📚心得【The Anxious Generation】 by Jonathan Haidt, 2024

#科技成癮 #教育指導 #現代社交問題 #群眾困境

自己也不知道突然間怎麼了，單純希望更了解自己與人類吧，想找心理學方面的書籍看，在Goodreads.com上看到這本在2024年reader’s choice awards中拿到了non-fiction類第一。這本對我來說沒有許多新觀念，基本上就是一個知名社會心理學家給剛成為家長的父母們針對小孩網路使用上應注意事項的指導書，不過裡面也看得出一些自己成長過程中的影子。

以下舉幾個我認為書中最有趣的論點：

1. 家長在現實世界中過度保護（不讓小孩單獨行動、教導小孩不論理由遠離陌生人等），在網路世界卻過少保護。這讓小孩的人際相處頻率與經驗比30、40年前的小孩少非常多。這樣的社會氛圍也間接告訴了大人要遠離他人的小孩，即使看到他們越界、做了不對的事也不要去管教，以免被捲進麻煩內。這讓社會從以前的多個長輩教一個小孩，變成管教方面由父母全權負責，容易偏激。

2. 「情緒」是能透過圖文傳染的，而負面情感比正面的還容易傳染，久而久之是會影響社會氛圍的。

3. 以圖文為主的社群媒體過度強調外在，社會普遍忽視內在，人在面對情緒時沒有太多時間與心力向內沉澱，容易出現控管問題。

4. 作者認為使用社群媒體應控管在16歲之後，而要實際控管使用者年齡卻不透露個資的方式，不應透過政府發放的身分證明，可以透過給予家長選項、從軟體與硬體面直接鎖死當下使用者的年齡，並讓更改有一定的難度，確保小孩難以繞過設定。軟體供應商在產品設計上也要負責根據年齡選擇性提供內容，立法與行政者應確保這些規則的制定與執行。

5. 學校應禁止學生在非必要時使用電子產品，不只影響學習品質也影響下課後學生間的社交量；「有毒的升學主義」也和社群媒體一樣，與成長過程中健康與他人交流、訓練社交的時間做競爭，過度的升學主義也會導致青少年畢業後無法融入社會。

6. 每一個網路社群都是由短暫停留、也許明天就會退出的成員組成，網路世代容易有“所有人際關係都是短暫的”的觀念，會較不願意投資人際關係，沒有在現實中的連結互動，很容易喪失群體歸屬感，覺得自己不屬於任何地方。

7. 學齡中要做出轉捩決定前，應先給青少年足夠時間（至少一年）在社會中活動，讓青少年了解社會現況長什麼樣，再來決定未來想走的方向。台灣在高一升高二時就要決定文理組，高三考完試後也沒有給予太多時間選擇志願科系，容易導致照分數填志願的狀況。

我並不完全同意作者的看法，自己從小就愛看小說，從國小的武俠、國中的魔幻、高中的玄幻到大學接觸科幻，就算今天回到了學生時期、拿走了我所有電子產品，下課時間我很可能還是在看自己的書，不過的確仍會增加自己的社交機會，畢竟少一個主要選項做排擠。

書中一些對青少年的描述也能看到自己的影子，在非公事的情況下，”開頭與人面對面交流”一直是我的弱點，很大一部分原因是我理解的人類型不夠多，沒共通話題能和一些人溝通。例如服兵役時，我發現有一大類型的人我幾乎沒接觸過，他們與自己根本的思考邏輯不同、難以溝通與理解，雖然並不想與之交深，但逐漸發現這種人在社會上很多，理解就代表能應付與合作，不理解、打安全牌就只有猜忌、提防與遠離，我總覺得這很可惜。

不論是社群媒體、社交平台、AI、娛樂選項都一樣，相互競爭、抓用戶注意力無可避免，最後不管誰勝出，終究有一個輸家 - 被當作產品的使用者本身。

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#Tech_Addiction #Education_Guidance #Modern_Social_Issues #Community_Dilemmas

I don't know what came over me suddenly, but I just wanted to better understand myself and humanity somehow. So I looked for psychology books to read, and on Goodreads.com, I found this one that won the 2024 reader’s choice awards in the non-fiction category. For me, it didn’t introduce many new ideas — it's basically a guidebook by a well-known social psychologist for new parents about how kids should use the internet. But I could also see some parallels with my own growing-up process.

Here are a few points from the book that I found most interesting:

1. Parents tend to over-protect their children in the real world (not letting them move around alone, teaching them to avoid strangers no matter the reason) but under-protect them online. This results in kids having much less face-to-face interaction and social experience compared to those from 30 or 40 years ago. Such a societal atmosphere indirectly tells adults to stay away from others' kids — even if they see these kids crossing boundaries or doing something wrong, people hesitate to intervene for fear of getting entangled in trouble. This has shifted the way kids are raised — from having multiple elders teaching one child, to being solely dependent on parents for discipline, making it easier to become extreme.

2. Emotions can be transmitted through text and images, and negative emotions spread even more easily than positive ones. Over time, this can significantly impact societal atmosphere.

3. Social media platforms, dominated by visuals and text, overly emphasize the external aspects of life while neglecting inner qualities. People have little time or energy to reflect on their emotions inwardly, making it easier for them to struggle with emotional control.

4. The author suggests restricting social media use until age 16, but controlling access without sharing personal information shouldn't rely solely on government-issued IDs. Instead, parents should have options to manage their child's age through software and hardware that locks down the user’s age, making it difficult for kids to bypass these settings. Software providers should also design content based on age-appropriate criteria, while lawmakers need to ensure such rules are established and enforced.

5. Schools should ban students from using smart devices unless absolutely necessary. This not only affects their academic performance but also reduces the amount of social interaction between students after class. Moreover, "toxic educational competition," similar to social media, competes with time that should be spent developing healthy relationships and learning how to interact socially. Overemphasizing academics can lead to young adults struggling to integrate into society after graduation.

6. Each online community is made up of members who may only stay for a short time — and they might just leave the next day. This makes the younger generation more likely to view all relationships as temporary, making them less willing to invest in building real connections. Without face-to-face interactions, it's easy to lose a sense of belonging and feel disconnected from others.

7. Before making significant life decisions during adolescence, teens should be given enough time (at least one year) to explore the real world so they can understand what society is like before choosing their path. In Taiwan, students have to decide going between science and liberal art majors as early as when moving from 10th to 11th grade, and after finishing high school exams, there isn't much time to reflect on these choices. This pressure feels overwhelming.

Regardless of whether it's social media, AI, entertainment options, or other platforms, competition for attention is inevitable. In the end, no matter who wins, there’s always a loser — the user themselves, who gets treated as just another product in this race for engagement.