原文链接: How Bad Are Video Games for Your Grades?
原文音频: 698624

2025.09.30

How Bad Are Video Games for Your Grades?

Arriving on the magical continent of Teyvat, you and your twin are attacked and separated by an unwelcoming god.
你和你的孪生兄/妹来到了魔幻的提瓦特大陆，却被一个不和善的神攻击并走散。

When you regain consciousness, you set off in search of your lost sibling, exploring seven beguiling worlds.
当你恢复意识后，你动身去寻找你失散的兄弟/姐妹，探索七个令人着迷的世界。

Released in September 2020 by a Chinese developer, the online game “Genshin Imact” become a big hit.
一个中国开发公司于2020年9月发布在线游戏《原神》，成为了热门爆款。

The success of this home-grown creation and other like it was not, however, a source of great pride for China’s government.
这款本土作品以及类似的其它作品的成功，却并不让中国政府感到骄傲。

It worries that gaming addiction poses a threat to teenagers.
他们担心游戏成瘾会对青少年造成威胁。

In 2021 a state-run newspaper complained that online games were contributing to myopia, bad grades and alienation.
一家官方媒体在2021年抱怨，网络游戏是导致近视、成绩下降以及与人疏远的因素之一。

In 2019 China’s government limited children under 18 to an hour and a half of online game-time a day during the school week.
中国政府于2019年限制18岁以下儿童在上学日每天游戏时长为1.5小时以内。

In 2021 it went further, permitting only three hours a week.
在2021年，规定更进一步，仅允许每周三小时。

Still, parents around the world will be keen to know whether they did any good.
全世界的家长们依然热衷于了解这些限制是否有任何益处。

Those curious will find some clues in a remarkable new study by Panle Jia Barwick and Chao Fu of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as Siyu Chen of Jinan University and Teng Li of Sun Yat-Sen University.
这些疑惑将会在威斯康辛大学麦迪逊分校的Panle Jia Barwick和Chao Fu、以及暨南大学Siyu Chen、中山大学Teng Li的一项值得关注的新研究中找到一些线索。

It sheds light on the impact of gaming(and other mobile-phone habits) on the grades, well-being and job-market success of Chinese students.
它阐明了游戏（以及其它手机习惯）对中国学生成绩、身心健康以及就业市场取得成功的影响。

To tease out such effects, the researchers make use of the government’s imposition of time limits and the arrival of Genshin Impact.
为了梳理这些影响，研究者们利用了政府的限时令，以及《原神》的发布。

The authors have access to the university records of thousands of undergraduates who enrolled at a mid-tier university in an unnamed southern province from 2018 to 2020.
作者们可以查到数千名大学本科生的大学记录，这些学生们在2018到2020年期间入学于某一所南方中等大学。

The data provide a detailed portrait of undergraduate life.
这些数据提供了本科大学生生活的详细的画像。

After the arrival of Genshin Impact, the average student arrived at their study hall 18 minutes later and returned to the dorm 25 minutes earlier, according to the data from their phones.
根据手机数据，在《原神》发布后，学生去自习室的平均时间晚了18分钟，并且返回宿舍的时间早了25分钟。

The findings are best conveyed by imagining two nearly identical students, one of whom spends twice as much time gaming as the other.
想要（向读者）传达这项研究结果，最好的办法是想象两个几乎相同的学生，一个花费在游戏上的时间是另一个的两倍。

The gamer’s grades, on a scale from 0 to 100, would be 0.8 points lower.
在百分制下，玩游戏的学生成绩会低0.8分。

Because averages are clustered in Chinese universities, that would reduce their class ranking by 10 percentile points.
因为中国大学的平均值很集中，这将导致班级排名降低10个百分点。

Now imagine two identical students with contrasting roommates: one set(组) spend twice as much time on gaming apps as the other set.
现在想象两个完全相同但有截然不同室友的学生：一个在游戏上的时间是另一个的两倍。

That would lower a student’s grade average by 0.4 points, partly because it would encourage the student to spend a bit more time gaming as well, reducing their rank by 5 percentile points.
这将使学生的平均成绩下降0.4分，部分原因是室友的影响可能使学生也花费更多的时间在游戏上，使其排名下降5个百分点。

Games like Genshin Impact, which are free to play, exact a real cost.
像《原神》这样的游戏，虽然可以免费游玩，但却在索要真实的代价。