How the smartphone affected teens
Some parents might worry about their teens spending so much time on their phones because it represents a complete departure from how they spent their own adolescence. But spending this much time on screens is not just different—in many ways, it’s actually worse.
Spending less time with friends means less time to develop social skills. A 2014 study found that sixth graders who spent just five days at a camp without using screens ended the time better at reading emotions on others’ faces, suggesting that teens’ screen-filled lives might cause their social skills to decline.
In addition, teens using smartphones read books, magazines and newspapers much less than previous generations did as teens: In the annual Monitoring the Future survey, the percentage of high school seniors who read a non-required book or magazine nearly every day dropped from 60 percent in 1980 to only 16 percent in 2015. College teachers tell me that students have more trouble reading longer text passages, and rarely read the required textbooks.
This isn’t to say that teens who use smartphones don’t have a lot going for them. They are physically safer and more tolerant than previous generations were. They also seem to have more realistic expectations than their parents did at the same age. But the smartphone threatens to disturb them before they even get started.
To be clear, moderate smartphone use—up to an hour a day—is not linked to mental health issues. However, most teens are on their phones much more than that.
Somewhat to my surprise, the teens I interviewed said they would rather see their friends in person than communicate with them using their phones. Parents used to worry about their teens spending too much time with their friends—they were a distraction, a bad influence, a waste of time. But it might be just what teens need.
相似题推荐
Perhaps you’ve heard the old saying “curiosity killed the cat.” It’s a phrase that’s often used to warn people, especially children, not to ask too many questions. Yet it’s widely agreed that curiosity actually makes learning more effective. In fact, research has shown that curiosity is just as important as intelligence in determining how well students do in school.
Curiosity can also lead us to make unexpected discoveriesand open up new possibilities. In science, basic curiosity-driven research can have unexpected important benefits. For example, one day in 1831, Michael Faraday was playing around with a coil (线圈) and a magnet (磁铁) when he suddenly saw how he could produce an electrical current. The discovery changed the world.
However, curiosity is currently under the biggest threat, coming from technology. On one level, this is because technology has become so advanced that many of us are unable to think too deeply about how exactly things work anymore.
In addition to this, there’s the fact that we all now connect so deeply with technology, particularly with our phones. The more we stare at our screens, the less we talk to other people directly. All too often we accept the images of people that social media provides up with. Then we feel we know enough about a person not to need to engage further with them.
The final—and perhaps most worrying—way in which technology stops us from asking more has to do with algorithms, the processes followed by computers. As we increasingly get our news via social media, algorithms find out what we like and push more of the same back to us. That means we end up inside our own little bubbles, no longer coming across new ideas. Perhaps the real key to developing curiosity in the 21st century, then, is to rely less on the tech tools of our age.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Singapore's Information Technology Strategy
Singapore's information technology strategy rests on two major legs. The first leg is world-class basic facilities. Being a city-state, it is relatively easy to connect every home, office and hotel room. Our objective is to provide broad-band everywhere, either wired or wireless. We will make it a readily available utility like water, electricity, gas and telephone. We are well on our way there. We now require, by regulation, every new home to be equipped with broad-band in the same way as it is required to have water and electricity.
The second leg is the education of our entire population in IT (information technology). Like reading, writing and arithmetic, computers are best learnt when we are young. Today's children can click the mouse faster than we can blink. In many countries, children of middle-class families have no difficulty with this new technology. But, without special effort, there is a danger that children of poorer families will miss out on the opportunity to learn IT. Like the piano and violin, one can still learn the computer as an adult. But rarely does one acquire the same facility. The strategy in Singapore is therefore to teach information technology to every child regardless of his family background. The Education Ministry now has a multi-billion dollar programme to provide one computer for every 2 schoolchildren in Singapore from first grade onwards. Every teacher will have a notebook.
Most Singaporeans now understand the importance of IT, if not for themselves, at least for their children and grandchildren. Over 40% of households in Singapore now own PCs. Over one-third of households in Singapore already enjoy access to Internet. What we want is for every Singaporean to be computer literate so that he can function effectively in any bank, factory or restaurant, just as one would expect an employee to be able to read, write and count. An employer in Singapore in the future should not have to worry that his employee does not now how to use a computer or the Internet.
I fetched my mail as usual. Suddenly a colorful flyer (小传单) jumped into my sight. In the middle was a drawing of an old-fashioned phone, like the one my great-aunt Sara owned 40 years ago and at the bottom was a phone number. Running over it, I couldn’t help laughing.
“Is that mail funny?” my ten-year-old daughter, Jenny, asked.
“Not really,” I admitted. “It’s about the wake-up service. Outdated already.”
“What’s that?” she frowned (皱眉). I explained how, before smart phones, people sometimes paid someone to wake them with a call.
“Who sent this flyer?” she pressed.
I shook my head. “Probably someone older and he could need some money,” I said.
Her eyes lit up. “Can we order a wake-up service?” she asked.
“No kidding. With smart phones at hand, who will need it? And it’s not cheap at all. $2.5 per day.” I picked up the flyer and headed for the recycling bin.
“Wait!” she shouted.
“I feel sorry for the wake-up man, if he needs some money,” she said in tears. “Can’t we order one?”
I looked at the flyer with its drawing of an old-fashioned phone. I remembered, again, my great-aunt Sara and her old phone. As a kid, I used to visit her on Labor Day when Jerry Lewis would host his charity(慈善) event for the disabled kids. Aunt Sara would grasp my hand tightly and then reach for the telephone, dialing the number on the screen. Holding the receiver between us, we’d announce to the operator, “We’d like to help those kids.”
But now here was my own child, showing the same heart I had once been encouraged to have, and how could I ignore (不理睬) her? I googled the flyer’s telephone number. The number belonged to a man called Raymond.
Paragraph 1:Jenny dialed the number.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
“Ring, ring, ring” went the phone at 6 o'clock sharp.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The World Health Organization, or WHO, estimates that more than 300,000 women die every year during pregnancy or childbirth. Each year, about 2.6 million babies are born dead and another 2.7 million babies die during the first 28 days of life, it said. Most of the deaths are taking place in South Asia and in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert.
Many of the deaths could have been avoided with quality health care, WHO officials said. Some stillbirths (births of dead babies), infant (new-born baby) deaths or deaths of mothers result from complications (并发症) during childbirth. Others may result from health problems with the mother. A poor diet or using drugs may also be to blame, the WHO added.
Another problem is that nearly all babies who are stillborn and half of all newborn deaths are never documented. Those deaths are not reported to or investigated by government health agencies. Traditions and beliefs often affect the collection of important records about infant deaths. In many countries, there is a belief that a stillbirth may not represent a lost life. Officials said this means the actual number of stillborn and newborn deaths is probably even higher than the WHO’s own current estimates. The United Nations agency says the lack of information makes it harder to find solutions. It is important for all births and deaths to be recorded so that health officials can make better decisions on how to prevent future deaths.
The WHO released three reports earlier this month to help health agencies do a better job collecting information.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
【写作内容】
1.上面图文信息中的Matti的情况实际上反映了一种社会现象,请以约30词阐述这种现象的主要内容；
2.你认为人们该以什么样的态度来对待这种社会现象?是将它当作一种社会问题加以干涉,还是当作一种正常现象给予理解?请给出理由论证你的观点(至少三点)
【写作要求】
1.写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句
2.作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称
3.不必写标题
【评分标准】
内容完整,语言规范,语篇连贯,词数适当。
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
注意: 1.词数100左右；
2.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
