(SeaPRwire) –   最近一项研究显示，美国学生在校期间平均每天使用手机64次，这会破坏专注力和认知能力

想必我们都见过这样的场景：一位焦头烂额的任课教师试图维持课堂秩序，却发现大多数学生都盯着自己的智能手机，而非布满灰尘的黑板。社交媒体对老少人群心智的危害已有大量文献记载，而学生在手持设备上花费的时间也随着每一项新研究的开展不断增加。

北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的研究人员追踪了中学生和高中生的实时手机使用习惯，发现了一个理应让所有教师和家长感到不安的结果。在校期间的每一个小时都有学生使用手机，参与研究的学生中没有一人能在整个上学日不碰手机。毫不意外的是，使用手机最频繁的学生，自我控制能力也明显更差。

这项发表在JAMA Network Open上的最新研究，连续两周追踪了79名11至18岁学生的手机使用习惯，发现普通青少年仅在校期间的屏幕使用时间就超过整整两小时——这大约占他们每日总手机使用时长的三分之一，也超过了整个上学日的四分之一！但更令人不安的发现并非学生使用手机的时长，而是学生频繁拿起设备的频率，以及这种下意识的冲动习惯似乎与专注力水平息息相关。

就像婴儿伸手去拿心爱的安抚毯一样，学生们在校期间平均每64次拿起手机，而那些最频繁触碰设备的学生，在衡量专注力和自我控制的标准测试中得分也更低。该研究不仅揭示了手机与分心之间的关联，还证实了强迫性使用手机与青少年学习和成长所需的心理自律之间的联系。

“这相当令人担忧……问题太过严重，不仅因为这会让学生错失课堂上的学习机会，”睡眠专家、Stony Brook’s Renaissance School of Medicine教授劳伦·黑尔（Lauren Hale）在接受The 74采访时表示。

“他们还错失了与同龄人进行真实社交互动的机会，而这在人生关键的成长阶段同样具有宝贵价值。”

说智能手机已经成为青少年日常生活中无处不在的存在，都算是轻描淡写。截至2024年，超过95%的美国青少年表示自己拥有手持设备，近一半的人称自己“几乎时刻在线”。该研究的作者旨在探明这种如同毒品般让数百万用户上瘾的无处不在的力量，会如何影响青少年的发展，“尤其是在学校这类旨在培养持续注意力、学术参与度和社交成长的环境中”。

The authors of the study wrote: “Developmental theories of self-regulation suggest that adolescence is a period of heightened vulnerability to distraction, given ongoing maturation of prefrontal cognitive control systems alongside sensitivity to rewarding social information. The constant availability of smartphones therefore will increase social media distraction during school hours, creating unique challenges for adolescents’ ability to regulate attention and maintain focus on academic tasks.”

In other words, teachers face greater obstacles than ever before when it comes to controlling their classrooms. Needless to say, teachers should not be required to compete against smartphones in the classroom. Across the study, phone use was monitored during every hour of the school day, from 8 a.m. until the final bell at 3 p.m. On average, screen time increased progressively from about 16 minutes at 8 a.m. to more than 22 minutes by 2 p.m. One particularly distracted student racked up more than five hours of phone use during school across the study period.

Students in high school accessed their smartphones significantly more than middle schoolers, averaging roughly 23 minutes of screen time per hour compared to about 12 minutes for younger students. Researchers also monitored which apps were getting the attention. It’s no surprise that social media behemoths, including Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, combined with entertainment apps like YouTube, accounted for almost 70 percent of total school-hours screen time. Incredibly, students averaged about 75 minutes on social media during the school day and nearly 50 minutes on entertainment apps, the report showed.

Did all of this screen time negatively influence the ability of students to concentrate? To find out, researchers tested the high school student’s concentration using a go/no-go task, a standard exercise in which participants are instructed to activate a button in response to one image but hold back when they see another. This test measures a person’s ability to override an automatic impulse, a key attribute of self-control. Among those examined, students who picked up their phones more often during school performed worse.

The results of the study will assist school administrators and parents in the ongoing debate as to whether or not smartphones should be banned from school. Some nations, meanwhile, have gone further. Australia has banned children under 16 from registering on social media and Malaysia introduced a similar ban in January. The European Parliament is openly discussing following the example of these two countries.

Perhaps we should end here with a quote by Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, who allegedly said his children were not allowed to use smartphones and computers, “because it takes two weeks to become an advanced user, but a childhood spent staring at screens costs something far more valuable: time for real development.”