What on Earth happened to our attention span? Marketers used to say that you have 3 minutes to hold someone’s attention (when trying to sell them something). Now it appears that’s just 3 seconds. The question is, are short videos poison or treasure?
我们的注意力到底发生了什么变化？营销人员常说，你有 3 分钟的时间来吸引别人的注意力（当你试图向他们推销东西时）。现在看来只有3秒。问题是，短视频是毒药还是宝藏？
Yep, getting a teenager to put down their phone is difficult, and Chinese people love to say, “不要看手机” (Don’t look at your phone) to their offspring, usually while looking at their phone. It’s a phenomenon which is truly multi generational.
是的，让青少年放下手机是很困难的，而且中国人喜欢对他们的后代说“不要看手机”，通常是在看手机的时候。这是一个真正的多代现象。
Huang Qituan is a senior psychology tutor in the business for 22 years and founder of One Psychology. He has written of a message received from one of his social-media followers; “My daughter is only 2-years old, but she asks me to turn on her phone every day. She wants to watch Douyin, and won’t let go even during Spring Festival. I feel that it is too young to be addicted to the internet and she may become disabled [sic] when she grows up”.
黄启团是从业22年的资深心理学导师，One Psychology创始人。他写了一条从他的一位社交媒体粉丝那里收到的消息； “我女儿才两岁，但她每天都让我开手机。她想看抖音，过年也不放过。我觉得沉迷网络太小了，长大后可能会变成残疾”。
But before we get to the worries associated with 2-year olds using Douyin, let’s start with the positive. Just as with much of the internet, there is a host of great content out there. With Douyin and the like, one can learn to cook better or play a musical instrument, read classical literature, watch documentaries or movies, and much much more.
但在我们讨论与 2 岁孩子使用抖音相关的担忧之前，让我们先从积极的方面开始。就像互联网上的大部分内容一样，那里有大量精彩的内容。通过抖音等，人们可以学会更好地做饭或弹奏乐器、阅读古典文学、观看纪录片或电影等等。
And none of it took the investment required (time and money) in a visit to the library, a cinema or an evening music school.
而且这些都不需要去图书馆、电影院或夜间音乐学校所需的投资（时间和金钱）。
Therein lie the problem. Investment. The lack thereof is that driving Douyin in becoming a kind of disease. One thing is for sure, it is certainly a drug in the sense that it is addictive.
问题就在于此。投资。不足的是，导致抖音成为一种病。有一点是肯定的，从它令人上瘾的意义上来说，它肯定是一种药物。
Brain researchers have discovered that when people exhibit behaviour that is beneficial to survival and reproduction, hormones released by the brain encourage further such behaviour and form a virtuous cycle. It’s our “reward mechanism”.
大脑研究人员发现，当人们表现出有利于生存和繁殖的行为时，大脑释放的激素会进一步鼓励这种行为，形成良性循环。这是我们的“奖励机制”。
But it’s not just food and sex that make us happy. Human progress and development are also forms of reward. Otherwise, who would be willing to help benefit society? Specifically, people gain a huge sense of accomplishment from setting goals in overcoming difficulty or achieving a mission.
但让我们快乐的不仅仅是食物和性。人类的进步和发展也是一种回报。不然谁愿意去帮助造福社会呢？具体来说，人们通过设定克服困难或完成使命的目标而获得巨大的成就感。
Firefighters, medical staff and border guards all do painful things that others cannot bear, facing unpredictable dangers every day. They do these unimaginable things to the possible cost of their lives because of the pleasure and sense of accomplishment attained. Reward mechanism.
消防员、医护人员、边防人员每天都在做着别人无法承受的痛苦事情，面临着不可预知的危险。他们为了获得快乐和成就感，不惜付出生命的代价，去做这些难以想象的事情。奖励机制。
But such hormones also have a threshold.
但此类激素也有一个阈值。
Every time we repeat the same thing, its threshold increases; more stimulation is needed to achieve the same feeling. Simply repeating the behaviour brings about less pleasure.
每次我们重复同样的事情，它的阈值就会增加；需要更多的刺激才能达到同样的感觉。简单地重复这种行为会带来更少的快乐。
Famed philosopher, Lao Zi, wrote in Chapter 23 of the Tao Te Ching, “High winds do not last all morning. Heavy rain does not last all day”. Likewise, post-nerve stimulation does not last long, leading to feelings similar to emptiness. Hence the correlation with psychological addictions to drugs, sex, gaming and Douyin.
著名哲学家老子在《道德经》第23章中写道：“大风不至朝，大雨不至日”。同样，神经刺激后不会持续很长时间，导致类似空虚的感觉。因此，这与毒品、性、游戏和抖音的心理成瘾有关。
But according to this logic, wouldn’t the reward mechanism push everyone into the abyss of addiction? Aren’t we all addicts? No, otherwise humanity would not be at the top of the food chain.
但按照这个逻辑，奖励机制岂不是把大家推向成瘾的深渊吗？我们不都是瘾君子吗？不，否则人类就不会站在食物链的顶端。
Enter the “aversion mechanism”. Mountain climbing for example, will make the body tired while gaining a sense of accomplishment. But when overly tired, no matter how much you like mountain climbing, you will not continue to make the required sacrifices.
进入“厌恶机制”。比如爬山，在获得成就感的同时也会让身体感到疲惫。但当过度疲劳时，无论你多么喜欢爬山，你都不会继续做出必要的牺牲。
Many mountain climbers find their hobby to be a drug. Yet, it is one in which they worked hard for their accomplishments. But when all that is needed is some white powder, the checks and balances of the aversion mechanism are completely bypassed.
许多登山者发现他们的爱好是吸毒。然而，这是他们为自己的成就而努力奋斗的结果。但当所需要的只是一些白色粉末时，厌恶机制的制衡就完全被绕过了。
Then comes the addiction to Douyin. No one has to walk to the cinema or theatre, or even earn money to buy a ticket.
然后就是抖音上瘾。没有人需要步行去电影院或剧院，甚至不需要赚钱买票。
Just as with other illegal drugs, the algorithms behind Douyin ensure the aversion mechanism never kicks in. And just in case, the short video teams also came up with a push mechanism that provides an additional stimulus every 15 seconds.
与其他非法毒品一样，抖音背后的算法确保厌恶机制永远不会启动。为了以防万一，短视频团队还提出了一种推送机制，每 15 秒提供一次额外的刺激。
In an attempt to look on the bright side, perhaps the takeaway is that the difference between a 2-year old and a fully grown adult is the former has not yet learned how to be a benefit to society and hence attain infinite more pleasure than anything on a short video platform.
从好的一面来看，或许我们得出的结论是，两岁的孩子和一个完全成年的成年人之间的区别在于，前者还没有学会如何造福社会，从而获得比短视频平台上的任何东西更多的无限快乐。
