社交媒体让生活更好还是更糟，一起来看！

Three billion people, around 40% of the world’s population, use online social media – and we’re spending an average of two hours every day sharing, liking, tweeting and updating on these platforms, according to some reports.

据相关报道成，三十亿人，约占全球人口的40%，在使用网上社交媒体—我们每天会花两个小时来在这些平台上，分享，点赞，评论更新。

That breaks down to around half a million tweets and Snapchat photos shared every minute.

细算下来就是每分钟都有五十万的推文和照片被分享。

With social media playing such a big part in our lives, could we be sacrificing our mental health and well-being as well as our time?

随着社交媒体在我们的生活中占据如此之多的比重，我们会不会因此而牺牲心理健康，良好状态和时间呢？

What does the evidence actually suggest?

这些数据究竟说明了什么呢？

Since social media is relatively new to us, conclusive findings are limited.

因为社交媒体对我们来说相当比较新兴，所以相关研究还比较有限。

People use social media to vent about everything from customer service to politics, but the downside to this is that our feeds often resemble an endless stream of stress.

人们往往在社交媒体上发泄各种压力，从顾客服务到政治，但不好的一面在于我们的吐槽会形成一种无止尽的压力流。

In 2015, researchers at the Pew Research Center based in Washington DC sought to find out if social media induces more stress than it relieves.

2015年，华盛顿研究中心的研究者们发现社交媒体引发的压力比它所发泄的还多。

In the survey of 1,800 people, women reported being more stressed than men.

在调查的1800人中，女性普遍回答比男性压力更大。

Twitter was found to be a “significant contributor” because it increased their awareness of other people’s stress.

推特是主要的压力来源，因为它更多让人意识到别人的压力。

Overall, the researchers concluded that social media use was linked to “modestly lower levels” of stress.

最后，研究者们总结说社交媒体的使用会产生轻度的压力。

Despite the argument from a few researchers that tweeting may be harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol, social media addiction isn’t included in the latest diagnostic manual for mental health disorders.

尽管有研究者称推特可能比香烟和酒更难戒，目前社交媒体上瘾还没有被列入心理健康疾病的诊疗目录中。

That said, social media is changing faster than scientists can keep up with, so various groups are trying to study compulsive behaviours related to its use – for example, scientists from the Netherlands have invented their own scale to identify possible addiction.

也就是说，社交媒体变化太快，科学家们都还没赶上，因此，很多团队开始致力研究跟它相关的强迫症—例如，荷兰的科学家就发明了他们的标准来测定上瘾程度。

And if social media addiction does exist, it would be a type of internet addiction – and that is a classified disorder.

如果社交媒体上瘾症真的存在的话，它也是网瘾的一种—而网瘾已经被归类为心理疾病。

In 2011, Daria Kuss and Mark Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University in the UK have analysed 43 previous studies on the matter, and conclude that social media addiction is a mental health problem that “may” require professional treatment.

2011年，诺丁汉特伦特大学的戴瑞亚. 卡斯和马克.格里菲斯总结了相关的43个之前的研究，得出结论说社交媒体上瘾确实是一种需要专业治疗的心理健康疾病。

They found that excessive usage was linked to relationship problems, worse academic achievement and less participation in offline communities, and found that those who could be more vulnerable to a social media addiction include those dependent on alcohol, the highly extroverted, and those who use social media to compensate for fewer ties in real life.

他们发现过度使用与各种问题相关，如人际关系，学习成绩下降，真实团体活动减少等，还发现那些容易对社交媒体上瘾的人也包括了那些有酒瘾，过于外向，以及用社交媒体来弥补真实生活中过少的联系的人们。

A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine last year surveyed 7,000 19- to 32-year-olds and found that those who spend the most time on social media were twice as likely to report experiencing social isolation, which can include a lack of a sense of social belonging, engagement with others and fulfilling relationships.

去年美国《预防医学》杂志的一项研究调查了7000名19到32岁的人们，发现那些在社交媒体上花时间最多的人们有多两倍的几率更容易报告称感觉到对社会，他人的归属感的缺失以及无法维护好关系。

Spending more time on social media, the researchers said, could displace face-to-face interaction, and can also make people feel excluded.

在社交媒体上花时间，研究者说，就会代替面对面的交流，也同意会让人们感觉到被孤立。

“Exposure to such highly idealised representations of peers’ lives may elicit feelings of envy and the distorted belief that others lead happier and more successful lives, which may increase perceived social isolation.”

“暴露在如此高度理想化的他人生活的表像中可能会引发嫉妒感，也会让人误会他人过得更成功，这就会增加人们感受到的社交孤立感。”

It’s clear that in many areas, not enough is known yet to draw many strong conclusions.

很明确的是在很多领域，我们所知道的还不足以下定论。

However, the evidence does point one way: social media affects people differently, depending on pre-existing conditions and personality traits.

然而，所有的证据都指向一点：社交媒体对人们的影响是不同的，取决于之前的状况和个人的特点。

As with food, gambling and many other temptations of the modern age, excessive use for some individuals is probably inadvisable.

如同美食和赌博等其他现代社会的诱惑一样，过多使用社交媒体对有些人来说还是不建议的。

But at the same time, it would be wrong to say social media is a universally bad thing, because clearly it brings myriad benefits to our lives.

但同时，我们也不能说社交媒体就全是坏的，因为它也明显给我们的生活带来了极大的好处。

We’ll be exploring this tension more and hopefully providing solutions that could help us all live a happier, healthier digital life.

我们将进一步调查这种现象，希望能够找到一些让我们更好地过好我们的数字时代生活的方法。

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