TED笔记026=手机App有生命

先推荐个有趣又有料的姊妹号——

===%%%%%%%%%===

【资源介绍】【学习感悟】

【生词释义】【英文字幕】

===%%%%%%%%%===

【资源介绍】

编号：TED-026==2026.05.07

统计：本月第1；总第26

题目：你刷的不是手机，

是被算法卖掉的人生！

链接：https://b23.tv/9Cp5CKD

类别：运动养生健康

时长：11.5分钟

【学习感悟】

现在来看，这讲的也算是老生常谈——“注意力经济（眼球经济）”的危害。

演讲先是算了一笔时间账：人生以90岁为限，可支配闲暇本就有限，日常琐事、睡眠工作已占据大半时光。但当下年轻人大量空闲时间被刷短视频、追剧、玩游戏等屏幕消遣占据，不仅诱发抑郁焦虑，还会削弱专注力，造成持续性分心。究其根源，源于各类社交媒体的通过消耗用户时间牟利、将用户变现的商业模式；这种商业模式刻意塑造用户的价值观，扭曲用户的自我认知与人际观念，毫不在意这与用户的身心健康相悖。当然，社交媒体并非全无价值，它可维系社交、启发思想；但是，必须适度使用社交媒体，切勿沉迷屏幕错失人生体验，闲暇乃是最宝贵的资源。

这种观点，毫无疑问是正确的；但是，它就像香烟盒子上的那句“吸烟有害健康”一样，作用不过是熟视无睹、没啥效果。想要真正帮到大家，还需要深入聊聊。在这里，我就围绕“生命”这个词，谈两点感想。

第一，手机App一旦开发出来，自有其生命力。

历史证明，一个机构或者制度一旦建立，它的首要需求往往是发展壮大或者至少保存自己，这种需求常常与最初的设置初衷相违背。比如，剿匪大将军一开始会把土匪剿灭个八九不离十，然后剩下零星几个怎么剿灭也剿灭不完（就像拼多多砍一刀，怎么砍也砍不彻底，因为人家本来也没诚意让你拿到奖励）。为什么呢？因为一旦彻底剿灭，剿匪大将军也就没有存在的必要了，甚至可能鸟尽弓藏、卸磨杀驴。又比如，有个“眼镜蛇效应”：印度曾经为了消灭眼镜蛇而悬赏收购，结果眼镜蛇越来越多——民众为了拿到奖赏干脆开始饲养眼镜蛇了。

进一步，有个问题你要想明白，敬老院和幼儿园的服务对象是谁？很多人下意识认为是老人和孩子，因为经常听到敬老院和幼儿园提升服务质量的宣传。其实不然，服务对象是老人的儿女和孩子的父母，因为儿女和父母才是真正决定是否购买服务的人，因而才是真正被在意的人。为此，个别机构不惜采取虐待手段。

由此可以想见，手机App背后的运营团队，他们的首要需求是什么？当然是保住自己的工作并且尽可能多地营利，当然是满足广告投放商的需求而非在意用户体验。所谓的改善用户体验，不过是为了尽可能多地压榨用户的被广告的价值而已，绝非主观上在意用户。想明白了这一点，总是抱有对各种社交媒体App的戒心，是做出正确选择的前提。

第二，避免手机App的负面影响，需要自己有旺盛的生命力。

武学流派，忘了具体哪一个了，有个原则：“以手破手，以脚破脚。”很多时候，解决一个问题的关注点不在问题本身，而在于发展自身。《菜根谭》有云：“心不可不虚，虚则义理来居；心不可不实，实则物欲不入。”要想避免生活陷入社交媒体的圈套之中，最好的办法是自己拥有积极向上的充实生活，用“人的旺盛生命力”压制“App的异化生命力”。

人都要追求意义，都喜欢有趣味的生活。拥有了高级趣味，谁还会在意低级趣味？那些染上了网瘾、酒瘾、赌瘾、毒瘾的人，并不是真的喜欢这些事情，只是因为精神太过空虚、无所寄托才会深陷泥潭。就像戒除毒瘾一样，本身不是生理问题，而是心理问题。解决毒瘾问题最好的办法，不是找到特效药，而是让人一开始就有强大的精神力量、一开始就对毒品保持警惕并远离。

具体要怎么做呢？怎么利用有限的时间呢？——人最宝贵的是生命。生命属于人只有一次。人的一生应当这样度过：当他回首往事的时候，不会因为碌碌无为、虚度年华而悔恨，也不会因为为人卑劣、生活庸俗而愧疚。在临终的时候，他能够说：“我已把自己整个的生命和全部的精力献给了世界上最壮丽的事业——为人类的解放而奋斗。”——别着急，这只是个模板，具体内容是什么，需要自己去探寻、发现。比如，整体忙着学TED的人，哪有时间刷抖音？

最后，我想摘抄一些句子，对我来说非常有价值的一些句子。

每一个社交媒体平台都在传递一种价值观，左右着我们的认知。平台的产品设计，会纯粹地改变我们看待自我、看待世界的方式。

A==照片墙（Instagram）

Instagram 骨子里传递的观念是：一个人的价值，很大程度由外貌和度假生活所定义。它驱使你用镜头记录人生所有高光时刻，并分享给所有社交好友。同时它也在潜移默化地暗示：拥有一千个给你短暂点赞认可的陌生人，远比拥有几个在你低谷时依然真心在乎你的挚友更有价值。

B==色拉布（Snapchat）

Snapchat 暗含的逻辑是：人际关系的好坏，最好用聊天频繁程度来衡量，而非交流内容本身。哪怕你只发一张侧脸照、配文只为“维持聊天连胜”，平台照样会给你增加连胜天数。

C==推特（Twitter）

推特传递的理念是：任何值得表达的观点，都理应被压缩在限定字符内；非黑即白就是世界的真相。比起深入钻研某件事，跟风知晓所有新鲜事反倒更为重要。

当你开始对比社交媒体与过往传统载体所传递的价值观，就会慢慢意识到，我们正在丢失一些东西。技术的迅猛发展，不过是方便了一部分人更加高效地算计另一部分人而已。不妨回头看看。

A==书籍

书籍的内在逻辑截然不同：世界本就复杂，读懂世事需要时间沉淀。它让我们换位思考，结合时代背景，从他人的视角审视事物。它迫使我们长时间专注于一条思维脉络，久而久之，便能培养我们的专注力。

B==书信

书信则告诉我们：沟通不必频繁，贵在走心深刻。

最后，说几句内心感触。

“伤其十指，不如断其一指。”这句军事论断，在学习知识上同样适用。追求量而一年看几十本书，不如选两三本书分别读上两三遍以力求吃透。走马观花跟团旅游，不如在一个地方待上十天半个月深度游。人生重在体验，体验的质量取决于体验的深度。

“莫笑因缘浅，相期造道深。”

很高兴自己能坚持在“一天一TED”群里学习！

【生词释义】

chore n 日常杂务、琐事

errand n 差事、跑腿办事

hygiene n 卫生、卫生习惯

bucket list n 遗愿清单；人生愿望清单

binge n 放纵狂欢；v 暴饮暴食、疯狂做某事

wrap your head v 理解、弄懂（难懂的事）

unveil v 揭开、公布、首次展示

chronically adv 长期地、慢性地

streak n 条纹、连胜；v 疾驰、飞奔

stark adj 明显的、赤裸裸的、严峻的

spark n 火花、灵感；v 引发、触发

incentive n 激励、诱因、奖励

monetize v 变现、货币化、赚钱

foster v 培养、促进、抚育；adj 寄养的

【英文字幕】

【The battle for your time --- exposing the costs of social media】

By providing space for constant evolution, we can all transform how we view ourselves and the world around us.

Bear with me everybody, I’m going to start off today on a little bit of a heavy note, but I promise things will lighten up.

The dots on this screen represent an adult life in months assuming a life expectancy of 90.

So, if you’re 18 years old right now, this is an optimistic estimate of the months that you have left.

Take a second to take that in.

Probably not as many as you would expect.

And I’m sorry to say that it does get worse because about a third of that time is going to be spent sleeping.

On average, 126 of those months will go to school and your career, about 18 will be spent driving, 36 cooking and eating, 36 doing chores and errands, and about 27 in the bathroom and taking care of personal hygiene.

So, that leaves you with 334 months, optimistically, for everything else.

So, this is where you tick the boxes on your bucket list, this is where you pursue your passions, and travel the world, and leave your Mark.

How you spend this time is going to determine the quality of your life.

But this time isn’t something just that you spend, it’s also something that you invest.

Because what you do with it will quite literally determine the kind of person you become.

The body, mind and character that you will have in the future are being actively shaped by how you choose to use your time today.

So, take a second and ask yourself:

What do you want to do with that free time?

What things do you want to do that you haven’t done?

Who do you want to spend that time with?

What is worth investing it in?

Now I would be willing to bet that scrolling through TikTok, binge watching Netfix, and playing video games probably did not come to mind.

But today the average 18 year old in the United States is on pace to spend 93% of their remaining free time looking at a screen.

That is not counting time for school.

So, wrap your head around how sad that is.

Imagine getting to the age of 90 seeing this visualization of how you spent all your time after the age of 18 and thinking about all the things you could have done that you did not do because you got distracted.

And I also want you to ask yourself, what do you think over 26 years of screen time would do to you?

What is that an investment in?

How would it change you?

It’s well established that there’s a link between high screen time and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.

But recently we’ve started to unveil the cognitive consequences of excessive tech use as well.

When we’re staring at our screens, we are constantly switching our attention between different pieces of information.

The average TikTok is about 15 seconds long and over 55 percent of web pages are viewed for 15 seconds or less.

And if you’re switching your attention every 15 seconds for an average of 8 hours and 39 minutes a day, you are training yourself to become chronically distracted.

Think about what that will do to your career, to your relationships, and to your ability to pursue the things that matter most to you.

Unfortunately, the consequences of screen time are not limited to our mental health and our cognition because ---

Every Social Media Platform Carries A Message That Affects What We Believe.

They influence the way we see ourselves and the way we see the world purely based on how they are designed.

【Instagram】

Instagram, inherently says that your worth is largely defined by what you look like and what you do on vacations.

It compels you to capture all the most meaningful moments of your life on camera and share them with your entire social network.And it implicit says that it’s more valuable to have 1000 people that will give you transient social approval than a few that deeply care about you even when it’s not your best day.

【Snapchat】

Snapchat inherently says that the quality of our relationships is best measured by the frequency of our communication, regardless of what we’re actually saying.

You get a point added to your Snapchat streak even if you just send a picture of the side of your face with the caption streaks.

【Twitter】

Twitter says that anything worth saying can and should be reduced to an arbitrary number of characters. It says that the world is black and white.

That’s more important to be updated about everything than deeply informed about anything.

And when you start to compare the messages these platforms are sending with those technologies from the past, you begin to get a sense of what we might be losing.

【Book】

Because the inherent structure of a book says that the world is complex and it takes time to understand.

It compels us to walk in the shoes of other people and see things from their perspective with context.

It forces us to focus on one train of thought for an extended period of time which nurtures our attention.

【Letter】

And the letter tells us that our communication doesn’t need to be frequent, it just needs to be deep.

【OK--done】

So, when you factor all that in it quickly becomes clear that the opportunity cost of this screen time is impossible to calculate.

And I have never shown this visualization to anyone that actually wants to spend 93 percent of their remaining free time staring at a screen.

So, there is a stark difference between how much time we say our screens are worth and how much time we actually give them.

And it is critical to realize that is not an accident; that is by design.

It’s a consequence of a business model.

That Has Incentives Which Are Fundamentally Misaligned With Your Well Being.

Because you are the product that social media sells.

These services are free because they are monetizing you.

They profit by helping advertisers, change your future behavior whether that be where you spend your time, how you spend your money or even who you vote for.

In order to do that they have to do two things.

They need to figure out which ads are going to influence you by collecting as much data about you as hey possibly can, and then they need to show you as many of those ads as possible.

So, social media is free because you pay for it with your time.

Their profit is directly linked to how long they can get you to scroll.

And every social media platform is in a battle with each other to capture as much of your free time as possible.

So, let’s run a thought experiment.

I want you to ask yourself how much would you pay for your favorite social media platform if it charged you a monthly subscription fee.

So, pick the app that you use the most and raise your hand if you would pay at least 5 dollars a month.

OK. How about 10 dollars a month?

20?

Doesn’t see any hands anymore.

Well, let’s do a quick calculation to figure out how much we’re effectively paying for an app like TikTok.

We’ll assume that you value your time at a rate of 20 dollars per hour.

And you’re spending 2 hours a day on the platform or 30 days in a month.

So, you’re effectively paying 1200 per month for TikTok.

So, when you start to do this kind of analysis it quickly becomes clear that most of us are drastically overpaying for social media.

My ask of you is this: figure out what it means for you to get a good deal out of social media platforms.

In order to do that you have to do two things.

You have to ask yourself what value do these services provide?

And second you have to ask how much of your time is that value worth?

Now I want to be clear that I am not saying social media is without value.

It can be an incredibly powerful tool, it can foster relationships, it can introduce you to new ideas, it can even spark social movements.

But we need to learn to use it in moderation.

Don’t let yourself get to the age of 90 only to look back on your life and realize that while you were trying to avoid FOMO, you actually missed out on living.

That free time is your most valuable resource.

Do not give it away for free.

Thank you!

【往期推荐】

{以上属于闲唠嗑}