Technological change is everywhere and affects every aspect of life, mostly for the better. However, social changes are brought about by new technology are often mistaken for a change in attitudes.
技术变革无处不在，影响着生活的方方面面，大部分是让生活更美好。然而，新技术带来的社会变化往往被误认为是态度的改变。
An example at hand is the involvement of parents in the lives of their children who are attending college. Surveys on this topic suggests that parents today continue to be “very” or “somewhat” overly-protective even after their children move into college dormitories. The same surveys also indicate that the rate of parental involvement is greater today than it was a generation ago. This is usually interpreted as a sign that today’s parents are trying to manage their children’s lives past the point where this behavior is appropriate.
身边的一个例子是父母参与他们正在上大学的孩子的生活。关于这个话题的调查表明，即使孩子搬进大学宿舍，如今的父母仍然“非常”或“有点”过度保护孩子。调查还表明，现在父母的参与率比上一代人更高。这通常被认为是今天的父母正试图管理他们孩子的生活的信号，而这种行为并不合适。
However, greater parental involvement does not necessarily indicate that parents are failing to let go of their “adult” children.
然而，更多的父母参与并不一定意味着父母没有放开他们的“成年”孩子。
In the context of this discussion, it seems valuable to first find out the cause of change in the case of parents’ involvement with their grown children. If parents of earlier generations had wanted to be in touch with their college-age children frequently, would this have been possible?
在这场讨论中，先找出父母与成年子女的关系发生变化的原因似乎更有意义。如果前几代的父母想经常与他们大学年龄的孩子联系，可能吗？
Probably not. On the other hand, does the possibility of frequent communication today mean that the urge to do so wasn’t present a generation ago? Many studies show that older parents—today’s grandparents—would have called their children more often if the means and cost of doing so had not been a barrier.
不太可能。另一方面，今天频繁交流的可能性是否意味着上一代人没有这种冲动？许多研究表明，如果打电话的方式和成本不存在障碍的话，如今年长的父母——现在的祖父母——会更频繁地打电话给他们的孩子。
Furthermore, studies show that finances are the most frequent subject of communication between parents and their college children. The fact that college students are financially dependent on their parents is nothing new; nor are requests for more money to be sent from home. This phenomenon is neither good nor bad; it is a fact of college life, today and in the past.
此外，研究表明，财务是父母和他们的大学生孩子之间最频繁的沟通话题。大学生在经济上依赖父母并不新鲜；也没有要求从家里寄更多的钱。这种现象不好也不坏；无论是现在还是过去，这都是大学生活的事实。
Thanks to the advanced technology, we live in an age of bettered communication. This has many implications well beyond the role that parents seem to play in the lives of their children who have left for college. But it is useful to bear in mind that all such changes come from the technology and not some imagined desire by parents to keep their children under their wings.
多亏了先进的技术，我们生活在一个交流更容易的时代。这些影响远远超出了父母在孩子上大学后的生活中所扮演的角色。但要记住的是，所有这些变化都来自于科技，而不是想象中的家长想让孩子待在翅膀下的愿望。
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