摘要：
最新研究表明，手机和呼机的使用让人处于二十四小时待命的状态，这严重影响了人们的家庭生活。
The round-the-clock availability that cell phones and pagers have brought to people's lives may be taking a toll on family life, a new study suggests.

最新研究表明，手机和呼机的使用让人处于二十四小时待命的状态，这严重影响了人们的家庭生活。

此项研究观察了1,300多个成年人在两年内的生活。研究发现，在这期间频繁使用手机或呼机的人常常会觉得他们的工作和家庭之间失去了平衡，也就是所谓的"挤占效应"，而他们对自己的家庭生活也感到了不满。

这里所说的"挤占效应"，意思是工作和家庭之间的那条界限已经模糊不清了。工作会"侵占"到家庭生活，比如，由于工作需要，在家里接打电话；或者因为处理家庭琐事而占用了工作时间。

威斯康辛密尔沃基大学的社会学助理教授诺艾尔·切斯利解释说，比如后一种情况，小孩会给正在上班的妈妈打电话，说"微波炉爆炸了"。诺艾尔教授是此项研究报告的撰写人。

研究报告发表在《婚姻与家庭》杂志上，根据研究结果，手机和呼机的问题在于它们使工作和家庭之间的界线变得越来越模糊。

研究发现，这种情况在已婚的上班族妇女中可能尤其突出。

对于男人们来说，手机、呼机的长期使用只是让更多的工作占用了家庭生活时间，而对于女人来说，接打电话则会造成工作和家庭相互"侵占"，除了工作对家庭的影响，家庭琐事也会让她们分心。

抱怨家庭和工作失衡的人们对家庭生活往往会越来越不满意，比如，发生类似"微波炉爆炸"事件的家庭。

切斯利说，问题的关键在于手机和呼机为家庭各成员之间交流令人紧张的事情提供了更多的渠道，这些事情要多于积极的事情。

切斯利说，但是也有解决的办法，公司老板可以考虑改变下班时间打电话给雇员的方式，确保他们对雇员有一个合理的期望值。而对于雇员来说，他们可以在下班时间关掉手机和呼机，尽情享受家庭时光。

她说，为了减轻上班妈妈们的额外负担，父母二人可以轮流"值电话班"，处理家庭琐事。这样，妈妈们就不会总是接到电器出事故的电话了。

The round-the-clock availability that cell phones and pagers have brought to people's lives may be taking a toll on family life, a new study suggests.

The study, which followed more than 1,300 adults over 2 years, found that those who consistently" title="ad.一致地；始终如一地">consistently used a mobile phone or pager throughout the study period were more likely to report negative "spillover" between work and home life -- and, in turn, less satisfaction with their family life.

Spillover essentially means that the line between work and home begins to blur. Work life may invade home life -- when a parent is taking job-related calls at home, for instance -- or household issues may start to take up work time.

In the latter scenario, a child may call mom at work, telling her "microwave exploded," explained Noelle Chesley, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the author of the study.

The problem with cell phones and pagers seems to be that they are allowing for ever more spillover between work and home, according to Chesley's findings, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family.

This may be especially true for working women, the study found.

Among men, consistent use of mobile phones and pagers seemed to allow more work issues to creep into family time. But for women, the spillover tended to go in both directions -- being "connected" meant that work cut into home time, and family issues seeped into work life.

And people who reported more negative spillover -- spillover of the exploding-microwave variety -- tended to be less satisfied with their family life.

The point, Chesley said, is that cell phones and pagers seem to be opening more lines for stressful exchanges among family members, rather than positive ones.

But there may be ways to stem the spillover, according to Chesley. Employers, she said, could look at their policies on contacting employees after-hours to make sure their expectations are "reasonable." For their part, employees could decide that cell phones and pagers go off during designated family time, Chesley said.

To ease the extra burden on working mothers, she added, parents could have particular days when one or the other is "on call," so that moms are not getting all of the appliance-disaster reports.

　　

　　

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