I write this on a Sunday afternoon. The weak September sun battles through the clouds as the twin boys in their upstairs bedroom argue loudly about whose turn it is on the Xbox. Their 12 year old brains are wild with dopamine and addled by over-stimulation as they bark instructions at each other.

我在星期天的下午写这篇文章。 九月的阳光微弱，穿过云层，在楼上卧室的双胞胎男孩大声争辩Xbox轮到谁了。 他们12岁的大脑充满了多巴胺，当彼此互相吠叫时，会因过度刺激而发呆。

The summer break has just ended and apart from the occasional trip to town or the enforced family meals, they have both sat glued to their gaming console for six weeks solid.

暑假刚刚结束，除了偶尔去城镇旅行或强迫家庭进餐外，他们俩都在游戏机上坐了六个星期。

Downstairs, our youngest two sit with the television on, each holding an iPad. Netflix runs on the big screen, YouTube or a video game runs on the small screens.

楼下，我们最小的两个坐在电视上，每个人都拿着iPad。 Netflix在大屏幕上运行，YouTube或视频游戏在小屏幕上运行。

My 3 year old tears himself away from his devices more frequently than the rest, finding joy in making Play-Doh shapes with me or his mother, or being out in the garden as we mow the lawn or dig a flower bed.

我三岁的孩子比其他人更频繁地撕裂自己的设备，在与我或他的母亲制作Play-Doh造型时感到高兴，或者在我们修剪草坪或挖花床时在花园里玩耍。

Yet, all in all, like most households, we are a family driven by technology.

然而，总的来说，像大多数家庭一样，我们是一个由技术驱动的家庭。

I’d judge this picture of modern life more harshly if I too wasn’t part of it, reaching into my pocket for my phone to check social media apps two or three times an hour, for what reason or benefit I do not know.

如果我也不是现代生活的一部分，我会更严厉地判断这张照片，因为我不知道是出于什么原因或受益，所以伸手口袋里的手机每小时检查社交媒体应用程序两次或三次。

In the late evenings, when the children are in bed, the kitchen is tidy and the dog has been walked during the long shadows of the afternoon, my wife and I sit down to Netflix, periodically looking at phones in between episodes of whatever we’re working our way through.

傍晚，当孩子们上床睡觉时，厨房整洁，在漫长的午后阴影中walk狗，我和我的妻子坐在Netflix上，定期看两集之间的电话。重新努力。

Don’t press play yet, I’ve just got to write this tweet.

不要按播放，我只需要写这条推文。

This is 2020, where every moment of every day is peppered with screen-checking, updates, downloads, Whatsapp videos, iMessages and notification bells.

这是2020年，每天的每一刻都有屏幕检查，更新，下载，Whatsapp视频，iMessage和通知铃声。

We are all at the mercy of giant tech corporations who spend millions to make their products and services as addictive as possible.

我们都受大型科技公司的支配，这些公司花费数百万美元使他们的产品和服务尽可能上瘾。

Teams of highly paid employees toil to improve the potency of YouTube algorithms to keep us watching, Facebook spends thousands of hours to ensure their timeline as stimulating as possible, to keep us scrolling.

高薪员工团队努力提高YouTube算法的效力，以保持我们的观看状态，Facebook花了数千小时来确保他们的时间表尽可能刺激，以使我们不断滚动。

Our vulnerable, meaty brains are at the whim of multinational corporations pushing technological-tobacco upon us.

跨国公司向我们推销技术烟草时，我们的脆弱，多肉的大脑使他们心血来潮。

Zuckerberg knows Facebook is toxic. Activision knows Call of Duty is toxic. Microsoft knows Xbox is toxic. These digital dealers are part of the new addiction scandal, without their 60 Minutes expose.

扎克伯格知道Facebook有毒。 动视知道使命召唤是有毒的。 微软知道Xbox有毒。 这些数字交易商是新成瘾丑闻的一部分，没有暴露60分钟。

The tech giants, these dealers, push addiction to maximise profit. Profit at the expense of our mental and physical health, profit at the expense of our ability to focus, profit at the expense of our relationships and at the expense of our potential.

这些交易商都是科技巨头，他们推销成瘾以最大化利润。 以牺牲我们的身心健康为代价，以牺牲我们的专注力为代价，以牺牲我们的人际关系为代价，以利益为代价。

广告已不再 (It’s No Longer About Advertising)

At one time, we arrogantly figured we had all this under control.

一次，我们傲慢地认为我们已经控制了所有这些。

In the 1990s we knew tobacco was bad and smoking was on the decline. Advertising was slashed, no more tobacco sponsorship for sports, no more advertising alcohol near schools.

在1990年代，我们知道烟草是有害的，并且吸烟在下降。 广告被削减，不再为体育运动提供烟草赞助，在学校附近不再投放广告酒。

The latest technology meant we recorded television programmes on Sky and TiVo and could fast forward through adverts at our convenience. We beat the system. Then along came the internet, blogs, YouTube, podcasts, all free and not an advert in sight.

最新技术意味着我们可以在Sky和TiVo上录制电视节目，并可以在我们方便时通过广告快速前进。 我们击败了系统。 随后出现了互联网，博客，YouTube，播客，它们都是免费的，而且看不到广告。

There was a moment, a blink of an eye somewhere around 2007, where it seemed we’d worked out how to navigate around addiction.

在2007年左右的某个时刻，眨眼间，似乎我们已经找到了解决成瘾问题的方法。

It was a time when traditional news media was losing its grip, even when gaming morphed from a solo venture into collaborative play, and we could connect with friends online.

那时传统的新闻媒体已经失去了控制力，即使游戏从单人冒险变成了协作游戏，我们也可以在线与朋友联系。

Technology saved us. Or at least that’s what we thought.

科技拯救了我们。 或者至少这就是我们的想法。

Fast forward to 2020 and Facebook has 2.6 billion active users. That’s a third of the humans on planet Earth, and 60% of all internet users.

快进到2020年，Facebook拥有26亿活跃用户。 这是地球上人类的三分之一，占所有互联网用户的60％。

The average time each person spends on Facebook daily is 58.5 minutes.

每个人平均每天在Facebook上花费的时间为58.5分钟 。

Those are terrifying statistics, a giant amount of human potential used up on status updates, memes and inane photos.

这些统计数据令人震惊，状态更新，模因和无用的照片消耗了巨大的人类潜力。

Yet what makes this all the more terrifying is that none of this was by accident, it was by design.

然而，更令人恐惧的是，这些都不是偶然的，而是设计的。

Napster founder and early Facebook investor Sean Parker told an Axios event in 2017 :

Napster的创始人和早期Facebook投资肖恩·帕克告诉了爱可信的事件在2017年：

“The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them, … was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’”

“构建这些应用程序的思考过程(Facebook是其中的第一个……)是关于：'我们如何尽可能多地消耗您的时间和有意识的注意力？'”

He goes on to say:

他接着说：

“It’s a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. The inventors, creators — it’s me, it’s Mark [Zuckerberg], it’s Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it’s all of these people — understood this consciously. And we did it anyway.”

“这是一个社会验证反馈循环……正是像我这样的黑客会想到的事情，因为您正在利用人类心理学中的漏洞。 发明者，创造者-是我，是Mark [Zuckerberg]，是Instagram上的Kevin Systrom，所有这些人-有意识地理解了这一点。 而且我们还是做到了。”

Addiction comes as standard. And Facebook is just one example.

成瘾是标准。 Facebook只是一个例子。

YouTube (owned by Google aka ‘Alphabet Inc.’) has 2 billion active users and as recently as 2019 have openly talked about making their recommended video algorithm more powerful. YouTube addiction is very real.

YouTube(由Google，又名“ Alphabet Inc.”拥有)拥有20亿活跃用户，最近在2019年， 公开谈论使他们推荐的视频算法更强大。 YouTube成瘾非常真实 。

It goes on; Playstation has 103 million active users, Xbox another 90 million active users, both these numbers are conservative because it’s a console per household, rather than a console per user.

它继续； Playstation有1.03亿活跃用户，Xbox则有9000万 活跃用户，这两个数字都是保守的，因为这是每个家庭的控制台，而不是每个用户的控制台。

Today, we are all embedded in the digital world one way or another.

今天，我们都以一种或另一种方式嵌入数字世界。

瘾的熵性 (The Entropic Nature of Addiction)

So what, right? Well addiction, is not to be sniffed at. My father was an alcoholic and died of an alcohol-abuse related illness. He was a budding artist and poet but spent his whole life toiling in manual labour jobs and drinking heavily in the evenings because alcohol stole all promise from him. His life was a story of addiction. He gave up everything to feed the beast, an insidious force of entropy that dragged his life into chaos and consumed him totally.

那又怎样呢？ 好上瘾，是不可小at的。 我父亲是一名酒鬼，死于与酗酒有关的疾病。 他是一位崭露头角的艺术家和诗人，但终生辛苦工作于体力劳动，并在晚上大量饮酒，因为酒精偷走了他所有的希望。 他的生活是一个成瘾的故事。 他放弃了一切来养活这只野兽，这是一种阴险的熵力，使他的生活陷入混乱，使他全死。

This is how serious addiction is. It will take everything from you. You are fighting for your life.

这就是严重的成瘾。 它将带走您的一切。 您正在为自己的生命而战。

Don’t believe me? The average American spends 2 hours and 55 minutes a day on their smartphone, that’s a 9 minute increase from 2019, and it’s likely those numbers will keep climbing.

不相信我吗 美国人平均花费2个小时55分钟 在他们的智能手机上运行一天，比2019年增加了9分钟，而且这些数字可能还会继续攀升。

It translates as approximately 44 and a half days a year on phones alone, not counting consoles, Netflix, or any other screen time.

仅在手机上， 它一年的翻译时间约为44天半 ，不包括控制台，Netflix或任何其他屏幕时间。

An alarming amount of life is being stolen from you every day.

每天都有令人震惊的生命被偷走。

Even this article, whilst I’d argue reading is the healthiest of all consumable entertainment, is still screen time.

即使我认为阅读是所有消费娱乐中最健康的文章，但这篇文章仍然是放映时间。

It is time to fight back or have your relationships, health, hopes and dreams dashed against the rocks of digital addiction.

现在是时候反击或让您的人际关系，健康状况，希望和梦想与数字成瘾的岩石冲撞。

The future is only tipping in favour of the tech giants and addiction will only get worse. They’re after your mind. This isn’t faux panic, it’s a provable reality with terrifying statistics to back it up.

未来只是向科技巨头倾斜而已，成瘾只会变得更糟。 他们在你的脑海中。 这不是虚假的恐慌，这是一个可证明的现实，令人恐惧的统计数据对此进行了备份。

The time to form a personal resistance is now.

现在是形成个人抵抗的时候了。

如何挣脱 (How to Break Free)

All cycles of behaviour are broken through a three-step process:

行为的所有周期都通过三步过程来打破：

• Awareness of the problem
  意识到问题
• Acceptance of the problem
  接受问题
• Acting on the problem
  解决问题

Many of us cannot even get past step one. My father went to his grave refusing to admit he had an alcohol addiction, even as it killed him. Most people will refuse to believe they have any sort of digital dependency.

我们许多人甚至无法超越第一步。 我父亲去坟墓拒绝承认他有酒瘾，即使它杀死了他。 大多数人会拒绝相信自己具有任何数字依赖性。

Denial is all-powerful.

拒绝是无所不能的。

But if we want to reclaim our lives, we must be honest. This means acknowledging the following:

但是，如果我们想恢复我们的生活，我们必须诚实。 这意味着确认以下内容：

1.更多技术不是解决方案 (1. More Technology is Not the Solution)

You cannot play around with the boundaries of addiction; more technology to battle technology will not fix anything. You cannot fight fire with fire.

你不能在成瘾的界限上玩耍； 更多与技术作斗争的技术将无法解决任何问题。 你不能用火扑灭。

I have a screen time limit on my iPhone but I ignore it daily, I have developed a type of screen-time-blindness and will click ignore when it pops up without thinking. I no longer even check my screen statistics.

我在iPhone上设置了屏幕显示时间限制，但我每天都忽略它，我已经开发了一种屏幕显示时间盲点，当它弹出而没有考虑时，将单击“ 忽略” 。 我什至不再查看屏幕统计信息。

This is why I would not recommend RescueTime or Freedom or any other app promising a solution. Any system you control cannot control you.

这就是为什么我不推荐RescueTime或Freedom或任何其他承诺解决方案的应用的原因。 您控制的任何系统都无法控制您。

Personally, I have never found an app to improve my productivity or enrich my life (with the notable exception of Medium, which is essentially a writing tool). Most apps just feed the digital addiction through the back door, masquerading as a tool for change.

就我个人而言，我从来没有找到过一款能够提高生产率或丰富生活的应用程序(著名的Medium除外，Medium实际上是一种书写工具)。 大多数应用只是通过后门提供数字成瘾，并伪装成变革的工具。

Do not look for salvation in technology.

不要在技术上寻求救赎。

2.注意你的活动 (2. Be Aware of Your Activities)

Artist Caroline Caldwell famously wrote these words and pasted them over an advert on a train:

艺术家卡罗琳·考德威尔(Caroline Caldwell)以写这些词并将其粘贴在火车上的广告上而著名：

“In a society that profits from your self-doubt, liking yourself is a rebellious act.”

“在一个从自我怀疑中获利的社会中，喜欢自己是一种叛逆行为。”

It was a rallying cry against advertising, but it also applies to our new digital overlords. Caldwell explains:

这是反对广告的集会号召，但也适用于我们的新数字霸主。 考德威尔(Caldwell)解释说：

“If those who control the media control the minds of the masses (to quote Malcolm X), it’s important for us to think seriously about who we give that power to.”

“如果那些控制媒体的人控制了大众的思想(引用马尔科姆X的话)，对我们来说，认真思考我们将权力赋予谁是很重要的。”

We have wholesale handed over our time, attention and our privacy to get our daily tech-tobacco fix. A quick drag on the social media highlight real, a small puff of Call of Duty, a sneaky smoke of Netflix in the evenings.

我们已将全部时间，精力和隐私全部移交给我们，以解决我们的日常技术烟草问题。 在社交媒体上的快速拖动突出显示了真实的，一小撮的《使命召唤》，傍晚时分偷偷摸摸地吸着Netflix。

We got wise to advertising, but today, we blindly allow tech giants to manipulate our minds and crush our willpower under the weight of their algorithmic dopamine jackboots.

我们明智地做广告，但是今天，我们盲目地允许科技巨头操纵自己的思想，并在他们的算法多巴胺长靴的压力下压倒我们的意志力。

This is where we must show awareness.

这是我们必须展示的地方。

Technology is so ubiquitous in our lives, we miss how we are exploited.

技术在我们的生活中无处不在，我们想念我们如何被剥削。

Here’s a good example: Extinction Rebellion blockaded the roads around the Murdoch printing presses in the UK recently to ensure his newspapers couldn’t reach the shelves of retailers.

这是一个很好的例子：《灭绝叛乱》最近封锁了英国默多克印刷机的道路，以确保他的报纸无法进入零售商的货架。

A vocal minority supported this action, including labour MP Zarah Sultana who tweeted:

少数人支持这项行动，其中包括工党议员Zarah Sultana 发推文 ：

“A tiny number of billionaires own vast swathes of our press. Their papers relentlessly campaign for right-wing politics, promoting the interests of the ruling class and scapegoating minorities. A free press is vital to democracy, but too much of our press isn’t free at all.”

“极少数亿万富翁拥有我们庞大的媒体报道。 他们的论文无情地为右翼政治运动，促进了统治阶级的利益和替罪羊。 自由新闻对民主至关重要，但是我们太多新闻根本不是自由。”

Here is an elected member of the British parliament using Twitter —a new media platform owned by a billionaire — to rally against an old media platform owned by a billionaire.

这是英国议会的当选议员，使用Twitter(一个亿万富翁拥有的新媒体平台)与一个亿万富翁拥有的旧媒体平台集会。

The irony was not spotted.

没有发现讽刺意味。

It is no longer the ’90s. Twitter and Facebook are the new media giants. Zuckerberg alone controls Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp as both CEO and Chairman, he is one man, answerable to no-one and controls the communication channels of billions of people.

它不再是90年代。 Twitter和Facebook是新兴的媒体巨头。 扎克伯格独自一人控制着Facebook，Instagram和Whatsapp，同时兼任首席执行官和董事长。他是一个人，对任何人都不负责，控制着数十亿人的沟通渠道。

This is the alarming reality of 2020, yet it sits in a blind spot for most of society. Why is there not more outrage about Zuckerberg’s oligarch grip on global communication?

这是2020年令人震惊的现实，但对大多数社会来说却是一个盲点。 为什么对于扎克伯格在全球传播领域的寡头统治没有更多的愤怒？

The tech giants are winning because they offer convenience and comfort, even if it’s at the price of civil liberties and personal growth. We must become acutely aware of the Faustian pact we’re entering into when we indulge in our digital activities.

科技巨头之所以获胜，是因为它们提供了便利和舒适，即使这是以牺牲公民自由和个人成长为代价的。 当我们沉迷于数字活动时，我们必须敏锐地意识到我们正在订立的浮士德公约。

Awareness is the key.

意识是关键。

3.向内走 (3. Go Inwards)

The greatest trick ever pulled was to make us believed we are somehow lacking and that peace can be found from external consumerism.

有史以来最大的诀窍是让我们相信我们某种程度上缺乏，并且可以从外部消费主义中找到和平。

Advertising might have been sussed out, but the same ruse is being pulled through digital dependency and addiction.

广告可能已经被搁置了，但是由于数字依赖和上瘾而引起了同样的诡计。

As with all things in life, we must journey within to find peace, rather than seek it outside of ourselves.

如同生活中的万物一样，我们必须内在地寻求和平，而不是在我们自己之外寻求和平。

Inner peace is the road to breaking addiction as addiction is grounded in filling a void or a need we have vacant within us.

内心的和平是打破成瘾的道路，因为成瘾的基础是填补我们内在的空缺或需要。

Geoff Thompson, in his book The Divine CEO, tells a story (p88) about a man who loses his keys and spends some time outside his house under the street light looking for them. He is soon joined by his neighbours who continue the search. A while later, one of them asks: “Are you sure it was here that you lost your keys?” to which he replies, “I lost them in the house.” Confused, the neighbour asks “Then why are we looking for them out here?” and he answers: “Because there is light out here.”

杰夫·汤普森(Geoff Thompson)在他的《神圣的首席执行官 》( The Divine CEO )一书中讲述了一个男人的故事(第88页 )，他丢失了钥匙，在路灯下的房子外面呆了一段时间寻找它们。 他的邻居很快便加入了他的行列，他们继续搜寻。 不久之后，他们中的一个问：“ 您确定是在这里丢失了钥匙吗？ 他回答说：“ 我在屋子里丢了他们。 ”困惑，邻居问道“ 那我们为什么要在这里找他们？ ”他回答：“ 因为这里有光。 ”

The message, as Geoff explains, is this:

正如Geoff所解释的，消息是：

“If we look for solutions — the keys to our lost self — in the external world, we will never find them.”

“如果我们在外部世界中寻找解决方案-迷失自我的钥匙-我们将永远找不到它们。”

If we revisit Caldwell’s declaration that liking oneself is a rebellious act, it is a natural antidote to what Sean Parker said was social media “exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology”.

如果我们重新审视考德威尔关于喜欢自己是一种叛逆行为的宣言，那自然是对肖恩·帕克(Sean Parker)所说的社交媒体“ 利用人类心理的脆弱性 ”的解毒剂。

There are many ways to go within; a walk, meditation, exercise, anything that replaces the dopamine addiction of your digital life with other activities, and reduces its burden by finding inner nourishment.

有很多方法可以进入。 散步，冥想，运动等可以替代您的数字生活中的多巴胺成瘾的活动，并通过寻找内在的营养来减轻其负担。

As Geoff Thompson reiterates, “Once you establish the inner link, it becomes the most enriching source of direct, teacher-less knowledge.”

正如杰夫·汤普森(Geoff Thompson)重申的那样：“ 一旦建立了内在联系，它就会成为最直接的，无需老师的知识的丰富来源。 ”

4.创造比消费更多的东西 (4. Create Rather Than Consume)

Digital addiction is about consumption, it is inert and passive. Creativity is proactive. There is something magical about creating, whether it be artwork, writing, cooking, or even just face to face conversation with those we love.

数字成瘾与消费有关，它是惰性和被动的。 创造力是积极主动的。 无论是艺术品，写作，烹饪，还是与我们所爱的人进行面对面的交流，创作都具有魔力。

Consumption can feed creativity, but it can also block it.

消费可以养活创造力，但也会阻碍创造力。

Julia Cameron, in The Artist’s Way, recommends weekly “artist holidays” to appreciate and consume art, but the second part of her method is daily output through the “morning pages” (journalling) routine, a pen and paper technique where a screen is not involved.

Julia卡梅隆，在艺术家的方式 ，建议每周“艺术家假期”欣赏和消费的艺术，但她的方法的第二部分是通过“早上页面”日产(轴颈)例程，笔和纸技术，其中一个画面没有参与。

By her reckoning, she rates creativity 7 times more important than consumption.

据她估计，她对创造力的重视程度是消费的7倍。

Much like there’s nothing wrong with omega 6, if it is consumed too much without omega 3 to balance it out, it can cause inflammation. That is the same with consumption.

就像欧米茄6没什么问题，如果在没有欧米茄3的情况下消耗过多，则会导致发炎。 消费也是如此。

We were never wired to consume the way we do.

我们从来没有想过要消耗我们的方式。

We live in the information age, continuously over-stimulated by the intensity in which it comes to us. We are suffering from mental inflammation.

我们生活在信息时代，不断受到信息的强烈刺激。 我们患有精神炎症。

Our DNA has evolved to create more than consume, we need to rebalance our creative-consumption ratio to find peace and rediscover who we are.

我们的DNA已经进化为创造了消费以外的东西，我们需要重新平衡创意与消费的比例，以找到和平并重新发现我们是谁。

结论 (Conclusions)

None of this would be an issue if it wasn’t a growing problem. As technology becomes more invasive and more ubiquitous, instant gratification creates a need for increasingly amped-up rewards and greater dopamine hits.

如果这不是一个日益严重的问题，那么这都不是问题。 随着技术变得更具侵入性和普遍性，即时满足感要求对奖励和更大的多巴胺命中率越来越高的需求。

Unless digital addiction is headed off by active personal resistance, society is heading for a serious mental health catastrophe.

除非通过积极的个人抵抗来消除数字成瘾，否则社会将走向严重的精神健康灾难。

There’s no simple cure. Life today is in part played out in a digital world. We cannot extract ourselves from it.

没有简单的治疗方法。 今天的生活在数字世界中得到了部分体现。 我们不能从中解脱出来。

But you are your own master. Stay alert for signs of addiction, cravings that aren’t you, but will pretend to be. They’re easy to spot as they don’t deliver, they don’t provide growth, they are unable to nourish. They are apparitions, house ghosts, masquerading as real.

但是你是你自己的主人。 对成瘾的迹象保持警惕，渴望的不是你，而是假装成瘾。 他们很容易被发现，因为他们不提供，他们不提供增长，他们无法滋养。 他们是幻影，屋子里的鬼魂，伪装成真实的。

If we accept that addiction comes as standard for all digital activities, that our attention is constantly under attack, we can accept our predicament and act accordingly. Awareness is always the first step.

如果我们接受成瘾是所有数字活动的标准，并且我们的注意力不断受到攻击，那么我们可以接受困境并采取相应的行动。 意识永远是第一步。

Be aware, trust in yourself and lean into creativity. Remember, this is your life, your hopes and your dreams, and no one can take care of them but you.

要意识到，信任自己并倾向于创造力。 请记住，这是您的生活，您的希望和梦想，只有您才能照顾他们。