Do you need to throw your smartphone away to live your best life? Not necessarily, according to researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum who suggest that we could all benefit from cutting down on screen time — just only a little bit time.
On average, we spend more than three hours a day on our smartphone screens. Between social media, news feeds, endless video games, and an app for pretty much everything else, there’s always something to draw our attention. In recent years, studies have blamed(责备) smartphones for modern problems ranging from rising anxiety rates to neck pain. It begs the question: Are people all really better off turning back to landlines(座机)?
“The smartphone is both a blessing and a curse,” says study leader Dr. Julia Brailovskaia, whose team set out to answer that question by gathering together 619 volunteers, hoping to know how much the smartphone is good for us. 200 people put their smartphones completely aside for a week; 226 reduced the amount of time they used the device by one hour a day; 193 people didn’t change anything in their behavior.
Researchers interviewed each person about both their overall lifestyle habits and well-being four months later after the experimental week ended. “We found that both completely giving up the smartphone and reducing its daily use by one hour had positive effects on the well-being of the participants(参与者),” as Brailovskaia sums up the upshots. Notably, changing their smartphone habits for just one week appeared to produce lasting outcomes to the subjects(实验对象). Even four months afterward, participants who were told to avoid using their smartphones totally were using their phones for an average of 38 minutes less per day.
Meanwhile, the “one hour less” group were using their phones as much as 45 minutes less per day after four months. This group also showed improved life satisfaction, more exercise, and less depression(沮丧).
“It’s not necessary to completely give up the smartphone to feel better,” Brailovskaia concludes.
【小题1】What’s the purpose of Paragraph 2?| A．To stress the benefits of smartphones. |
| B．To state disadvantages of the experiment. |
| C．To explain why the experiment was done. |
| D．To answer the question on the smartphones. |
| A．They trained them. |
| B．They interviewed them. |
| C．They gave them a physical exam. |
| D．They divided them into 3 groups. |
| A．purpose | B．results | C．reasons | D．doubts |
| A．Fewer smartphones, more well-being. |
| B．No smartphone use is the best policy. |
| C．Smartphones are a part of our lives. |
| D．A small smartphone, two big sides. |
