Is too much screen time bad

too much什么都不好，何况长时间看电脑和手机，不仅对孩子不好，对任何人都不好。弄完这一篇我就住手。晚安

Is too much screen time bad for children?

使用屏幕时间过长对儿童有害吗？

智能手机和平板电脑已经成为很多家庭的常用电子产品。但与此同时，家长也开始担心孩子们使用这些电子设备对健康的影响。一项新研究称，使用屏幕给年轻人的健康造成的危害极小，所以家长们不必多虑。《随身英语》浅谈儿童使用电子设备与其健康之间的联系。

If I could have your attention, please. I’d like to talk to you aboutyoung people’s screen time. It’s a tempting habit for them to glance at their smartphoneor tablet rather than make eye contact with someone and make conversation!There is so much to look at: photographs, social media feeds, messages andemails; it’s no wonder they are gluedto their screens. But is it good for them?

There have been many claims about the damage looking at screens does toour eyesight. Some peoplefeared staring at a small bright box could make us short-sighted or lead to headaches. This is a particular concern for children and youngpeople, who spend a higher percentage of time using electronic gadgets. BBCtechnology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, says: “there is plenty ofanecdotal evidence that no matter how long teenagers are spending looking atscreens, they are encountering material about issues such as anorexia and self-harm that could prove damaging to their mental health”.

But a new study says time in front of computers and phones might not be asbad for young people as many think. Research by the Oxford Internet Instituteexamined data from more than 17,000 teenagers in the UK, Ireland and the UnitedStates. Their study concluded that most links between life satisfaction and socialmedia use were "trivial", accounting for less than 1% of ateenager's wellbeing.Professor Przybylski, director of research at the institute, said: "99.75%of a person's life satisfaction has nothing to do with their use of socialmedia." The research found that family, friends and school life all had agreater impact on wellbeing.

So, does this mean young people can spend longer looking at social media?The Oxford researchers are confident that their study is robust in its findingsand that any correlation between screen time and mental health is very small.Dr Max Davie, officer for health improvement at the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health,calls the study a “small first step”, but he said there were other issues toexplore, such as screen time's interference with other important activitieslike sleep, exercise and time with family orfriends. Perhaps for now, deciding what the ‘right’ amount of screen time ishas to be down to personal judgment.

词汇表

glued to全神贯注地盯着…看
eyesight视力
short-sighted近视的
anorexia厌食症
self-harm自残行为
damaging有害的
mental health精神健康状态
life satisfaction生活满意度
wellbeing健康
pediatrics儿科学