手机英文注解：双语 我要为玩手机的人正名

手机英文注解：双语 我要为玩手机的人正名If we choose to fiddle away our time on a screen rather than doing something more “useful” it is because we are enjoying it more. It reminds me of a TV series from my childhood called Why Don’t You Just Switch Off Your Television Set and Go and Do Something Less Boring Instead? It was full of “fun” things to do like making cheese and pineapple sticks. The reason we eschew more worthy things is b

Enough moral panic. Mobile phones are life-enhancing

I suppose it makes a change from Brexit obesity and plastic bags. Recent weeks have seen a litany of hand-wringing about the time people spend on their mobile phones. So severe is the apparent crisis that even my colleague the great and iron-willed Tim Harford has been chronicling his efforts to shake off the mobile curse.我想，这个问题与英国脱欧、肥胖症以及塑料袋还是有所不同的。最近几周，我看到了对花费在手机上的时间的长吁短叹。这一随处可见的危机非常严重，就连我的同事——杰出且意志坚定的蒂姆•哈福德(Tim Harford)都开始记录他为摆脱手机的诅咒所做的努力了。

I am slightly surprised we have not seen this modern calamity captured in heart-tugging news pictures akin to the environmental catastrophe tropes of seals trapped in plastic bags. Perhaps some terrifying pictures of frazzled toddlers clutching Huaweis or children gazing at their tablets and singing “They’re here” like the little girl in front of the TV in Poltergeist. 让我有点惊讶的是，我们还没有看到媒体用触动人心的新闻照片来表现这种现代灾害，类似用被困在塑料袋中的海豹的图片来表现环境灾害。要表现手机的诅咒，媒体或许可以用一些可怕的照片，例如疲惫不堪的幼童手里抓着华为手机，或是孩子盯着他们的平板电脑哼唱“They’re here”，就像电影《吵闹鬼》(Poltergeist)中那个电视前的小女孩一样。（译注：在电影中的一句台词，意思是‘鬼来了’）

Now I do not wish to dispute the valid societal concerns raised by the overuse of mobiles but surely some perspective is needed. This is not an epidemic of homelessness or a flu pandemic. Indeed it feels rather more like the kind of middle-class moral panic that followed the invention of the television.关于社会对过度使用手机产生的合理担忧，我在此并不是要提出异议，但我们确实需要一些不同的观点。这不是像无家可归者迅速增多或是流感肆虐这样的问题，实际上，这给人的感觉更像是电视机出现后中产阶级的道德恐慌。

It is time to stand up for the smartphone surely one of the most wondrous useful boredom-battling devices ever created. Perhaps my equanimity in the face of this crisis is a sign of my age of the fact that I was born into a pre-internet and even pre-PC era. The notion of owning a computer you could put in your pocket was the stuff of science fiction of Captain Kirk phasers and “Beam me up Scotty”.是时候站出来支持智能手机了，它无疑是有史以来发明的最神奇、最有用、最能排解无聊的设备之一。或许，我在面对这场危机时的镇定从容暴露了我的年龄，暴露出我出生在一个没有互联网，甚至没有个人电脑的时代。在那个时代，拥有一台可以放在口袋里的电脑，是科幻小说的内容，是类似柯克船长、相位炮和“斯科提，把我传送上去”（译注：均来自《星际迷航》）这样的科幻故事情节。

Everyone we know now has a computer film- and music-streaming service iPod newsagent telephone and stack of books in their pocket. Of course we spend a lot of time on it. Almost everything you want aside from physical activity can be accessed via a smartphone. It is our contacts book our entertainment and our general transmitter to the world. How many other devices would you turn around and go home to get if you left them behind? This is not addiction it is mere good sense. Americans may cherish their guns; for me it’s my phone. If only there was a constitutional amendment enshrining my right to bear data.现在我们认识的每个人都有一部口袋里的电脑，里面有电影、音乐流媒体服务、iPod、新闻、电话和一堆书。我们当然会在这上面花费很多时间，因为除了身体活动，几乎你想要的一切都可以通过智能手机获取。它是我们的通讯簿，是我们的娱乐中心，也是我们向世界传递声音的发射器。除了手机，还有多少你忘在家里的设备能让你转身回家去取呢？这并不是上瘾，这只是理智的判断。美国人的珍宝可能是他们的枪支，而我的珍宝则是我的手机。要是有一个宪法修正案能保护我享有数据的权力就好了。

People often complain that this time could be so much better used — spent with friends and loved ones instead of on social media for example. Well that’s great but the 7.45pm from Waterloo is not exactly crammed with my friends and family. There is no nightly Shrimsley Express jam-packed with people I would like to see in person.人们经常抱怨说，花在手机上的时间原本可以更好地利用，例如与朋友和爱人一起度过，而不是，比如，把时间花在社交媒体上。嗯，这样是很好，但是晚上7点45分从滑铁卢出发的车里并没有挤满我的朋友和家人。并没有一列满载着我想见到的人、以我的名字命名的“施里姆斯利夜间快车”。

I love the fact that I can zone out of a tedious meeting although it would be nice to be less obvious about it. I am delighted the spawn have an app on their phone that allows them to work out how to get anywhere on public transport. Although I admit I liked it less last weekend when a snafu told the girl her bus to Sunday school wasn’t running and I had to get up unspeakably early to give her a lift only to see the aforementioned double-decker trundling towards me as I dropped her off.我很高兴我能在一场单调乏味的会议上走走神，尽管别把这种高兴表露得那么明显会更好一点。我很高兴孩子们手机上的应用能让他们搞明白如何搭乘公共交通前往任何地方。但我要承认上周末我对手机的喜爱少了一点点。上周末，我女儿的手机应用出现了问题，应用告诉她前往主日学校的公交车停运了，我不得不起个大早送她一程，结果我刚把她送到学校，就看到据说停运的双层公交车缓缓朝我驶来。

If we choose to fiddle away our time on a screen rather than doing something more “useful” it is because we are enjoying it more. It reminds me of a TV series from my childhood called Why Don’t You Just Switch Off Your Television Set and Go and Do Something Less Boring Instead? It was full of “fun” things to do like making cheese and pineapple sticks. The reason we eschew more worthy things is because they are not actually less boring. Have you ever made a cheese and pineapple cocktail stick? Believe me diminishing returns on enjoyment set in pretty fast.如果我们选择对着屏幕消磨时间而不是做一些更“有用的”事，那是因为我们更喜欢这样做。这让我想起了我小时候的一部电视剧《你为什么不关掉电视，去做一些不那么无聊的事情呢？》(Why Don’t You Just Switch Off Your Television Set and Go and Do Something Less Boring Instead?)。这部电视剧中充满了可以去做的“有趣的”事情，比如做芝士菠萝棒。我们选择不去做一些更值得去做的事情，是因为这些事实际上没那么“有聊”。你做过芝士菠萝鸡尾酒签吗？相信我，你收获的快乐很快就会开始递减。

Of course there are downsides. Wander into a restaurant and you will see people sitting at tables ignoring each other and playing with their devices. It can be hard to switch off. Pedestrians tap in messages when they should be looking where they are going; teenagers spend too long on chat apps. We are still struggling towards a behavioural equilibrium. But the phone does not stop anyone going for a run meeting friends or reading a book if they want to.当然，手机也有不好的一面。走进一家餐馆，你会看到人们坐在桌旁，无视彼此，玩着自己的手机。关掉手机可能会很难。行人在该看路的时候发送短信，青少年在聊天应用上耗费太多时间。我们仍然在努力实现一种行为平衡。但手机并没有阻止任何人去跑步，去见朋友或者读书——如果他们想这样做的话。

There is a reason why we only worry about other people’s phone use and rarely our own. Mobile phones are life-enhancing devices and deep down we all know it. So if you are reading this on yours I salute you.我们只担心别人使用手机的问题，却很少担心自己，这是有原因的。手机能够提高生活质量，在内心深处，我们都知道这一点。所以，如果你正在自己的手机上阅读这篇文章的话，向你致敬。