their
mother, father and siblings. Without it, they struggle to grow
beyond their finite world. Without it, they are like a plant kept
in a dark room. They slowly wither away and never reach the
potential of the plant that is exposed to light.
Thus, by not allowing them into our world, we are denying them the
ability to flourish and thrive in the greater world.
We also need to read to our children so they can grasp language and
expand their imagination. One study cited by Mr. Coulson found that
parents who read one picture book with their children every day
provide their children with exposure to an estimated 78,000 words
each a year. These children enter school well ahead of their peers
who have not had this experience.
And it means we need to quit burying our heads in our screens while
ignoring the cognitive and relational needs of our children. This
requires sacrifice — which sadly has become unfashionable but is
critical to our well-being of all of us, regardless of age.
By pursuing the gratification of the moment offered on our digital
screens, we are neglecting the long-term investments that we, as
parents, need to make in our children for them to be successful in
life.
Perhaps it is time for people of all ages to put down their
smartphones — except for essential purposes — and start interacting
with one another again — and particularly with our young children.
By doing so, we will hopefully regain what we have lost, and our
society and future generations will be healthier as a result.
