We’ve come a long way in terms of technological (形容詞:科技的) progress in our world today. Arguably, the electronic device (名詞:電子儀器) to have the largest impact on today’s culture (名詞:文化) is the “smartphone”. As an American-born Chinese student myself, I have personally felt the influence of smartphone use, and it has not only impacted the way I live my life but also the way I see the world. There are definitely positive and negative effects smartphone use has had on today’s youth。
For the most part, smartphones have opened up the communication ports, allowing a student to quickly send a text message to her peer, or a teacher to post a homework assignment online for his class to accessibly view. Social media networks have never become simpler to access from a mobile device than ever before, and this accessibility (名詞:容易到達;易於理解) to interact with friends, family, coworkers, and even random people grants a very wide opportunity for people to express (動詞:表達) themselves. With websites for every opinion and passion as well as the rise of the “selfie”–a photo of oneself taken by oneself with a smartphone–people today simply want to be acknowledged (動詞:承認) , which is the underlying (形容詞:隱含的;潛在的) notion (名詞:觀念;概念) to freedom on the Internet.
Today’s youth is no exception. The desire to be able to express oneself as freely as possible is directly correlated to the accessibility technology like smartphones provide. Negatively, this desire can consume a person in a way that an addiction to their smartphone can occur. The older generations are always seen complaining about how millennials (名詞:千禧世代) are constantly on their phones, ignoring reality. I have seen people that are so absorbed with the happenings in their phone that they become unaware of their surroundings. Of course, there is a scale to the consequences, ranging from social awkwardness (名詞:笨拙;粗劣) to traffic accidents. Keeping the eyes glued (動詞:粘) to the screen (名詞:屏幕) can be just as dangerous to mental stability as it is to physical health.
There has been plenty of research to support the negative physical effects of using smartphone technology habitually. I have heard that receiving audial alerts, either from text messages to social media notifications, lights up the same part of the brain that using slot machines does. As soon as they hear the sound from their phones, people are quick to draw them out of their pockets, eager to discover what new and exciting phenomenon (名詞:現象) awaits their viewing pleasure. In addition, staring (動詞:注視) at brightly lit screens in the dark too long not only strains (動詞:拉緊;拖緊) the eyes, but also disrupts (動詞:擾亂) natural sleep processes (名詞:程序) at the beginning of each night. There is no doubt that smartphone technology has caused youth today to fall asleep at much later hours of the night than in past generations, and I am guilty of propagating (動詞:傳播) that notion myself.
I have not even mentioned the impact smartphones have had on education. The accessibility to different resources and the Internet from a Smartphone provides students with a wide range of applications of which to take advantage during the school day, and many schools have already begun experimenting incorporating (動詞:納入;收錄) such technologies into their curriculums (名詞: 課程). Of course, students have always been using their smartphones in class, doing non-school-related activities such as browsing the Internet and accessing social media sites without permission, and that is a clear distraction to their studies.
I have interviewed many high school and college students about their opinions on smartphone usage in today’s youth, and many agree that the list of disadvantages often outweighs that of the benefits. Smartphone usage has been regularly (形容詞:有規律地) viewed by older generations as a millennial addiction, but perhaps it is simply a symptom (名詞:症狀) of our society’s evolution (名詞:演變;進化) in culture. Everyone is searching for something, whether it is freedom, escape, or attention, and some have decided to look for it in the tiny metallic (形容詞:金屬) box they keep in their pockets.
科技得以發展到今天，是一條漫長的路。在眾多電子儀器中，影響今日的文化最為深遠的，可算是智能手機。作為一個土生土長的美籍華裔大學生，我覺智能手機影響的，不但是我個人的生活模式，也包括了我對世界的觀點。至於智能手機的使用，對今日青少年的影響，可說是好壞參半。
整體來說，智能手機的確打開了溝通的大門，讓學生很快就能把信息傳給他的同學；讓老師可以把作業放在互聯網上給學生看。從流動電話進入社交網站，變得前所未有的輕而易取，也因此給了我們一個很大的平臺，跟朋友、家人、同事，甚至陌生人交流、表達自己。透過不同意見、不同喜好的網站，及近期流行的「自拍」(注：用智能手機幫自己拍照) ，每個人都希望被認可。這也是網絡自由背後隱含的概念。
今日的青少年也不例外，希望能無拘無束地暢所欲言。為了順應這渴求，容易掌握和應用智能手機等科技，也就應運而生。負面來說，這種渴求很容易會耗盡一個人，釀成智能手機的癮癖。年長的一輩常常埋怨，為什麼千禧世代的人總是機不離手，不務實際。我曾遇到一些完全被電話裡的人事佔據，以致對周圍環境充耳不聞；因而誘發不同程度的後果，從社交障礙到交通意外。把眼睛粘在屏幕上，不但危害精神狀況，也會影響身體健康。
支持慣性使用智能手機對身體有負面影響的研究報告，數不勝數。我曾聽說，不管是文字信息，或是社交媒體的通知所沿用的聽覺警報，跟吃角子老虎機一樣，會刺激人類大腦的同一個部位，引起鏈式反應。只要聽到從電話發出的聲音，人們就會瞬間從口袋裡拿出手機，急不及待地看看有什麼新的、令人雀躍的現象等著他們去觀賞。此外，在黑暗中盯著發亮的屏幕過長，不但會對眼晴造成勞損，更會在每晚開始擾亂自然的睡眠程序。智能手機讓今日的年青人較過去的世代更晚入睡，已經是無庸置疑的事實。很抱憾，我也是宣傳這概念的其中一份子！
我還沒有提及智能手機對教育的影響。在上課的時侯，智能手機所提供那些具廣泛應用程式的資源和網絡，確實為學生帶來益處。事實上，許多學校已經開始嘗試把這一類的科技納入課程裡。可是，學生卻經常在課室裡使用智能手機，做一些與功課無關，如在沒有允許下，瀏覽互聯網和其他社交網站等，明顯地打擾他們學習的活動。
我曾經訪問過很多高中及大學生，徵求他們對青少年使用智能手機這課題的意見，很多人都同意智能手機的弊比利來得多。老一輩一般都認為千禧年代的人都中了智能手機的毒，但，這個可能只是社會文化演變的一個徵狀。每個人都在追尋一些東西，不管是自由、逃避、或是別人的注意，只是，有些人決定在他們放在口袋裡，那個小小的金屬盒子裡尋找而已！
◎ Vincent ◎ 翻譯：秦黃業玲