VOA慢速英語：一半的美國和日本青少年沉溺智能手機(jī)

Half of Teenagers in US and Japan ‘Addicted’ to Smartphones

一半的美國和日本青少年沉溺智能手機(jī)不能自拔

About half of teenagers in the United States and Japan say they are “addicted” to their smartphones.

將近一半的美國和日本青少年表示，自己沉溺于智能手機(jī)不能自拔。

To be addicted means an individual is unable to stop doing something -- in this case, using the telephones.

沉溺的意思是個體不能停止去做某件事情——而在這里我們指的是使用手機(jī)。

University of Southern California, or USC researchers asked 1,200 Japanese about their use of electronic devices. The researchers are with the Walter Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism. Their findings were compared with an earlier study on digital media use among families in North America.

南加利福尼亞大學(xué)的研究人員調(diào)查了1200名日本人關(guān)于他們使用智能設(shè)備的情況。沃爾特安尼伯格通信與新聞學(xué)院的人員和研究人員們一起進(jìn)行了此次調(diào)查。之后研究人員將得出的結(jié)果與之前對北美家庭使用數(shù)字媒體的結(jié)果進(jìn)行了對比。

Willow Bay is head of the Annenberg School. She said, “Advances in digital media and mobile devices are changing the way we engage not only with the world around us, but also with the people who are the closest to us.”

威羅·貝伊是安尼伯格傳播學(xué)院的院長。威羅表示，數(shù)字媒體和移動設(shè)備的革新不僅改變了我們與周圍世界交流的方式，同時也改變了與身邊最親密人的溝通方式。

James Steyer is founder of Common Sense Media, an organization which helped with the study.

詹姆斯·斯太爾是常識媒體機(jī)構(gòu)的創(chuàng)建者，這個機(jī)構(gòu)推動了研究的進(jìn)行。

He said, “This is a really big deal. Just think about it, 10 years ago we didn’t even have smart phones.”

詹姆斯表示：“技術(shù)的進(jìn)步真的是一件了不起的事情。想一想，10年之前，我們根本就沒有智能手機(jī)。”

Among the findings in the USC report: 50 percent of American teenagers and 45 percent of Japanese teens feel addicted to their mobile phones.

USC研究結(jié)果表示，50%的美國青少年和45%的日本青少年沉溺于手機(jī)。

Sixty-one percent of Japanese parents believe their children are addicted to the devices. That compares to 59 percent of the American parents who were asked.

受訪的61%的日本家長認(rèn)為自己的孩子離不開這些設(shè)備。相比而言，59%的美國家長持有此觀點(diǎn)。

Also, more than one in three Japanese parents feel they have grown dependent on electronic devices, compared to about one in four American parents.

此外，超過三分之一的日本家長表示自己也依賴電子設(shè)備，而此類美國家長只占四分之一。

Leaving your phone at home is ‘one of the worst things’

把手機(jī)忘在家里是最糟糕的事情

“Nowadays, one of the worst things that can happen to us is, like, oh, I left my phone at home,” said Alissa Caldwell, a student at the American School in Tokyo. She spoke at the USC Global Conference 2017, which was held in Tokyo.

“現(xiàn)在，我們發(fā)生的最糟糕的事情之一，把自己的手機(jī)落家里了”艾莉莎·考德韋爾是一名學(xué)生。目前求學(xué)于東京的美國學(xué)校。在于東京舉辦的2017年USC全球會議上，她發(fā)表了上述言論。

A majority of Japanese and American parents said their teenagers used mobile devices too much. But only 17 percent of Japanese teens agreed that they use their devices too much. In the United States, 52 percent of teens said they are spending too much time on mobile devices.

大多數(shù)日本和美國家長表示，自己的孩子過度依賴移動設(shè)備。但是僅有17%的日本青少年同意自己過多使用移動設(shè)備，而這一比例在美國青少年中占52%。

Many respond immediately to messages

多數(shù)人會立刻回復(fù)消息

About seven-in-10 American teens said they felt a need to react quickly to mobile messages, compared to about half of Japanese teens.

約有十分之七的美國青少年表示，他們覺得有必要立刻回復(fù)手機(jī)消息，而這一比例在日本青少年中僅占約二分之一。

In Japan, 38 percent of parents and 48 percent of teens look at and use their devices at least once an hour. In the United States, 69 percent of parents and 78 percent of teens say they use their devices every hour.

38%的日本家長和48%的日本青少年至少每小時會查看或者使用手機(jī)一次，而69%的美國家長和78%的美國青少年表示，他們每小時都在使用手機(jī)。

Naturally, that hourly usage stops when people are sleeping, the researchers said.

當(dāng)然，研究人員表示，這個每小時使用的頻率會在人們睡眠的時候停止。

The devices are a greater cause of conflict among teens and parents in the United States than in Japan. One in three U.S. families reported having an argument every day about mobile device use. Only about one in six Japanese families say they fight every day over mobile devices.

與日本相比，智能手機(jī)是美國青少年和家長產(chǎn)生沖突的更大的導(dǎo)火索。三分之一的美國家庭表示每天都會由于使用這些移動設(shè)備發(fā)生爭吵。而這一數(shù)據(jù)在日本家庭中僅占六分之一。

Care more about devices than your children?

與自己的孩子相比，你是否更關(guān)心你的手機(jī)呢?

But 20 percent of Japanese teens said they sometimes feel that their parents think their mobile device is more important than they are. The percentage of U.S. teens saying they feel this way is six percent.

但是五分之一的日本青少年表示有時候覺得父母認(rèn)為他們的手機(jī)比兒女更重要。而這一比例在美國青少年中僅占6%。

In the United States, 15 percent of parents say their teens’ use of mobile devices worsens the family’s personal relationships. Eleven percent of teens feel their parents’ use of mobile devices is not good for their relationship.

15%的美國父母表示，青少年使用移動設(shè)備會惡化家庭人際關(guān)系。而11%的青少年認(rèn)為父母使用移動設(shè)備不利于家庭關(guān)系。

The USC research was based on an April 2017 study of 600 Japanese parents and 600 Japanese teenagers. Opinions from American parents and teenagers were collected in a study done earlier by Common Sense Media.

此項(xiàng)研究是基于2017年4月對600名日本家長和600明天日本青少年的調(diào)查進(jìn)行的。而美國家長和青少年的意見取材于之前常識媒體做的調(diào)查。

Willow Bay, the Annenberg School of Communications dean, said the research raises critical questions about the effect of digital devices on family life.

威羅·貝伊,安尼伯格傳播學(xué)院的院長,表示，此項(xiàng)研究提出了數(shù)字設(shè)備對家庭生活影響相關(guān)的重要問題。

She said the cultural effects may differ from country to country, but “this is clearly a global issue.”

她還表示，文化影響在各個國家可能會有差異，但是手機(jī)效應(yīng)顯然是一個全球問題。

I’m Bruce Alpert. And I'm Jill Robbins.

布魯斯·阿爾伯特，吉爾·羅賓斯為您報道。