from: nypost.com

http://nypost.com/2016/08/27/its-digital-heroin-how-screens-turn-kids-into-psychotic-junkies

heroin n. 海洛因

psychotic adj. 精神病的

junky n. 吸毒者，瘾君子

电子产品像电子海洛因一样让孩子们变成精神上的瘾君子。

(1)

Susan bought her 6-year-old son John an iPad when he was in first grade. “I thought, ‘Why not let him get a jump on things?’ ” she told me during a therapy session. John’s school had begun using the devices with younger and younger grades — and his technology teacher had raved about their educational benefits — so Susan wanted to do what was best for her sandy-haired boy who loved reading and playing baseball.

rave vt. 妄言，胡言乱语

6岁的儿子John上一年级的时候，Susan给他买了一台iPad。“有些事情上为什么不能跳跃一些呢？”

在一个疗程中她对我讲了那些话。John就读的学校已经开始越来越早地使用电子设备了，并且技术老师已经在妄言他们的教育效益了，所以Susan想要一步地提供给她热爱阅读和棒球的沙头发儿子。

(2)

She started letting John play different educational games on his iPad. Eventually, he discovered Minecraft, which the technology teacher assured her was “just like electronic Lego.” Remembering how much fun she had as a child building and playing with the interlocking plastic blocks, Susan let her son Minecraft his afternoons away.

eventually adv. 终于

assure vt. 保证

interlock v. 连锁，互锁

plastic n. 塑料 adj. 塑料的

block n. 块

Susan开始同意John在iPad上玩一些不同的教育类游戏。最终，John发现了Minecraft，技术老师保证过这个游戏就像电子版的乐高。Susan回忆起John特别喜欢玩这些互锁的塑料块，于是她让John每天下午放学后玩Minecraft。

(3)

At first, Susan was quite pleased. John seemed engaged in creative play as he explored the cube-world of the game. She did notice that the game wasn’t quite like the Legos that she remembered — after all, she didn’t have to kill animals and find rare minerals to survive and get to the next level with her beloved old game. But John did seem to really like playing and the school even had a Minecraft club, so how bad could it be?

pleased adj. 满意的

cube-world 魔方世界

开始，Susan非常满意。在探索那个魔方世界的游戏时，John忙于创造性的玩法。Susan慢慢意识到这个游戏并不像她记忆中的乐高，毕竟，她不需要在心爱的老游戏中杀死动物并且找到稀有金属来生存和进入下一个等级。可是，John确实喜欢玩这样的游戏，并且学校都有一个Minecraft俱乐部，这样看来，它能有多坏呢？

(4)

Still, Susan couldn’t deny she was seeing changes in John. He started getting more and more focused on his game and losing interest in baseball and reading while refusing to do his chores. Some mornings he would wake up and tell her that he could see the cube shapes in his dreams.

still adv. 尽管如此

deny vt. 否认，拒绝

while prep. 直到

chores n. 琐事

shape n. 形状

尽管如此，Susan不能否认她发现了John的变化。John开始更加关注他的游戏，对棒球和阅读慢慢丧失了兴趣，直到拒绝做所有的琐事。几次早晨醒来后，John对Susan说，他在梦中都能看到那些方块形状的东西。

(5)

Although that concerned her, she thought her son might just be exhibiting an active imagination. As his behavior continued to deteriorate, she tried to take the game away but John threw temper tantrums. His outbursts were so severe that she gave in, still rationalizing to herself over and over again that “it’s educational.”

concern vt. 使担心，使忧虑

exhibit vt. 显示，展览

deteriorate vi. 恶化

temper n. 脾气

tantrums n. 发脾气

throw temper tantrums 发脾气

outbursts n. 爆发

severeadj. 严重的

give in 屈服，让步

rationalize vt. 是合理化

尽管那样的情况让她担心，Susan还是觉得有可能只是在展现他活跃的想象力。随着John的行为持续恶化，Susan尝试着不让他玩游戏，但是John开始发脾气了。John的爆发很严重以至于Susan最终屈服了：他扔在用“这是教育性的东西”来合理化自己的行为。

(6)

Then, one night, she realized that something was seriously wrong.

后来的一个晚上，Susan意识到情况已经足够坏了。

(7)

“I walked into his room to check on him. He was supposed to be sleeping — and I was just so frightened…”

suppose vt. 假设

supposed adj. 应该的

我走进他房间去检查。那个时间他本应该睡觉的，事实却让我特别害怕。

(8)

She found him sitting up in his bed staring wide-eyed, his bloodshot eyes looking into the distance as his glowing iPad lay next to him. He seemed to be in a trance. Beside herself with panic, Susan had to shake the boy repeatedly to snap him out of it. Distraught, she could not understand how her once-healthy and happy little boy had become so addicted to the game that he wound up in a catatonic stupor.

glow vi. 发光

be in a trance 陷入恍惚

snap out of sth. 打起精神

distraught adj. 发狂的

wound up 紧张的

catatonic stupor 紧张性昏迷

Susan发现John瞪着眼睛坐立在床上，他布满血丝的眼睛盯着远处，旁边放着发光的iPad.他看起来有点恍惚。站在John旁边的Susan非常惊恐，她不得不反复摇动他好让他打起精神来。Susan难以理解

她的曾经健康又快乐的小男孩已经如此沉迷于这个游戏以至于他在紧张到昏迷，这让她发狂。

(9)

There’s a reason that the most tech-cautious parents are tech designers and engineers. Steve Jobs was a notoriously low-tech parent. Silicon Valley tech executives and engineers enroll their kids in no-tech Waldorf Schools. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page went to no-tech Montessori Schools, as did Amazon creator Jeff Bezos and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

cautiousadj. 谨慎的

notoriously adv. 臭名昭著地

executive n. 高管

高科技的设计者和工程师对高科技最谨慎是有原因的，斯蒂夫·乔布斯是臭名昭著的不负责任的父母。硅谷科技公司的高管和工程师让他们的孩子在未引入科技要素的华德福学校上学。谷歌创始人Sergey Brin和Larry Page去未引入科技要素的蒙特梭利学校学习，亚马逊的创始人Jeff Bezos和维基百科的创始人Jimmy Wales也这么做。

(10)

Many parents intuitively understand that ubiquitous glowing screens are having a negative effect on kids. We see the aggressive temper tantrums when the devices are taken away and the wandering attention spans when children are not perpetually stimulated by their hyper-arousing devices. Worse, we see children who become bored, apathetic, uninteresting and uninterested when not plugged in.

intuitively adv. 直观地

ubiquitous adj. 普遍的，无处不在的

aggressive adj. 气势汹汹的

temper n. 脾气

tantrums n. 发脾气

wandering adj. 漫游的

span n. 跨度

perpetually adv. 永久地

stimulate vt. 刺激

hyper-arousing adj. 高吸引力的

apathetic adj. 冷漠的，无动于衷的

很多家长直觉性地认为无处不在的发光屏幕会对孩子造成不好的影响。我们看到了被剥夺电子设备的孩子们暴怒的脾气，也看到了离开超级发设备刺激的孩子们注意力特别涣散。更糟糕的是，在没有电子设备的时候，我们看到孩子们变得无聊、麻木、无趣。

(11)

But it’s even worse than we think.

事实比我们想象的还要糟糕。

(12)

We now know that those iPads, smartphones and Xboxes are a form of digital drug. Recent brain imaging research is showing that they affect the brain’s frontal cortex — which controls executive functioning, including impulse control — in exactly the same way that cocaine does. Technology is so hyper-arousing that it raises dopamine levels — the feel-good neurotransmitter most involved in the addiction dynamic — as much as sex.

brain’s frontal cortex 大脑前额叶皮质

executive adj. 执行的

impulse n. 冲动

dopamine n. 多巴胺

neurotransmitter n. 神经递质

addiction n. 瘾

现在，我们终于知道iPad、智能手机和Xboxes游戏机都是电子毒品的一种，近期的脑部成像研究显示游戏机通过与可卡因相同的方式影响了前额叶皮质，而前额叶皮质负责人的执行控制，比如冲动的控制。科技的吸引力特别强，它们与性一样提高了多巴胺水平，多巴胺是一种让人产生美好感觉的神经递质，它还与动态成瘾相关。

(13)

This addictive effect is why Dr. Peter Whybrow, director of neuroscience at UCLA, calls screens “electronic cocaine” and Chinese researchers call them “digital heroin.” In fact, Dr. Andrew Doan, the head of addiction research for the Pentagon and the US Navy — who has been researching video game addiction — calls video games and screen technologies “digital pharmakeia” (Greek for drug).

director n. 主任

neuroscience n. 神经科学

Pentagon n. 五角大楼

会产生让人上瘾的效果就是加州大学洛杉矶分校神经科学主任Peter Whybrow博士把屏幕称为“电子可卡因”的原因，也是中国研究者把它们称为“电子海洛因”的原因。事实上，五角大楼和美国军队成瘾性研究的领头人，一直在研究视频游戏成瘾性的Andrew Doan博士把视频游戏和屏幕科技称为“电子毒品”，他用了希腊文的表述。

(14)

That’s right — your kid’s brain on Minecraft looks like a brain on drugs. No wonder we have a hard time peeling kids from their screens and find our little ones agitated when their screen time is interrupted. In addition, hundreds of clinical studies show that screens increase depression, anxiety and aggression and can even lead to psychotic-like features where the video gamer loses touch with reality.

peel vt. 剥 使分离

in addition 另外

clinical study 临床研究

depression n. 萧条

anxiety n. 焦虑

aggression n. 侵略

psychotic-like 精神病样

没错，在玩Minecraft时，你的孩子的大脑与吸毒时是一样的。难怪我们难以把他们与屏幕剥离，而且我们的小家伙们在于屏幕分离的瞬间也会变得情绪难以遏制。此外，数百项临床研究表明，屏幕会增加抑郁，焦虑和攻击，甚至会导致视频玩家与现实脱节的精神病样特征。

(15)

In my clinical work with over 1,000 teens over the past 15 years, I have found the old axiom of “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” to be especially true when it comes to tech addiction. Once a kid has crossed the line into true tech addiction, treatment can be very difficult. Indeed, I have found it easier to treat heroin and crystal meth addicts than lost-in-the-matrix video gamers or Facebook-dependent social media addicts.

(16)

According to a 2013 Policy Statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics, 8- to 10 year-olds spend 8 hours a day with various digital media while teenagers spend 11 hours in front of screens. One in three kids are using tablets or smartphones before they can talk. Meanwhile, the handbook of “Internet Addiction” by Dr. Kimberly Young states that 18 percent of college-age internet users in the US suffer from tech addiction.

suffer from 遭受

在过去的15年里，我的临床工作中有超过1000名青少年，我发现当谈到科技成瘾时，“一盎司预防值得一磅药”的老原则更是如此。 一旦一个孩子进入真正的科技成瘾，治疗可能会非常困难。 事实上，我发现对待海洛因和水晶甲基毒品的人比丢失在矩阵的电子游戏玩家或Facebook上的社交媒体瘾君子更容易。

(17)

Once a person crosses over the line into full-blown addiction — drug, digital or otherwise — they need to detox before any other kind of therapy can have any chance of being effective. With tech, that means a full digital detox — no computers, no smartphones, no tablets. The extreme digital detox even eliminates television. The prescribed amount of time is four to six weeks; that’s the amount of time that is usually required for a hyper-aroused nervous system to reset itself. But that’s no easy task in our current tech-filled society where screens are ubiquitous. A person can live without drugs or alcohol; with tech addiction, digital temptations are everywhere.

crosses over 穿过

full-blown 全面爆发的

detox vt. 排毒

therapy n. 治疗

extreme adj. 极端的

eliminate vt. 消除

prescribed adj. 规定的

hyper-aroused 超级吸引

ubiquitous adj. 普及的

alcohol n. 酒精

temptation n. 诱惑

一旦一个人越过线路进入成瘾 - 药物，数字或其他 - 他们需要排毒，然后任何其他类型的治疗才有可能有效。 技术，这意味着一个完整的数字排毒 - 没有电脑，没有智能手机，没有平板电脑。 极端的数字排毒甚至消除了电视。 规定的时间是四到六周; 这是一个超级神经系统自我复位通常需要的时间。 但在我们目前充满技术的社会中，屏幕无处不在，这不是一件容易的事。 一个人可以没有毒品或酒精的生活; 随着科技成瘾，数字化诱惑无处不在。

(18)

So how do we keep our children from crossing this line? It’s not easy.

那么，我们如何让我们的孩子远离这条分界线呢？ 这并不容易。

(19)

The key is to prevent your 4-, 5- or 8-year-old from getting hooked on screens to begin with. That means Lego instead of Minecraft; books instead of iPads; nature and sports instead of TV. If you have to, demand that your child’s school not give them a tablet or Chromebook until they are at least 10 years old (others recommend 12).

getting hooked on sth 迷上了sth

关键是要防止4岁，5岁或8岁的孩子从屏幕上开始。 这意味着乐高而不是Minecraft; 书籍而不是iPad; 自然和体育而不是电视。 如果需要，请求孩子的学校在他们至少10岁之前不给他们平板电脑或Chromebook（其他人推荐12）。

(20)

Have honest discussions with your child about why you are limiting their screen access. Eat dinner with your children without any electronic devices at the table — just as Steve Jobs used to have tech-free dinners with his kids. Don’t fall victim to “Distracted Parent Syndrome” — as we know from Social Learning Theory, “Monkey see, monkey do.”

fall victim to sth 成为sth的受害者

Distracted Parent Syndrome 分心家长综合症

与你的孩子就你为什么限制他们的屏幕访问进行诚实的讨论。 和你的孩子一起吃晚餐时，不要在桌子上放置任何电子设备 - 就像史蒂夫乔布斯曾经和他的孩子们一起吃无科技晚餐一样。 不要成为“分心家长综合症”的受害者 - 正如我们从社会学习理论中所知道的那样，“猴子看，猴子做。”

(21)

When I speak to my 9-year-old twin boys, I have honest conversations with them about why we don’t want them having tablets or playing video games. I explain to them that some kids like playing with their devices so much, they have a hard time stopping or controlling how much they play. I’ve helped them to understand that if they get caught up with screens and Minecraft like some of their friends have, other parts of their lives may suffer: They may not want to play baseball as much; not read books as often; be less interested in science and nature projects; become more disconnected from their real-world friends. Amazingly, they don’t need much convincing as they’ve seen first-hand the changes that some of their little friends have undergone as a result of their excessive screen time.

have a hard time doing sth. 做某事有困难

undergone n. 经历

当我和我9岁的双胞胎男孩谈话时，我与他们进行了坦诚的交谈，说明我们为什么不希望他们有平板电脑或玩视频游戏。 我向他们解释说，一些孩子喜欢玩他们的设备，他们很难停止或控制他们玩的多少。 我已经帮助他们明白，如果他们像他们的一些朋友一样陷入屏幕和“我的世界”，他们生活中的其他部分可能会受到影响：他们可能不想打棒球， 不经常阅读书籍; 对科学和自然项目不感兴趣; 变得与现实世界的朋友更加脱节。 令人惊讶的是，他们并不需要太多说服力，因为他们亲眼看到了他们的一些小朋友因为过度的放映时间而经历的变化。

(22)

Developmental psychologists understand that children’s healthy development involves social interaction, creative imaginative play and an engagement with the real, natural world. Unfortunately, the immersive and addictive world of screens dampens and stunts those developmental processes.

involve vt. 涉及

immersive adj. 身临其境的, 沉浸式的

dampen vt. 挫伤

stunt vt. 阻碍成长

发展心理学家明白，儿童的健康发展涉及社交互动，富有创造性的想象游戏以及与真实自然世界的交流。 不幸的是，沉浸式和令人上瘾的屏幕世界会抑制和阻碍这些发展过程。

(23)

We also know that kids are more prone to addictive escape if they feel alone, alienated, purposeless and bored. Thus the solution is often to help kids to connect to meaningful real-life experiences and flesh-and-blood relationships. The engaged child tethered to creative activities and connected to his or her family is less likely to escape into the digital fantasy world. Yet even if a child has the best and most loving support, he or she could fall into the Matrix once they engage with hypnotic screens and experience their addicting effect. After all, about one in 10 people are predisposed towards addictive tendencies.

prone adj. 易于 倾向于

alienated adj. 疏远的

purposeless adj. 无意义

bored adj. 无聊的

Thus prep. 因此

flesh-and-blood adj. 有血有肉的

tether vt. 约束 栓

fantasy adj. 幻想的

be predisposed toward sth. 倾向于某事

我们也知道，如果孩子感到孤单，疏远，无意义和无聊，孩子更容易上瘾。 因此，解决方案通常是帮助孩子连接到有意义的现实生活中的体验和血肉之间的关系。 从事创意活动并与家人联系在一起的孩子不太可能逃避数字幻想世界。 然而，即使一个孩子拥有最好的和最爱的支持，他或她一旦进入了催眠屏幕并且体验了他们的成瘾效果，他们就可以落入Matrix。 毕竟，每10人中就有一人倾向于成瘾倾向。

(24)

In the end, my client Susan removed John’s tablet, but recovery was an uphill battle with many bumps and setbacks along the way.

uphill adj. 上坡的，艰苦的

bump n. 磕碰

setback n. 挫折

最后，我的客户苏珊删除了约翰的平板电脑，但恢复是一场艰苦的战斗，伴随着许多磕碰和挫折。

(25)

Four years later, after much support and reinforcement, John is doing much better today. He has learned to use a desktop computer in a healthier way, and has gotten some sense of balance back in his life: He’s playing on a baseball team and has several close friends in his middle school. But his mother is still vigilant and remains a positive and proactive force with his tech usage because, as with any addiction, relapse can sneak up in moments of weakness. Making sure that he has healthy outlets, no computer in his bedroom and a nightly tech-free dinner at the dinner table are all part of the solution.

reinforcement n. 加强

vigilant adj. 警惕的

relapse n. 复发

sneak up 偷袭

outlet n. 出口

四年后，经过多次支持和加强，约翰今天表现得更好。 他已经学会了以更健康的方式使用台式计算机，并在他的生活中恢复了平衡感：他在打棒球队，在他的中学有几个好朋友。 但是他的母亲仍然保持警惕，并且依然保持积极主动的态度，因为与任何吸毒成瘾一样，复发可能会在虚弱的时刻悄悄溜走。 确保他有健康的店铺，卧室里没有电脑，晚餐桌上没有晚间高科技晚餐，都是解决方案的一部分。

单词和习语:

educational adj. 教育的；有教育意义的

eventually adv. 最后，终于

creative adj. 创造性的

chore n. 家庭杂务；日常的零星事务；讨厌的或累人的工作

deteriorate vi. 恶化，变坏 vt. 恶化

outbursts n.（火山、情感等的）爆发；破裂

rationalize vt. 使……合理化；使……有理化；为……找借口

panic n. 恐慌 vi. 恐慌

distraught adj. 发狂的；心烦意乱的

addict n. 有瘾的人；入迷的人 vt. 使沉溺；使上瘾

Intuitively adv. 直观地；直觉地

ubiquitous adj. 普遍存在的；无所不在的

perpetually adv. 永恒地，持久地

stimulated vt. 刺激；鼓舞，激励

aggressive adj. 侵略性的；好斗的；有进取心的；有闯劲的

Minecraft 我的世界（网络游戏）

Legos 乐高

interlocking 互相锁定，连锁的，相互咬合的

plastic blocks 塑料块

Google 谷歌

Amazon 亚马逊

Wikipedia 维基百科

tech-cautious 意识到科技影响的

high-tech 高科技

low-tech 低科技

no-tech 无科技

Waldorf Schools 华尔道夫学校

Montessori Schools 蒙特梭利学校

hyper-arousing devices 高吸引力设备

digital drug 数字毒品

cocaine 可卡因

dopamine 多巴胺

electronic cocaine 电子可卡因

digital heroin 数字海洛因

depression 抑郁症

anxiety 焦虑症

aggression 攻击性

lost-in-the-matrix video gamers 迷失在游戏（矩阵）中的游戏玩家

Facebook-dependent social media addicts 依赖脸书的社交媒体成瘾者

detox 排毒

to get a jump on things 尽早着手做某事

let her son Minecraft his afternoons away 让孩子尽情玩一下午“我的世界”

to engage oneself in sth 投入做某事

to throw temper tantrums 发脾气

to give in 屈服

to check on him 查看某人

to be in a trance 陷入幻觉

to snap sb out of it 让某人摆脱某事

to be plugged in 接入......

to peel sb from sth 让人摆脱……

to cross the line into… 越界

to get hooked on sth 上钩，上瘾

长难句:

In my clinical work with over 1,000 teens over the past 15 years, I have found the old axiom of “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” to be especially true when it comes to tech addiction.