TEXT Ⅰ Alienation and the Internet
Will Baker
The Internet provides an amazing forum for the free exchange of ideas. Given the relatively few restrictions governing access and usage, it is the communications modal equivalent of international waters. It is my personal belief that the human potential can only be realized by the globalization of ideas. I developed this position years before the Internet came into wide spread use. And I am excited at the potential for the Internet to dramatically alter our global society for the better. However I am also troubled by the possible unintended negative consequences.
互联网提供了一个惊人的论坛,让思想的自由交流。给出了相对较少的限制访问和使用管理,是国际水域的通讯模态等价。这是我个人的信念,那就是人的潜力只能实现的全球化思想。
几年前我开发了这个职位的广泛应用,网络走进。而且我高兴看到了因特网的潜力,是它戏剧性地改变了我们的国际社会,使其向更好。然而,我也陷入了困境的可能的意想不到的负面后果。
There has been much talk about the "new information age." But much less widely reported has been the notion that the Internet may be responsible for furthering the fragmentation of society by alienating its individual users. At first this might sound like an apparent contradiction: how can something, that is on the one hand responsible for global unification by enabling the free exchange of ideas, alienate the participants?
有很多人谈论“新信息时代。”但是却很少报道这个观点:因特网可能负责促进社会分裂它被疏远的个人用户。乍听起来这似乎是个明显的矛盾:能够促成如何一方面通过授权负责全球统
一思想的自由交流,让渡出席的人吗?
I had a recent discussion with a friend of mine who has what he described as a "problem" with the Internet. When I questioned further he said that he was "addicted," and has "forced" himself to go off-line. He said that he felt like an alcoholic, in that moderate use of the Internet
was just not possible for him. I have not known this fellow to be given to exaggeration, therefore when he described his Internet binges, when he would spend over twenty-four hours on line non-stop, it gave me pause to think. He said, "the Internet isn't real, but I was spending all my time on line, so I just had to stop." He went on to say that all of the time that he spent on line might have skewed his sense of reality, and that it made him feel lonely and depressed.
我有一个最近讨论和我的一个朋友有他所说的“问题”与网际网路。当我盘问了进一步的他说,他是“上瘾”,有“被迫”自己去离线。他说他感觉自己像个酒鬼,有节制地使用因特网对他来说简直就不可能。我知道这个人给夸张,所以当他描绘其互联网的不理智,当他会在24小时以上在线不停,这给了我不得不思考。他说:“因特网不是真实的,可是我的开支是我所有的时间上网,所以我不得不打住了。”他接着说,他花在线或许已经扭曲了他的现实感,而且使他感到孤独和沮丧。
The fragmentation of society has been lamented for some time now. It seems to me that it probably began in earnest after World War Ⅱ when a generation returned from doing great deeds overseas. They won the war, and by God they were going to win the peace. Automobile ownership became commonplace and suburbs were created. "Progress" was their mantra. So even prior to the Internet's widespread popularity, folks were already becoming distanced from their extended families and neighbors. And when we fast-forward to today we see an almost cruel irony in that people can and often do develop on-line relationships with folks on the other side of the globe, without leaving their homes. But at the expense of the time that would have otherwise been available for involvement in other activities which might foster a sense of community in their villages, towns and cities.
人们对社会分裂感到悲哀已有较长一段时间了。在我看来它可能开始认真地在二次世界大战以后产生Ⅱ回来时做伟大的功绩,海外。他们赢得了战争,并由神他们要赢得和平。已经成为司空见惯的汽车所有权和郊区被创造的。他们的口号是“进步”。所以即使前互联网的广泛普及,人们都已成为距离他们的亲戚和邻居。更糟糕的是,当我们会快进到今天,我们看到了一个近乎残酷的讽刺:人们往往开展网上关系与另一半地球的另一边,不离开他们的家园。但为代价的再也没有时间可供介入其他活动,也能培养社区意识的在村庄、乡镇和城市。
