詞彙
| 英文 | 解釋 |
|---|---|
| Amorphous | 無定形的，模糊的 |
| Holistic | 整體的，全面的 |
| Laudable | 值得稱讚的 |
| Frazzled | 筋疲力盡的 |
The tyranny of ‘teenage wellness’
Do teenagers need to decompress? One English countryside hotel has just the thing: a spa day with a massage to relieve their “stress and tension”. After all, it’s not just their parents who are craving respite and revival from work and family pressures but adolescents too, coping “with intense schooling and sports programmes”.
Retreats used to be where adults sought refuge away from the kids. Increasingly, families are going together in search of a boost to their wellbeing. So much so that a report by the Global Wellness Summit identifies teen wellness as a trend for 2025. “The industry is finally getting serious about teen wellbeing, offering resorts and retreats that teach them emotional intelligence, resilience, and how to survive in a digital world, and creating a new wave of teen mental wellness apps,” it says.
One top-end example is the Zulal Wellness Resort by Chiva-Som in Qatar, which offers a family wellness adviser providing a personalised package for adults and kids, promising a shared “journey of healthy lifestyle discovery”. Activities include yoga, meditation and creative workshops to “help children build their emotional intelligence, enhance their personal and interpersonal skills and develop self-awareness”. I’d be happy with brighter skin, but I’m superficial like that.
Rina Raphael, author of The Gospel of Wellness, tells me that wellness — an amorphous term encompassing physical and mental health — has displaced the once-dominant fashion and beauty industries by wrapping its tentacles around them. Now, the wellness sector, comprised of skincare companies, spas, fitness chains and mindfulness app producers, is encouraging “health, wellness and personal care habits at an earlier age”, she says. Girls are the chief target but boys are increasingly too — one protein powder I saw was being marketed with “holistic health in mind”.
Girls are the chief target but boys are increasingly too — one protein powder I saw was being marketed with ‘holistic health in mind’
There is nothing bad about forming healthy habits. Wellbeing seems laudable compared with the tyranny of diets I remember experiencing as a teenager. Bridget Jones’s return next week is a reminder that her youthful calorie-counting belongs in the past. But is the wellness industry responding to — or contributing to — the pressures young people face?
The shift among the young was brought home five years ago when Mattel released a new toy package: the Barbie Wellness Collection. Children could help the doll, wrapped in a towel dress and pink shoes, have a little me-time with a spa set, which includes toy bath bombs, cucumber eye masks and a candle. Wellness Barbie — a more radiant and chilled version of Scientist Barbie and Astronomer Barbie — is a gateway product in children’s training to become wellness consumers.
Although perhaps it starts even earlier? Those baby massage classes I attended over a decade ago always struck me as ridiculous. Of course, babies enjoyed being caressed and soothed, and the mothers liked having a reason to leave the house and enjoy the camaraderie of their frazzled peers. But to dress it up as a kind of wellbeing treatment to improve the infants’ mood and physical health seemed like madness. What’s a baby got to worry about?
The wellness industry’s expansion is working. A recent report by McKinsey found that Gen Z — which it defines as those aged 15 to 28 — outspends “older consumers on mindfulness-related wellness products such as meditation classes, mindfulness apps, and therapy sessions”. They are even “seeking preventive solutions to health issues typically associated with ageing”.
One of the problems the sector aims to address is mental health. It’s a laudable goal. As Raphael points out, the problem with wellness is “it’s very much tied to productivity, aesthetics and consumerism. It adds a pressure that you have to be working on yourself.”
Blame for the mental health crisis has been laid at the feet of smartphones, most vociferously by Jonathan Haidt in his latest book The Anxious Generation. Apps provide not just the problem — but also offer a solution. A slew of them, including Chill Panda and HappiMe are on the website of the UK’s CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health services), which is buckling under the weight of demand.
Certainly, rapacious tech giants don’t give a hoot about their customers’ wellbeing. But campaigners advocating bans or restrictions at school may be disappointed by a study in The Lancet this week that concluded such policies do not lead to “better mental wellbeing in adolescents.”
Parents have a role too. In an excellent recent essay, US tech and social media researcher danah boyd argued that too many “focus all their spare time on helping their children thrive, often to the detriment of nurturing their own friendships and activities. The result of this intensive parenting is that too many young people don’t get to witness their parents socialising or engaging in activities they’re passionate about.”
The idea that the solution to adolescent anxiety is curated experiences bought by their parents and proffered by the wellness industry seems bleak at best. But I can’t see it ending. After all, as Ronald Purser, author of McMindfulness, once told me: “You can never be too well, that’s why it’s a massive growth industry”.
Emma Jacobs is the FT’s work & careers writer
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青少年需要减压吗？英国乡村的一家酒店正好有解决办法：一个带有按摩的水疗日，帮助他们缓解“压力和紧张”。毕竟，不仅仅是父母渴望从工作和家庭压力中获得喘息和恢复，青少年也是如此，他们正在应对“紧张的学校教育和体育项目”。
过去，度假胜地是成年人远离孩子寻求庇护的地方。越来越多的家庭如今一起前往，寻求提升他们的幸福感。全球健康峰会的一份报告甚至指出，青少年健康将成为2025年的趋势。报告称：“行业终于开始认真对待青少年福祉，提供教授他们情商、韧性和如何在数字世界中生存的度假村和疗养地，并创造了一波新的青少年心理健康应用。”
一个高端的例子是卡塔尔由Chiva-Som运营的Zulal健康度假村，它提供家庭健康顾问，为成人和孩子提供个性化的套餐，承诺共同开启“健康生活方式发现之旅”。活动包括瑜伽、冥想和创意工作坊，以“帮助孩子们建立情商，提升他们的个人和人际交往技能，并发展自我意识”。我倒是更希望皮肤变得更亮一些，不过我就是这么肤浅。
《健康福音》的作者丽娜·拉斐尔告诉我，健康——一个涵盖身体和心理健康的模糊术语——已经通过将其触角缠绕在时尚和美容行业上，取代了它们曾经的主导地位。她说，现在，由护肤公司、水疗中心、健身连锁和正念应用生产商组成的健康行业，正在鼓励“在更早的年龄养成健康、保健和个人护理习惯”。女孩是主要目标，但男孩也越来越多——我看到的一种蛋白粉甚至以“关注整体健康”为卖点。
养成健康习惯没有什么不好。与我青少年时期经历的饮食苛刻相比，关注幸福感似乎值得称赞。下周《布里奇特·琼斯》的回归提醒我们，她年轻时计算卡路里的日子已经过去。但健康行业是回应了年轻人面临的压力，还是在加剧这些压力？
五年前，当美泰推出新的玩具套装——芭比健康系列时，年轻人的这种转变变得更加明显。孩子们可以帮助穿上毛巾裙和粉色鞋子的芭比娃娃，用包括玩具浴球、黄瓜眼罩和蜡烛的水疗套装享受一点“自我时光”。健康芭比——比科学家芭比和天文学家芭比更光彩照人、更放松——是孩子们训练成为健康消费者的入门产品。
或许这一切开始得更早？我十多年前参加的婴儿按摩课程总是让我觉得荒谬。当然，婴儿喜欢被抚摸和安抚，妈妈们也喜欢有个理由出门，与同样疲惫的同伴享受 camaraderie。但将其包装成一种改善婴儿情绪和身体健康的福祉疗法，简直像是疯了。婴儿有什么可担心的？
健康行业的扩张正在奏效。麦肯锡最近的一份报告发现，Z世代（定义为15至28岁的人群）在正念相关的健康产品（如冥想课程、正念应用和心理治疗）上的花费超过了“年长消费者”。他们甚至“在寻求预防通常与衰老相关的健康问题的解决方案”。
该行业旨在解决的问题之一是心理健康。这是一个值得称赞的目标。正如拉斐尔指出的那样，健康的问题在于“它与生产力、美学和消费主义密切相关。它增加了一种你必须不断自我提升的压力。”
心理健康危机的责任被归咎于智能手机，乔纳森·海特在其最新著作《焦虑的一代》中对此最为激烈。应用不仅带来了问题，也提供了解决方案。包括Chill Panda和HappiMe在内的一系列应用出现在英国CAMHS（儿童和青少年心理健康服务）的网站上，该服务正因需求过大而不堪重负。
当然，贪婪的科技巨头根本不关心客户的福祉。但本周《柳叶刀》的一项研究可能会让倡导在学校禁止或限制智能手机的活动人士失望，该研究得出结论，此类政策并不会“改善青少年的心理健康”。
父母也有责任。美国科技和社交媒体研究者danah boyd在一篇精彩的近期文章中指出，太多的父母“把所有空闲时间都花在帮助孩子茁壮成长上，却往往忽视了培养自己的友谊和活动。这种密集育儿的结果是，太多的年轻人无法看到父母社交或从事他们热爱的活动。”
认为解决青少年焦虑的方法是由父母购买并由健康行业提供的精心策划的体验，这种想法充其量也显得苍白无力。但我看不到这种趋势会结束。毕竟，正如《McMindfulness》的作者罗纳德·珀瑟曾经告诉我：“你永远不可能太健康，这就是它成为巨大增长行业的原因。”