A generation has now grown up with the internet a part of everyday life but, as yet, we still don’t know enough about how platforms such as Facebook and Instagram affect mental health. With cyberbullying on the increase, the need to find out is pressing.

　　现在，这一代人在成长中已经将互联网作为日常生活中的一部分，但是至今我们仍然没有完全知道例如脸书和Instagram这类平台是如何影响心理健康的。随着网络暴力的增加，弄清这一问题变得十分迫切。

　　In April 2016, after years of relentless bullying in school and on social media, 17-year-old Felix Alexander took his own life. After his death, his mother Lucy wrote that the bullying “began with unkindness and social isolation and over the years with the advent of social media it became cruel and overwhelming”.

　　2016年4月，在经历了数年残酷的校园和社交媒体暴力后，17岁的菲利克斯·亚历山大结束了自己的生命。他死后，他的母亲露西写道：“暴力开始于不近人情和社会孤立。多年来，随着社交媒体的出现，暴力变得愈加残酷无情和势不可挡。”

　　Tragically, Felix’s experience is all too common: according a McAfee poll of 11- to 17-year-olds in 2014, 35% reported that they have experienced cyberbullying, up from 16% the year before. Another organisation found that Google searches for “cyberbullying” surge at the start of the school year.

　　悲剧的是，菲利克斯的经历太普遍了：根据McAfee在2014年对11至17岁人群的调查，35%称他们经历过网络暴力，较之去年16%有所上升。另外一家组织发现，谷歌“网络暴力”搜索在入学年龄时激增。

　　Jean-Baptiste Pingault, lecturer in developmental psychopathology at University College London, says that cyberbullying has certain distinctive features: “With classical bullying you have safe spaces [places where the bullies can’t go, such as home], but with cyberbullying, technology is often on all the time so you are constantly exposed to the risk.” He notes, too, that cyberbullying makes it possible to be “bullied by people you barely know”. Much of Felix’s abuse on social media was from people who had never met him.

　　伦敦大学学院发展心理病理学讲师让-巴蒂斯·品高特说道，网络暴力具有某些特性：“你有安全的空间躲开传统暴力(暴力无法遁形的地方，例如家里)，但是网络暴力技术一直都在，因此你会不断地暴露在这一风险中。”他还指出，网络暴力可能“由你几乎不认识的人施行”。菲利克斯遭受的社交媒体暴力很多来自于素未谋面的人。

　　Funded by mental health charity MQ, Pingault is now about to start a large-scale project analysing data from three studies to assess the long-term impact of both traditional bullying and cyberbullying, with the aim of identifying risk factors and creating an opportunity for early intervention.

　　在心理健康机构MQ的资助下，品高特现在计划开始一项分析三个研究数据的大型项目，从而评价传统暴力和网络暴力的长期影响，其目的是找出风险因素，同时为早期干预创造机会。

　　Social media has changed all our lives. Facebook now has 1.8 billion active users – a quarter of the world’s population. But it has a particular impact on the generation of young people who have grown up with the internet, and for whom sites such as Facebook and Instagram are a part of everyday life. The ability to write something hurtful without seeing the other person’s reaction means that social media can very quickly become a hostile place.

　　社交媒体已经改变了我们所有的生活。现在，脸书拥有18亿活跃用户，占世界人口的四分之一。但是它对伴随互联网长大和将脸书和Instagram这些网站作为日常生活一部分的年青一代而言具有一种特定的影响。没有见到别人的反应就能够写一些伤人的东西意味着社交媒体能够很快成为一个敌对的地方。

　　Its negative effects can extend beyond bullying. If you spend a lot of time thinking about what you’ve seen while you’re online, that might be more likely to lead to depression.

　　它的负面影响可能远不止于暴力。如果你花很多时间思考你在网上看到的东西，更有可能你会陷入抑郁。

（编辑：何莹莹）