可以毀掉你日常生活的10件事情(下)

g Social Media

5.使用社交媒體

Today, it seems like the entire world lives and breathes social media. Facebook has so many users that if the website was a country, it'd have a population slightly larger than China. Twitter is ubiquitous among journalists. Just about every teen on Earth uses Whatsapp or Snapchat.

今天，社交媒體看起來就好像整個世界的生命和呼吸。臉書有很多的用戶，如果網絡是一個國家的話，那麼它會是一個人口略超過中國的大國。在新聞記者中推特無處不在。地球上幾乎所有的青少年都在使用Whatsapp或Snapchat。

Yet social media's popularity masks a disturbing trend. Young adults and teens who use social media a lot are significantly more-likely to experience crippling depression.

然而，社交媒體的普及掩蓋了一個令人不安的趨勢。許多使用社交媒體的青年人和青少年明顯更有可能患上嚴重的抑鬱症。

Of course, this is a chicken and egg thing. Are social media users depressed because they use social media, or are they turning to Facebook because they are depressed? No-one can say for sure at the moment, but researchers have their suspicions. University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine's Lui yi Lin recently published one of the most wide-ranging papers on the phenomenon ever, and has identified multiple ways social media could be the cause of depression. These included young adults comparing themselves negatively to others on Facebook, indulging in procrastination, and being exposed to cyberbullying. While we're on the subject…

當然，這就是一個雞和雞蛋的問題。是因爲使用社交媒體才使用戶情緒低落，還是因爲用戶情緒低落才轉向臉書？目前沒有人能肯定地回答，但研究人員卻有自己的猜測。匹茲堡大學醫學院的呂逸林最近發表了一篇有關這一現象的最爲廣泛的論文，並從多個方面說明社交媒體可能導致抑鬱症。這都包括青年人在臉書上與其他人對比比較自負、沉迷於拖延、受到網絡欺凌。儘管我們在談論這一話題……

aring Your Life to Others'

4.攀比

Comparing our situation to that of others has been a useful tool in human history. It's why you don't spend your days doffing your cap to the king – at some point in the past, someone looked at a royal and thought 'this dude's no better than me.'

在人類歷史上，我們將自身情況和其他人進行比較是很有用的方法。這就是爲什麼你不會花費幾天時間對國王脫下你的帽子——在過去，有些人看見皇家，會認爲“這傢伙並不比我好”。

Unfortunately, the modern world is forever ramming other people's lives down our throats. And we don't get to see a whole, or even a semi-complete, picture. Instead we see a super-sanitized version that makes everyone look like they all have the coolest lives ever. And it's driving us crazy.

不幸的是，現實世界裏永遠都是我們的聲音擾亂着其他人的生活。我們並沒有看到成品，甚至是半成品圖片。相反，我們看見的是一個過度淨化的樣式，它讓每個人看起來都像是有過最炫酷的生活。這快把我們逼瘋了。

In a world of Facebook and having to project a 'brand image' of yourself 24/7, people are naturally putting all their best moments online. That almost certainly includes you. However, everyone else is then seeing these 'best of' moments and assuming the rest of the world is living some fairytale dream that's been denied to them. This almost certainly includes you, too. We don't see our peers' vanishing promotion prospects, their unhappy relationships, their crushed dreams. We see their high-paying job, their loving family, their dream holiday. And we hate them for it. Worse still, we compare what we have to this impossible ideal and kind of hate ourselves, too.

在臉書的世界中，人們會一整天的突顯自己的“品牌形象”，他們會在線記錄下所以最美好的時光。這其中肯定包括你。不管如何，其他人會看見這些“最美好”的時光，設想的這些其餘世界童話般的生活拋棄了他們。這其中肯定也包括了你。我們沒有看到同齡人失去的晉升機會、不愉快的人際關係和破碎的夢想。我們看到的只有他們的高薪工作、甜蜜的家庭和理想假期。我們憎恨他們。更糟糕的是，我們和這些現在不可能擁有的理想進行比較後，對自己也產生一種怨恨。

This 'grass is always greener' anxiety has been around forever, of course. But now it's punching us in the face, every hour of every day, every time we go online. And it might just be leading to a global crisis of depression.

“這山望着那山高”的憂慮一直圍繞在身邊，這當然沒什麼。但是現在每天的每個小時裏，每一次我們上網的時候，情緒都會在我們臉上顯現。也許攀比有可能會導致全球性的抑鬱危機。

ing Photos Online

3.在線上傳照片

Interestingly, it seems most of us are intellectually aware that our peers' online image is carefully cultivated, even if our gut reaction is to feel miserable seeing it. We know this because studies have shown we have a very specific reaction to people who put pictures up online of their lives and what they're doing. We absolutely hate their guts.

比較有趣的是，我們大多數人似乎都理智的知道同齡人在線的形象都很謹慎有教養得，哪怕我們看見他的直覺反應是很不舒服。我們通過研究發現我們對於人們把他們的生活和正在做什麼事情的照片上傳到網上會有一個非常顯著的反應。我們絕對對他們恨之入骨。

Back in 2013, a joint study by several UK universities found that 'oversharing' on Facebook caused people to alienate some friends and lose others entirely. It basically comes back to what we were saying in the last point: your awesome holiday photos make your ordinary life seem like the most-amazing life ever. This inspires a gut reaction in all but your closest friends and family, who feel pangs of jealousy at your rainbows-and-unicorn-blessed life. Even though they know you're crafting an image, they like you slightly-less for making them feel that way regardless. Over time, this can grow into real resentment.

早在2013年，由英國的幾所大學聯合的一項研究發現，在臉書上“過度分享”會導致人們疏遠一些朋友，或徹底斷絕聯繫。這基本上回到我們所說的那個點上：你那超棒的假期照片讓你的平凡生活看起來就像超級精彩的人生。但這會激發你所以的最親密朋友和家庭的本能反應，他們會對你的燦爛幸福生活產生一絲絲嫉妒。即使他們知道你是展現一個各具特色的形象，但是他們只會喜歡你使用一些不那麼讓他們有這種感覺的方式。隨着時間的推移，這也許會變成真正的怨恨。

The irony is, those same people feeling resentful are likely posting the same photos anyway. By this point, we pretty much all do it. This creates a never-ending cycle of jealously and resentment that'll probably never end.

諷刺的是，同樣一些人可能會因爲不滿而發佈相類似的照片。說到這一點，我們每個人幾乎都有這樣做過。這將會形成一個可能永遠都不會結束的無休止的嫉妒和怨恨的循環模式。

ing White Lies

2.善意的謊言

Picture the scene: your girlfriend/boyfriend/significant other has just bought a new dress/pair of skinny jeans. They try them on and ask you "does my butt look big in this?" What do you say?

畫面場景：你的女朋友/男朋友/重要的人剛剛買了一件新的連衣裙/一雙緊身牛仔褲。他們試穿後問你“我的臀部看起來大嗎？”你會怎麼說？

If your answer was along the lines of "no way, hot stuff! Your butt is perfect," then congratulations. You still have a partner. But not everyone would agree you did the right thing by telling that little white lie. In fact, neuroscientist Sam Harris would argue that, by not telling the truth, you're setting your partner up for a hideous fall.

假如你回答“沒問題，親愛的，你的臀部非常完美”，那麼恭喜你。你們仍然是夥伴。但並不是每個人都認爲你這樣說善意謊言的做法是對的。事實上，神經學家薩姆·哈里斯認爲，不講實話，你可能會給你的同伴之後的經歷留下陰影。

In his 2013 book Lying, Harris argued that white lies deny our loved ones "access to reality." This causes them to act on false information (like going out in a pair of tight shorts that really don't fit), which can lead to negative consequences (getting openly laughed at by their peers). The bigger the white lie, or the more of them there are, the bigger the fall can be. In short, by declining to tell the truth, we might be hurting our partners and friends more than if we'd just admitted that their butt was a little on the large side.

哈里斯在2013年他的《謊言》一書中，認爲善意的謊言讓我們所愛的人無法“接近現實”。他們會對假消息信以爲真（如穿着一條不合身的緊身褲外出），這將引起消極後果（遭到同齡人的公然嘲笑）。所說的善意的謊言越大，或是越多，那麼他們受到的傷害可能就越大。總之，不講實話，我們有可能會傷害到我們的同伴和朋友，這要超過我們承認他們的臀部稍大一點的傷害。

On the other hand, if you've just been dumped for calling your partner fat, don't come crying to us. Even when telling the truth, remember a little tact is probably in order, bro.

另一方面，假如你因爲說你的伴侶胖而被甩，不要來找我們哭泣。兄弟，要記住，即使說真話也應該圓滑一些。

ling Information

1.搜索信息

Today, we have all the information in the world at our fingertips. In under two minutes, every single person reading this can look up the third emperor of Rome (Caligula), the population of Luxembourg (543,202) and the weight of Mars (6.39 × 10^23 kg). Only a couple of decades ago, that knowledge would've required a trip to the local library. But there's a downside to all this easy-access information. It's making us stupider.

今天，我們只需滑動手指就能夠瀏覽全世界所有的信息。只需兩分鐘，閱讀這篇文章的每一個人都能夠查閱到羅馬帝國第三任皇帝（卡里古拉）、盧森堡的人口（543202）和火星的重量(6.39×10^23公斤)。然而在幾十年前，這方面的知識我們只有到當地的圖書館才能查閱到。然而這些所有便捷的信息也存在一個缺點。它會讓我們變傻變笨。

Because of the easy way we can access information, our brains have stopped holding onto the stuff we look up. While in 1993, forgetting the population of Luxembourg would have required another boring afternoon at the library to get that information back, now we simply have to whip out our phones again. Our brains recognize this. Instead of storing information, we're now more-likely to store where to find that information. In essence, our knowledge is just being dumped in a big, fat box in our brains marked 'Dunno. Google it.'

由於我們通過這種簡單的方法就可以獲取信息，因此我們的大腦已經不再對我們要查找的東西抱有期待感。在1993年的時候，如果我們忘記了盧森堡的人口數，就需要在一個空閒的下午去圖書館翻閱資料。但是現在，我們只需要再次拿出我們的手機就可以了。取代大腦儲存信息，我們現在更喜歡在商店找到信息。我們的大腦已經意識到這一點。從本質上講，我們的知識已被丟棄在一個大的脂肪盒子裏，大腦會潛意識的告訴我們“不知道，Google一下吧”。

At the same time, this flood of information is causing our attention spans to decrease. In 2000, the average attention span was a paltry 12 seconds. Now it's an even-paltrier 8. It's estimated that this century may see the first time that global IQ scores fall in history. We may have access to information to make us all smart, but paradoxically, it may be making us dumber.

同時，大量的信息內容使我們的注意力減退。在2000年，人的平均注意力只有12秒。現在僅有微不足道的8秒。據估計，本世紀可能會看到歷史上第一次全球性的智商下降。我們可以通過獲取信息使我們變聰明，但比較矛盾的是，它也可能會讓我們變笨。