Behavioral addiction is a lot like substance addiction in a lot of ways, but it's much newer.
行为性成瘾在很多方面跟物质性成瘾很类似 但是 行为性成瘾相对来说是一个比较新的话题
So substance addiction obviously involves the ingestion of a substance, and in the short-term
很显然 物质性成瘾包括成瘾性物质的摄入 在短期内会使人产生
that feels good, and in the long-term it harms your well being in some respects.
很好的感觉 但是从长期来看 往往会给人们在某些方面带来一定的伤害
It can be physiological, it can be psychological, it can harm your social life, it can cause
可能是生理方面的伤害 或者是心理上的 它还能危及你的社交生活
you to spend too much money, it can have a lot of negative effects on your life.
它能致使你挥金如土 总而言之 它会给你的生活带来很多负面的影响
Behavioral addiction is similar; the big difference though is that behavioral addiction does not
行为性成瘾和物质性成瘾总体来讲比较类似 然而最大的区别在于行为性成瘾并不
involve the ingestion of a substance, and it's much newer, it's a much more recent phenomenon.
涉及成瘾性物质的摄入 行为性成瘾是最近流行的一种现象 属于比较新的研究领域
So substance addiction has been around for a very long time, by some accounts for many
据记载物质性成瘾已经在人类历史上存在了上千年了

thousands of years, but there weren't behaviors around that were compelling enough to rise
然而行为性成瘾
to the level of addiction until quite recently.
直到最近才引起了人们的重视
And the reason is that, for them to be addictive, basically what has to happen is there's a
原因在于 所谓行为性成瘾 是指
behavior that you enjoy doing in the short-term that you do compulsively.
一些能给人带来舒适感或兴奋感的短期强迫性行为
So you keep returning to it over and over again, but then in the long-term it harms your well-being.
所以你保持重复某种动作的行为 从长期来看 会给你带来极大的危害
And it can, again, harm your well-being in lots of different respects, social, financial,physical, psychological.
跟物质性成瘾类似 这种危害可能涉及社交 开销 生理上和心理上等方面
And I think the reason why we've got these new forms of addiction, there are two main
我认为 人们患上这种新型成瘾症的原因 主要有两个
reasons: The first one is that technology is much more sophisticated and advanced than it was even 20 years ago.
首先 科学技术发展迅速 日新月异 相对于二十年前 科技已经变得非常复杂和先进
You're able to deliver the kinds of rewards that you need for a system to be addictive.
这也使得从虚拟系统中获取回报变成了可能
So basically what people are looking for is unpredictability and rapid feedback of either
所以本质上 人们是在寻找一种无法预测的快速
rewards (or if it's negative then negative experiences), and you actually need that mix
回报（包括负面反馈） 实际上 人们需要这种混合
of positive and negative feedback.
正面和负面回报的体验
Just as, for example, when you post something online, sometimes you're going to get a lot
比如 当你在网上发个帖 有时你会获得很多
of hits, sometimes you aren’t, and it's that unpredictability that we find so compelling.
赞 有时不会 正是这种不确定性让人无法抗拒
You need to be able to deliver those rewards really rapidly, and for that you need the
你需要快速传递这些反馈
Internet with the right kind of bandwidth to be able to deliver those rewards.
所以你就需要很快的网速来帮助你传达这些反馈
The other thing that I think is happened is that companies are much savvier about this.
另一个原因我认为是公司们在这件事情上表现的十分狡猾
There are employee behavioral experts to tell them how to design their media, how to design
他们雇佣了行为学家去指导设计传媒方式 包括如何设计
the vehicles that deliver those media, smart phones, iPads, smart watches, things like that.
合适的媒介去传播 包括智能手机 平板电脑 智能手表之类的传播方式
And for that reason I think they are delivering products to us that are harder for us to resist.
正因如此 我认为他们制造的产品表现的越来越吸引人
They've got enough features built in that we find to be pretty hard to resist, and then
他们集成了足够的功能以至于人们真的难以抗拒
we end up developing addictions to them, and by some counts that applies to about half
人们最后就变得依赖于这些产品 某种程度上这种现象已经出现在半数的
of the population of the developed world. It turns out that it's not in addiction to the device itself.
发达国家人口中 事实上 并不是电子设备本身使人上瘾
It's that the devices is just an incredibly effective way of delivering content.So when you're addicted to a screen it's not that the screen itself is something that you
设备只不过是有效传递内容的一种方式而已。所以你不是对显示屏本身上瘾
can't get enough of, it's what it's providing.
而是它显示的内容
I think one of the reasons while we're so addicted to screens or to the content they
我觉得你对那些智能屏幕或者它们显示的内容上瘾的原因
provide is that they go with us wherever we go.
在于你能随身携带它们
And that's relatively new.
而这也是最近才出现的现象
And so if you played video games in the '80s or '90s or even the early 2000's they didn't
回想八九十年代甚至二十一世纪初你玩游戏的时候
really go wherever you went as much as they do now, especially those games that were tied into the Internet.
你没法像现在这样走到哪玩到哪 尤其是那些网络游戏
Those were tied into your PC, you'd play where you were and you didn't really leave with them as much.
相对而言 那些PC独占游戏 你只能在电脑那里玩 至少并不会离得太远
You had some portable devices, but those were much more primitive.
当然 还有些便携式设备 不过相对来说它们都比较原始
Today with iPhones you can connect to other people on the go, you always have access to
而今天 你可以用iPhone随时随地和别人联系
games, you always have access to email, you always have access to the Internet, and you
玩游戏 发邮件 上网冲浪
always have access to social media, and so they are great vehicles for providing the
刷社交网络 而这些媒介都是绝佳的内容载体
hits that you need when you need them.
你可以在任何时候想看就看
Basically we tend to develop addictions when we have a psychological need.
通常情况下 当我们心理上有某种需求时 往往更容易上瘾
And we get those whenever we're bored, whenever we're feeling a little bit lonely, whenever
我们随时能够够触及到那些内容 当我们无聊 感到有点儿孤独
we're not really sure what to do with ourselves next, whenever we don't feel particularly
迷茫 找不到自我
efficacious (like we're having an effect on the world that we'd like to be having), those
或者我们的努力并没有那么有效（并没有像想象中那样有用）的时候
are the moments when you're looking for what some people call the “adult pacifier”.
这些时刻 人们会想去寻找一种人们称之为“成人奶嘴” 的东西来安抚自己的内心
And smart phones tend to be a great adult pacifier because after those moments you turn
而智能手机就是一种很棒的“安抚奶嘴”
on your screen, you swipe and you feel relaxed again.
当你打开手机 划开解锁画面 你会再次感到很轻松
That's how people describe the experience.
这就是人们如何描述这种体验的
So they tend to be excellent devices for delivering these small hits that we look for, and social
智能手机似乎就是这么一种绝妙的设备 能够提供人们需要的小刺激 而社交
media is a great example.
网络就是一个很好的例子
So social media obviously now travels with us.
所以现在我们才和社交媒体形影不离
It used to be confined to home computers to a large extent, but that's no longer the case.
过去 很多时候人们只能在家用电脑上使用社交媒体 现在这种情况已经不复存在了
And people spend about three hours a day on average using their smart phones, which is pretty staggering.
人们平均每天会花大约3个小时在智能手机上 这很值得我们深思
That's a huge chunk of the day of the waking hours that we spend when we're not at work.
那在我们除了睡觉 工作之外的时间中占据了很大的比例
What that means is they're spending a lot of their time returning over and over again
这就意味着人们在花很多时间一次一次地
to check Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and so on, and they're checking for a number of things.
刷推特 ins 脸书 Snapchat等等 他们在刷新几样东西
One thing is that these media are bottomless, which means that you're constantly checking
一方面这些东西是一个无底洞 你不停地
for new information; there's always something new to be kept up on.
刷新消息 但是总会有新的东西等待你去刷新
The other thing is if you happen to be a poster of content,
另一方面 如果你是一名发推者
you're very curious about getting rapid feedback as to whether people approve of that or they're not particularly interested in it.
你就会很好奇人们是否赞同你的观点或者是否对你的推文感兴趣 所以你就希望得到快速的反馈
So a lot of the time what we do is we return over and over again compulsively to see whether
所以很多时候我们是在一遍一遍地
we're getting the positive feedback that we seek when we post content.
去看在我们发完推文之后 是否如己所愿地得到了很多积极的反馈
A lot of what we're doing when we post content is basically testing the social waters,
很多时候我们之所以发帖 只是想检测一下社交群体
getting a sense of whether people see the world the same way we do,
去看看人们看待世界的方式是否跟自己一致
which is very important to us as humans, and also getting a sense of whether they approve of us.
这对我们人类来说是很重要的 也反应出人们一直在寻求一种认同感
And social approval is really important, but we're even willing to risk negative feedback,
社交认同感是非常重要的 但我们甚至愿意去冒得到负面反馈这个险
because the worst thing that can happen to a human is to be ignored.
是因为最差的是被别人忽视
It's actually far worse to be ostracized or ignored than it is to get negative feedback.
实际上 被放逐被忽视比得到负面反馈要难受的多
So when you put all of that together the idea now that we have access to theoretically billions
总而言之 正是因为我们现在有条件随时随地和数以亿计的人
of people in the world at all times wherever we are makes smart phones addictive.
发生联系 智能手机才变得这么容易令人上瘾
We can always get that feedback that we desire.
因为我们总是能够得到我们所期望的反馈。