実践ビジネス英語 ディクテーション (10/26,27ほか)

こんにちは。NHKラジオ「実践ビジネス英語」”Talk the Talk”のディクテーションです。

Lesson 14のテーマは、‘Smartphone Addiction’（スマホ依存症）でした。Vignetteでは、大きな問題になっているスマホ依存症について、その現状と対処法についてさまざまなアイディアが共有されました。大人は1日に平均80回ほど自分の携帯をチェックしていて、ミレニアル世代はその2倍近いのだそうです。

“Talk the Talk”では、スマホ依存症にならないための工夫や子供のスマホ使用のコントロールなどについて話されています。

★英文の終わりに語注をつけました。

Smartphone Addiction

（S: 杉田敏先生　H: Heather Howardさん）

S: Our current vignette talks about the problem of smartphone addiction.

You’ve described yourself as addicted in the past, right, Heather?

H: Yes, and this vignette has encouraged me to take another long, hard look at my activities.

McMillan makes sure that his phone is not the last thing he sees in the evening or the first thing in the morning.

Well, mine has been.

I use it as an alarm clock, so it’s right there by my head.

I think I’ll take a leaf from his book and put my old-fashioned alarm clock back into service.

I also mentioned in a previous talk how I was trying to unplug somewhat at home?

Read or knit instead of playing smartphone games and such?

Unfortunately, I’ve backslid in that regard lately, so I’m going to set up a little table in my entryway and leave the phone there when I get home in the evenings.

My front door is separated from my living room by a hallway and another door, so hopefully my phone will be out of sight, out of mind until I have to head out again the next day.

What about you, Mr. Sugita, are you a smartphone addict too?

S: I don’t think I have an addiction, but I do use it quite a bit.

Especially when I don’t have my personal computer at hand, the simple response options that my smartphone gives me to handle incoming messages are quite helpful.

H: Have you taken any steps to guard against excessive use?

S: I also set my phone to grayscale.

It works wonders.

Without the flashy colors of the icons, my smartphone becomes just a utilitarian tool rather than a medium of entertainment or a gadget to kill time.

It becomes much less fun and addictive.

Why does setting the screen to grayscale work so well, you might wonder.

Psychologists say that it puts you more control of your actions.

Instead of colorful apps vying to get your attention, the grayscale equalizes everything you see on the screen.

I think it’s also a good idea to make the phone silent, so that it doesn’t beep every time it gets a new message.

The vignette also talks about smartphone addiction among children.

I’m sure you’re keeping an eye on your daughter in that respect, Heather?

H: I am. I’ve been trying to direct her toward educational apps and English language videos, so she at least gets some mental benefit out of it.

She doesn’t seem addicted, she’ll fuss a bit if I tell her she can’t use the phone right now or that she’s used it enough for a while, but she pretty quickly shrugs it off and starts doing something else.

She has started asking for a tablet lately; she wants to play certain games that her friends do.

I’m giving it some thought but there will definitely have to be limits―only 30 minutes a day or some such rule.

S: And you’ll have to keep a watchful eye as she grows older, won’t you?.

H: Yes, indeed.

I’m bracing myself to be unpopular on that front.

And I’m probably going to have to do continual research to keep abreast of what kids are doing, and what kind of apps are out there.

Just as I was preparing for today, for example, I learned about disguised vault apps―apps made to look like calculators or some such innocuous thing.

Kids are using them to hide dirty photos.

The same article talked about US kids using burner phones to avoid parental monitoring, or sharing passwords with friends who can post on their accounts when parents have taken their privileges away.

It was a scary read, to be honest; many kids have secret online lives their parents know nothing about.

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<Glossary>

take a leaf from someone’s book: 人の行動を見習う

utilitarian: 実用的な

vie to do: ～しようと競い合う

shrug off: 受け流す

vault app: データを隠すアプリ

（vault: 地下貯蔵室、（銀行の）（地下）金庫室）

innocuous: 無害な、当たり障りのない

burner phone: 使い捨ての 携帯電話、プリペイド式携帯電話

お疲れさまでした。お読みくださり、ありがとうございます♪