父母也需要屏幕时间监管 Parents need screen time supervision as well

The modern parent seems to be a case of evolution gone wrong.

现在的父母好像是一个进化错误的例子。

It's plain to see, after all, that anyone supervising children needs three arms, not two—one to barely hold or corral a squirming kid and, much more important, two to gingerly cradle and scroll or type on a smartphone.

显而易见，现在带孩子的人都需要三只胳膊，而不是两只——一只勉强抱住好动的孩子，更重要的是，另外两只小心翼翼地晃动摇篮，同时在手机上滑动屏幕或打字。

As the debate grows over how much screen time is healthy for children, we don't hear so much discussion about how much parental screen time is healthy for youngsters.

关于小孩看屏幕多长时间才是健康的讨论越来越多，我们却很少看到关于年轻父母看屏幕多长时间才是健康的讨论。

The US magazine The Atlantic addressed the subject recently in an article titled The Dangers of Distracted Parenting, in which writer Erika Christakis opined that "the engagement between parent and child is increasingly low-quality, even ersatz. Parents are constantly present in their children's lives physically, but they are less emotionally attuned."

美国杂志《大西洋月刊》最近在一篇名为《分心育儿的危险》的文章中，谈到了这一主题。作者埃瑞卡.克里斯塔基斯（Erika Christakis）提出：“父母与孩子之间的相处质量越来越低，孩子甚至成为替代品。父母经常出现在孩子们的生活中，但他们的内心并不合拍。”

The culprit is the smartphone, which, according to the article, has led to what "the technology expert Linda Stone more than 20 years ago called 'continuous partial attention'".

导致这一现象的罪魁祸首就是智能手机。据这篇文章称，技术专家琳达.斯通（Linda Stone）在20多年前将这种现象称为“持续的部分关注度”。

In an article on the website of the American Psychological Association, Michael Rich, the founder and director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Boston Children's Hospital, is quoted as saying about parents distracted by smartphones: "We delude ourselves into thinking that we're multitasking, but all kinds of cognitive research shows that this really isn't the case. We can only really concentrate on one thing at a time."

在美国心理学会网站的一篇文章中，波士顿儿童医院媒体与儿童健康中心的创始人兼主任迈克尔.里奇（Michael Rich）引用了被智能手机分心的父母的话说：“我们自欺欺人地认为我们是一心二用，但各种研究都表明情况并非如此，我们一次只能专注于一件事”。

In a country like China, where smartphones are ubiquitous and have even replaced the wallet, imagine the plight of youngsters who are shown time and again, as gauged by level of parental attention, that they're not as important as a mere handheld gadget.

在像中国这样一个智能手机无处不在，甚至已经取代钱包的国家，从父母的关注程度来衡量，当孩子们一次又一次地看到自己还不如父母手中的小玩意重要，孩子们会怎么想。

Emotional neglect isn't the only issue, either. Bad things can happen when parents are distracted.

情感疏离不是唯一的问题。当父母分心时，就可能出事。 

So I was delighted one recent afternoon, while applying for a new passport in Beijing, to be reminded of what the world was like before attention spans were hijacked by mobile devices.

最近的一个下午，我在北京申请新护照的时候，想起以前人们没有被移动设备吸引的世界时，很令人高兴。

In those refreshing 60 minutes at the US embassy, where smartphones and computers had to be checked in at the door, it seemed not so much that time had stood still, as that people had come to life once again.

在美国大使馆里的60分钟是令人新奇的，手机和电脑必须在入门处上交检查，时间似乎没那么漫长，甚至静止了，人们又回到了真正的生活中。 

Everyone, including families with children, sat quietly and chatted among themselves. The children and parents talked face to face, making eye contact. One phone-free father used both hands to lift his young daughter and set her on his lap, prompting her to giggle.

包括带孩子的家庭，每个人都安静地坐着聊天。父母和孩子面对面地交谈，当然也有眼神交流。一个没有了手机的父亲用双手抱起她的小女儿放在膝盖上，逗得她咯咯直笑。 

With no need to clamor for attention, the youngsters, without exception, were happy, smiling and contented.

孩子们不再需要吵吵嚷嚷以吸引关注，他们所有人都很快乐，笑脸盈盈，心满意足。

The respectful volume of conversation was contagious, too, as even the children, appearing to take a cue from their parents, spoke quietly. It reminded me of the hush of a doctor's office of old, before TVs and cell phone conversations everywhere we go turned up the volume, including that of our voices.

相互尊重的谈话最具感染力，孩子们似乎也从他们的父母那里受到了启发，安静地说着话。这让我想起以前医生办公室里的安静，在没有电视和手机以前，我们四处都能听到聊天声，包括我们自己的声音。

That day in Beijing was special, and I'd have missed it entirely had I been using my phone or iPad in the witing area. More important, those children and their parents would have been deprived of meaningful conversations and true quality time if they'd been playing video games or reading emails.

在北京的那天是特别的，如果我在等候区使用我的手机或平板电脑，我就会错过了。更重要的是，如果那些孩子和他们的父母一直在玩电子游戏或者看邮件，就不会有那些有意思的对话和有真正质量的时间了。

There's a point when phone or computer tablet ceases to be a tool or instrument of necessity and becomes, instead, a mere security blanket or object of addiction.

当手机或者平板电脑不再是必要的工具或设备时，它就只能成为一个保护伞或上瘾的对象。

There's no better way to gauge where you stand in this regard than, for your own sake and that of all those in your immediate circle, to simply power off, even for just an hour, and watch your world come back to life.

为了你自己和身边的人，关机试试吧。没有比这更好的办法来评判你的立场了。即便只有一个小时，你也会看到回归生活的世界。