再見電話，你好世界(書評)

再見電話，你好世界(書評)

When Paul Greenberg's son turned 12, Greenberg had something of a crisis. He realized he'd spent a disproportionate amount of time during his son's childhood staring at a smartphone screen, pouring attention into a device that could have been directed toward his child.

當(dāng)保羅·格林伯格的兒子12歲時，格林伯格遇到了某種危機(jī)。他意識到，在兒子的童年時期，他花了過多的時間盯著智能手機(jī)屏幕，把本可以指向孩子的注意力都集中在設(shè)備上。

At the same time, his almost-teenage son was asking for a smartphone of his own. The son challenged Greenberg's reasons for why it wasn't a good idea, pointing out the hypocrisy of his dad's own addiction to his phone. That's when Greenberg decided to take a radical step, replacing his smartphone with an old-fashioned flip phone and focusing on spending time with his son.

與此同時，他快十幾歲的兒子想要一部屬于自己的智能手機(jī)。格林伯格的兒子質(zhì)疑了他為什么認(rèn)為這不是一個好主意的原因，并指出他父親對手機(jī)上癮是虛偽的。就在那時，格林伯格決定采取一項(xiàng)激進(jìn)的舉措，把智能手機(jī)換成老式翻蓋手機(jī)，專注于陪兒子。

Courtesy of Chronicle Books

Greenberg ended up writing a delightful book about the transition, called "Goodbye Phone, Hello World: 60 Ways to Disconnect from Tech and Reconnect to Joy" – but it's different from what you might expect. It's not a philosophical treatise on the evils of technology, but a fairly short, succinct, and practical guide on how actually to live without a smartphone – namely, all the wonderful, amazing things you can do when you're not throwing away four hours per day (the American average) on a screen doing mostly useless things. It's upbeat, positive, and proactive.

格林伯格最后寫了一本關(guān)于這種轉(zhuǎn)變的令人愉快的書，書名為《再見電話，你好世界:60種脫離科技和重新連接到快樂的方法》——但它可能和你想象的不一樣。這不是一篇關(guān)于科技罪惡的哲學(xué)論文，而是一本相當(dāng)簡短、簡潔、實(shí)用的指南，告訴你在沒有智能手機(jī)的情況下如何生活——也就是說，當(dāng)你不用每天花4個小時(美國人的平均水平)在屏幕上做一些無用的事情時，你可以做所有美妙、神奇的事情。它是樂觀的、積極的、主動的。

The book is divided into chapters that explore the various aspects of your life that will improve when you reallocate your time, such as finding a sense of purpose, strengthening mind and body, building better relationships with friends, family, and lovers, and healing the environment. But first, it opens with a reassuring message that our screen addiction is not so much a result of weakness, but rather a carefully concocted plan by a slew of computer scientists far more knowledgeable than we are about our own brains and instincts:

這本書分為幾個章節(jié)，探索你生活的各個方面，當(dāng)你重新分配你的時間時，這些方面會改善你的生活，比如找到目標(biāo)感，增強(qiáng)身心，與朋友、家人和愛人建立更好的關(guān)系，以及治愈環(huán)境。但首先，它以一個令人安心的信息開篇，即我們的屏幕癮與其說是軟弱的結(jié)果，不如說是一群計算機(jī)科學(xué)家精心策劃的計劃，這些科學(xué)家對我們的大腦和本能的了解遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過我們:

"I wanted to tell [my son] what Cal Newport had said in Digital Minimalism, that 'people don’t succumb to screens because they’re lazy, but instead because billions of dollars have been invested to make this outcome inevitable.' I wanted to tell him that when you look into your phone, you think it’s just your two eyes looking at a screen. What’s really happening is that 10,000 programmers’ eyes are looking back at you, following you, tailoring your environment so that you’ll keep looking."

“我想告訴(我的兒子)在數(shù)字極簡主義中說過的話:‘人們屈服于屏幕并不是因?yàn)樗麄儜卸?，而是因?yàn)閿?shù)十億美元的投資使這一結(jié)果不可避免。我想告訴他，當(dāng)你看手機(jī)時，你會覺得只是你的兩只眼睛在看屏幕。真正發(fā)生的是，一萬名程序員的眼睛正在看著你，跟隨你，調(diào)整你的環(huán)境，以便你繼續(xù)尋找。”

That's not an excuse for complacency, though. You can quit, opt out, refuse to play the game; and when you do, doors of opportunity open all around.

不過，這并不是自滿的理由。你可以退出，選擇退出，拒絕玩游戲;當(dāng)你這樣做時，機(jī)會之門會向你敞開。

What about the naysayers who think you'll become disconnected from others? Greenberg recalls all the places he went in a pre-smartphone era. His words made me smile as I read, "One July day, long before the smartphone, I asked my friend Molly to meet me at 11:00 a.m. on the ninth of September in the Piazza Margana in Rome. She was there." Oh, to plan in advance ... those days seem long gone, but we can still do it if we choose to.

那些認(rèn)為你會與他人隔絕的反對者怎么辦?格林伯格回憶起他在智能手機(jī)時代之前去過的所有地方。他的話讓我不禁莞爾一笑:“7月的一天，早在智能手機(jī)出現(xiàn)之前，我讓我的朋友莫莉在9月9日上午11點(diǎn)在羅馬瑪爾卡納廣場見我。她及時到了那里。”噢，提前計劃……那些日子似乎已經(jīng)遠(yuǎn)去，但如果我們選擇，我們?nèi)匀豢梢宰龅健?/p>

The chapter on finding purpose hones in on building skills and engaging in hobbies that perhaps we once loved, like playing music or making art, and then implementing a regular practice schedule. The chapter on strengthening the mind emphasizes the importance of good sleep hygiene, of allowing ourselves empty mental time to stimulate creativity, of learning how to read lengthy (paper) books once again.

關(guān)于尋找目標(biāo)的那一章著重于培養(yǎng)技能，從事我們曾經(jīng)熱愛的愛好，比如演奏音樂或創(chuàng)作藝術(shù)，然后實(shí)施一個有規(guī)律的練習(xí)計劃。加強(qiáng)思維的那一章強(qiáng)調(diào)了良好的睡眠衛(wèi)生的重要性，讓我們有空閑的思維時間來激發(fā)創(chuàng)造力，以及學(xué)習(xí)如何再次閱讀長篇(紙質(zhì))書籍的重要性。

The chapter on physical health encourages quitting exercise apps because they can actually have a reverse placebo effect called a "nocebo," where "individuals reward themselves with extra food when their app tells them they met a goal [and this] negates their effort."

關(guān)于身體健康的那一章鼓勵人們放棄鍛煉應(yīng)用程序，因?yàn)樗鼈儗?shí)際上會產(chǎn)生一種叫做“反安慰劑”的反向安慰劑效應(yīng)，即“當(dāng)應(yīng)用程序告訴人們已經(jīng)實(shí)現(xiàn)目標(biāo)時，人們會用額外的食物獎勵自己，而這否定了他們的努力。”

I found the chapter on relationships to be most interesting because that's where the science on technology's negative effects is most profound. Empathy is in decline, people are choosing their phones over everything, conversations are being eroded by the very presence of a seemingly-inert phone on a table, incessant texts are disrupting private time, and the constant urge to look up information breaks the flow of intimate conversation. So Greenberg gives numerous suggestions for how to put the phone down and what to do in its place – play catch with a child, have tech-free meals, learn a new language to make new friends, adopt a pet, go hiking, plant trees.

我發(fā)現(xiàn)關(guān)于關(guān)系的那一章最有趣，因?yàn)檫@是科學(xué)對技術(shù)的負(fù)面影響最深刻的地方。同理心在下降，人們選擇手機(jī)而不是其他的，談話被桌上似乎毫無生氣的手機(jī)所侵蝕，不間斷的短信擾亂了私人時間，持續(xù)的查詢信息的沖動打斷了親密談話的流動。因此，格林伯格給出了許多建議，告訴人們?nèi)绾畏畔率謾C(jī)以及放下手機(jī)后該做些什么——和孩子玩接球游戲，吃不含科技產(chǎn)品的飯菜，學(xué)一門新語言來結(jié)交新朋友，領(lǐng)養(yǎng)寵物，去遠(yuǎn)足，植樹。

This book is a pleasure to read. Its brevity is purposely suited to people who've lost their attention span, but wish to regain it. Reading it, and looking at the lovely illustrations, made me feel like my day had been infused with a sprinkling of hope. It made me smile numerous times, and I know that when my kids get home from school later today, they won't see me on my phone. I'll leave it inside and take them out to play Frisbee.

這本書讀起來是一種樂趣。它的簡潔特別適合那些已經(jīng)失去注意力但又希望重新集中注意力的人。讀了它，看著可愛的插圖，讓我覺得我的一天被注入了一線希望。這讓我笑了無數(shù)次，我知道當(dāng)我的孩子們今天晚些時候放學(xué)回家時，他們不會看到我在玩手機(jī)。我把它留在里面，然后帶他們出去玩飛盤。