Why our screens make us less happy | Adam Alter

譯者: Lilian Chiu 審譯者: Yuyang Zhao

So, a few years ago I heard an interesting rumor.

幾年前，我聽到了一個有趣的謠言。

Apparently, the head of a large pet food company

似乎是，有一家大型 寵物食品公司的經理

would go into the annual shareholder's meeting

帶著一罐狗食去參加

with can of dog food.

年度股東大會。

And he would eat the can of dog food.

然後他吃掉那罐狗食。

And this was his way of convincing them that if it was good enough for him,

這是他以此說服股東， 如果這狗食對他而言夠好，

it was good enough for their pets.

那對他們的寵物一定也夠好。

This strategy is now known as "dogfooding,"

這個策略現在被稱為 「使用自家產品」，（吃狗食）

and it's a common strategy in the business world.

是商業界常用的策略。

It doesn't mean everyone goes in and eats dog food,

這策略不表示每個人 都得要試吃狗食，

but businesspeople will use their own products

而是商人要使用他們自己的產品，

to demonstrate that they feel --

來展現他們對於該產品

that they're confident in them.

有足夠的信心。

Now, this is a widespread practice,

現在，這是一個十分普遍的做法，

but I think what's really interesting is when you find exceptions

但是我認為真正有趣的 是找到這個規則的例外，

to this rule,

就是當你找到企業或企業中的人

when you find cases of businesses or people in businesses

不使用自家產品的案例。

who don't use their own products.

結果是有一個產業經常有這種現象，

Turns out there's one industry where this happens in a common way,

且發生頻率很高。

in a pretty regular way,

and that is the screen-based tech industry.

那就是以螢幕為基礎的科技產業。

So, in 2010, Steve Jobs, when he was releasing the iPad,

當史帝夫·賈伯斯 在 2010 年發表 iPad 時，

described the iPad as a device that was "extraordinary."

他將 iPad 描述是 一個「超凡」的裝置。

"The best browsing experience you've ever had;

「你不曾擁有過的最佳瀏覽體驗；

way better than a laptop, way better than a smartphone.

遠勝過筆記型電腦， 遠勝過智慧型手機。

It's an incredible experience."

它是一種不可思議的經驗。」

A couple of months later, he was approached by a journalist

幾個月後，一位 紐約時報的記者採訪了他，

from the New York Times,

他們在電話上談了很久。

and they had a long phone call.

At the end of the call,

在通話結束前，

the journalist threw in a question that seemed like a sort of softball.

那位記者問了一個問題， 感覺不痛不癢問題。

記者對他說：「你的孩子 肯定非常喜愛 iPad。」

He said to him, "Your kids must love the iPad."

There's an obvious answer to this,

這個問題的答案不言可喻，

but what Jobs said really staggered the journalist.

但是賈伯斯的回答卻讓記者很吃驚。

He was very surprised,

記者非常訝異，

because he said, "They haven't used it.

因為賈伯斯說： 「他們還沒用過 iPad。

We limit how much technology our kids use at home."

我們限制孩子在家中 使用電子產品。」

This is a very common thing in the tech world.

在科技世界中，這非常常見。

In fact, there's a school quite near Silicon Valley

事實上，離矽谷很近的一所學校

called the Waldorf School of the Peninsula,

叫做半島華德福學校。

and they don't introduce screens until the eighth grade.

他們不會讓學生 在八年級以前接觸到螢幕。

What's really interesting about the school

這間學校真正有趣的一點是，

is that 75 percent of the kids who go there

75% 學生的家長

have parents who are high-level Silicon Valley tech execs.

是矽谷的高階技術主管。

So when I heard about this, I thought it was interesting and surprising,

所以當我聽到這件事， 我覺得它非常有趣也令人驚訝。

and it pushed me to consider what screens were doing to me

它促使我開始思考螢幕 對我、我的家人、我愛的人、

and to my family and the people I loved,

and to people at large.

以及對所有人有什麼影響。

So for the last five years,

所以，在過去五年，

as a professor of business and psychology,

身為一個商業和心理學教授，

I've been studying the effect of screens on our lives.

我一直在研究螢幕對 我們的生活所產生的影響。

And I want to start by just focusing on how much time they take from us,

我想先談談 我們在螢幕上花多少時間，

and then we can talk about what that time looks like.

接著我們可以再談談 那些時間的狀況。

What I'm showing you here is the average 24-hour workday

我在這裡呈現給各位看的 是三個不同時間點的

at three different points in history:

一般 24 小時工作日：

2007 -- 10 years ago --

2007 年，十年前──

2015

2015 年，

and then data that I collected, actually, only last week.

以及我上週才收集的目前資料。

And a lot of things haven't changed

很多東西的變化不大。

all that much.

We sleep roughly seven-and-a-half to eight hours a day;

我們每天大約睡 7.5 到 8 小時；

some people say that's declined slightly, but it hasn't changed much.

有些人說這數字稍微下降了， 但變化不大。

We work eight-and-a-half to nine hours a day.

我們每天工作 8.5 到 9 小時。

We engage in survival activities --

我們從事的維生活動──

these are things like eating and bathing and looking after kids --

像吃飯、洗澡、照顧小孩──

about three hours a day.

每天大約 3 小時。

That leaves this white space.

剩下的是白色的這段，

That's our personal time.

那是我們的個人時間。

That space is incredibly important to us.

這段時間對我們來說極重要。

That's the space where we do things that make us individuals.

我們用這段時間做一些 使我們獨特的事。

That's where hobbies happen, where we have close relationships,

我們用這段時間 進行嗜好，建立親密關係，

where we really think about our lives, where we get creative,

真正思考我們的人生，產生創意，

where we zoom back and try to work out

思考反省

whether our lives have been meaningful.

我們的人生是否過得有意義。

We get some of that from work as well,

我們在工作中有時也做這些，

but when people look back on their lives

但當人們在人生的盡頭，

and wonder what their lives have been like

回顧他們的人生，

好奇他們的人生是怎樣的，

at the end of their lives,

you look at the last things they say --

他們最後說什麼──

他們會談到的是在 白色個人時間內發生的事。

they are talking about those moments that happen in that white personal space.

所以那是很神聖的， 對我們很重要的。

So it's sacred; it's important to us.

Now, what I'm going to do is show you

我接下來要給各位看的，

how much of that space is taken up by screens across time.

在歷史的不同時間點， 有多少個人時間被螢幕給佔據。

In 2007,

在 2007 年，

this much.

有這麼多。

That was the year that Apple introduced the first iPhone.

這是蘋果推出第一支 iPhone 的那一年。

Eight years later,

8 年後，

this much.

這麼多。

Now, this much.

現在，這麼多。

That's how much time we spend of that free time in front of our screens.

那就是我們在螢幕前面 所花的閒瑕時間。

This yellow area, this thin sliver, is where the magic happens.

很狹窄的這個黃色區段， 就是魔力發生的時候。

That's where your humanity lives.

你的人性存在於這裡。

And right now, it's in a very small box.

現在，這個區塊非常小。

So what do we do about this?

所以我們要如何處理這狀況？

Well, the first question is:

第一個問題是：

What does that red space look like?

紅色區段是怎樣的？

Now, of course, screens are miraculous

當然，現在的螢幕 在許多方面都是很神奇的。

in a lot of ways.

I live in New York,

我住在紐約，

a lot of my family lives in Australia,

我有許多家人住在澳洲，

and I have a one-year-old son.

我有一個一歲的兒子，

The way I've been able to introduce them to him is with screens.

我透過螢幕把家人介紹給兒子。

I couldn't have done that 15 or 20 years ago

15 或 20 年前我就無法如此做。

in quite the same way.

So there's a lot of good that comes from them.

所以螢幕的確帶來很多好處。

One thing you can do is ask yourself:

你可以做的一件事是，問問自己：

What goes on during that time?

在那段時間發生了什麼事？

How enriching are the apps that we're using?

我們在使用的應用程式有多充實？

And some are enriching.

有些是很充實。

If you stop people while they're using them and say,

如果你在別人使用應用程式時 阻止他們，並說：

"Tell us how you feel right now,"

「告訴我們，你現在感覺如何？」

they say they feel pretty good about these apps --

他們說他們對於 這些應用程式感覺很好──

those that focus on relaxation, exercise, weather, reading,

這些主要是放鬆、 運動、天氣、閱讀、

education and health.

教育、及健康的應用程式。

They spend an average of nine minutes a day on each of these.

對上述每一項，他們平均 一天會花上 9 分鐘。

These apps make them much less happy.

這些應用程式 則讓他們覺得比較不快樂。

About half the people, when you interrupt them and say, "How do you feel?"

當你打斷人們並問： 「你感覺如何？」

say they don't feel good about using them.

有一半的人會說他們對於使用 這些應用程式的感覺並不好。

What's interesting about these --

有趣的是，這些是──

dating, social networking, gaming,

約會、社交網路、遊戲、

entertainment, news, web browsing --

娛樂、新聞、 網路瀏覽的應用程式──

people spend 27 minutes a day on each of these.

這些每一項就會佔用到人們 一天中的 27 分鐘。

We're spending three times longer on the apps that don't make us happy.

我們花 3 倍長的時間在 不能讓我們快樂的應用程式上。

That doesn't seem very wise.

這看起來不是很明智。

One of the reasons we spend so much time on these apps

我們花這麼多時間 在這些讓我們不快樂的

that make us unhappy

應用程式的原因之一是，

is they rob us of stopping cues.

這些應用程式奪走了 我們的停止提示。

Stopping cues were everywhere in the 20th century.

在二十世紀，停止提示還處處可見。

They were baked into everything we did.

我們所做的每件事當中都有。

A stopping cue is basically a signal that it's time to move on,

基本上，停止提示就是一個信號， 說：該是繼續前進的時候了，

to do something new, to do something different.

去做點新鮮事、不同的事。

And -- think about newspapers; eventually you get to the end,

想想看報紙，當你看到最後，

you fold the newspaper away, you put it aside.

你會把報紙折起來，放到一旁。

The same with magazines, books -- you get to the end of a chapter,

雜誌、書籍都一樣： 你看到一個章節的結束，

prompts you to consider whether you want to continue.

它會提示性地問你是否要繼續。

You watched a show on TV, eventually the show would end,

看電視上的節目，節目終究會結束，

and then you'd have a week until the next one came.

你得要再等一週才會有下一集。

There were stopping cues everywhere.

停止提示在過去處處可見。

But the way we consume media today is such that there are no stopping cues.

但我們現今消費媒體的方式 就像是完全沒有停止提示一樣。

The news feed just rolls on,

新聞饋給滔滔不絕，

and everything's bottomless: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,

什麼都是無限的： 推特、臉書、Instagram、

email, text messaging, the news.

電子郵件、文字訊息、新聞。

And when you do check all sorts of other sources,

當你真的去查看各種其他來源，

you can just keep going on and on and on.

你可以無止境地持續下去。

So, we can get a cue about what to do from Western Europe,

關於要怎麼做，我們可以 從西歐得到一個提示，

where they seem to have a number of pretty good ideas in the workplace.

在西歐的工作場所 似乎有許多很好的點子。

Here's one example. This is a Dutch design firm.

這裡有一個例子。 這是一間荷蘭的設計公司。

And what they've done is rigged the desks to the ceiling.

他們的做法是把桌子 用繩鎖吊在天花板上，

And at 6pm every day,

每天下午六點，

it doesn't matter who you're emailing or what you're doing,

不論你在寫電子郵件給誰、 不論你在做什麼事，

the desks rise to the ceiling.

桌子就會升到天花板上。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

(Applause)

（掌聲）

Four days a week, the space turns into a yoga studio,

一週中有四天， 這個空間會轉為瑜伽教室；

one day a week, into a dance club.

一週中有一天，轉為跳舞俱樂部。

It's really up to you which ones you stick around for.

由你決定你哪天想留下來。

But this is a great stopping rule,

這是一個很棒的停止規則，

because it means at the end of the day,

因為它意味著，在一天結束時，

everything stops, there's no way to work.

一切要停下來，絕對不做工作。

At Daimler, the German car company, they've got another great strategy.

德國汽車公司戴姆勒 有另一個很棒的策略。

When you go on vacation,

當你去渡假時，

instead of saying, "This person's on vacation,

他們不是說：「這個人去渡假了，

they'll get back to you eventually,"

他們最終會回覆您的。」

而是說：「這個人去渡假了， 所以我們已刪除了你的電子郵件。

they say, "This person's on vacation, so we've deleted your email.

This person will never see the email you just sent."

這個人永遠不會看到 你剛剛寄來的電子郵件。」

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

"You can email back in a couple of weeks,

「您可以幾週後再來信，

or you can email someone else."

或是您也可以寫給別人。」

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

And so --

所以──

(Applause)

（掌聲）

You can imagine what that's like.

你可以想像那樣的狀況，

You go on vacation, and you're actually on vacation.

你去渡假，而你也真正在渡假。

The people who work at this company feel

在這間公司工作的人會覺得

that they actually get a break from work.

他們真的能從工作中休息一下。

But of course, that doesn't tell us much

但，當然，這並沒有告訴我們，

對於我們自己在家時的人生， 要如何做是好，

about what we should do at home in our own lives,

所以我想做些建議。

so I want to make some suggestions.

說我在下午五點到六點間 不會用手機是很容易的，

It's easy to say, between 5 and 6pm, I'm going to not use my phone.

The problem is, 5 and 6pm looks different on different days.

問題是，在不一樣的日子裡， 五點和六點看起來也不太一樣。

I think a far better strategy is to say,

我認為，更好的策略是說，

I do certain things every day,

我每天會做某些事情，

there are certain occasions that happen every day,

有些場合是每天都會發生的，

like eating dinner.

比如吃晚餐。

Sometimes I'll be alone,

有時，我會獨自一人，

sometimes with other people,

有時，我會和別人在一起，

sometimes in a restaurant,

有時，我會在餐館中，

sometimes at home,

有時，我會在家，

but the rule that I've adopted is: I will never use my phone at the table.

但我採用的規則是這條： 我絕對不會在餐桌上用手機。

It's far away,

它離我很遠，

as far away as possible.

盡可以越遠越好。

Because we're really bad at resisting temptation.

因為我們真的很不擅長拒絕誘惑。

But when you have a stopping cue that, every time dinner begins,

但當你有了這條停止提示：

「每當晚餐開始時， 我的手機就會放得遠遠的。」

my phone goes far away,

你就能夠避免所有誘惑。

you avoid temptation all together.

At first, it hurts.

一開始，會很痛。

I had massive FOMO.

我有嚴重的錯失恐懼症。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

I struggled.

我會掙扎。

But what happens is, you get used to it.

但你會漸漸習慣它。

You overcome the withdrawal the same way you would from a drug,

你克服退縮的方式和克服毒品一樣，

and what happens is, life becomes more colorful, richer,

結果會是，人生 變得更多采多姿、更豐富、

more interesting --

更有意思──

you have better conversations.

你會有更好的對話，

You really connect with the people who are there with you.

你真正與在你身邊的人連結。

I think it's a fantastic strategy,

我認為這是個極棒的策略，

and we know it works, because when people do this --

我們知道它可行， 因為當人們這麼做──

我追縱過很多嘗試這麼做的人──

and I've tracked a lot of people who have tried this --

它會擴展。

it expands.

They feel so good about it,

他們對此感覺十分良好，

讓他們開始在早晨起床後的 第一個小時就這麼做。

they start doing it for the first hour of the day in the morning.

They start putting their phones on airplane mode on the weekend.

他們開始在週末 將手機的飛安模式開啟。

That way, your phone remains a camera, but it's no longer a phone.

這麼做，手機會有照相功能， 但就不再是手機了。

It's a really powerful idea,

這是個效力強大的點子，

and we know people feel much better about their lives when they do this.

我們知道當人們這麼做時， 他們對自己人生的感覺就更好了。

So what's the take home here?

所以我們從中學到什麼重點？

Screens are miraculous; I've already said that,

螢幕很不簡單，我已經說過這點了，

and I feel that it's true.

且我認為真的是如此。

But the way we use them is a lot like driving down a really fast, long road,

但我們使用螢幕的方式，

就如同在一條 又快又長的道路上開車，

and you're in a car where the accelerator is mashed to the floor,

車的油門一踩到底，

it's kind of hard to reach the brake pedal.

很難去踩煞車。

You've got a choice.

你有個選擇，

You can either glide by, past, say, the beautiful ocean scenes

比如你可以選擇 從美麗的海景旁邊滑過，

and take snaps out the window -- that's the easy thing to do --

從窗戶拍照──那很容易辦到──

or you can go out of your way to move the car to the side of the road,

或是你可以選擇特別把車移到路邊，

to push that brake pedal,

踩下煞車，

to get out,

走下車，

take off your shoes and socks,

脫掉你的鞋子和襪子，

take a couple of steps onto the sand,

在沙子上走幾步，

feel what the sand feels like under your feet,

感受一下腳下沙子的感覺，

walk to the ocean,

走向海洋，

and let the ocean lap at your ankles.

讓海洋圍繞著你的腳踝。

Your life will be richer and more meaningful

你的人生會更豐富、更有意義，

because you breathe in that experience,

因為你呼吸著那經驗，

and because you've left your phone in the car.

也因為你把手機留在車上。

Thank you.

謝謝各位。

(Applause)

（掌聲）