▍課程導(dǎo)讀
“技術(shù)恐懼（technophobia）”并非新詞绑榴。早在古希臘，蘇格拉底就曾勸誡人們蹂午，“寫作會損害兒童以及成年人的記憶力坡垫。”而在15世紀(jì)印刷機出現(xiàn)之后画侣，人們擔(dān)心“一旦文稿不再需要手工抄寫冰悠，知識就會消失∨渎遥”后來溉卓，盡管固定電話、留聲機搬泥、收音機以及電視機相繼問世桑寨，并在一段時間內(nèi)成為當(dāng)時的生活必需品，人們對于技術(shù)的恐懼和擔(dān)憂卻好像從未停止忿檩。從某種程度上說尉尾，我們一邊享受著技術(shù)帶來的便利，一邊又埋怨技術(shù)讓我們變懶燥透。如今沙咏，智能手機儼然成為人們生活中不可或缺的一部分，但人們也開始擔(dān)心自己對電子設(shè)備越來越依賴班套。
本篇課程首發(fā)于2018年1月29日
?難度系數(shù)：★★★☆☆ ? 無用系數(shù)：★★☆☆☆
▍原文
Demonized 【blame sth. or make sth. seem worse than it really is】Smartphones Are Just Our Latest Technological Scapegoat
Is today's concern about smartphones any different than other generations' anxieties about new technology? Do we know enough to make any conclusions?
Alarm at the corrosive effects of new technologies is not new. Rather, it is deeply rooted 【＝firmly rooted 】in our history. In ancient Greece, Socrates蘇格拉底 cautioned that writing would undermine the ability of children and then adults to commit things to memory. The advent of the printing press in the 15th century led us to think that knowledge would vanish once manuscripts no longer needed to be copied manually.
In 1926 we feared that the landline telephone would make us lazier. It would break up home life and the practice of visiting friends.
The pattern of technophobia recurred with the gramophone, the telegraph, the radio, and television. The trope that the printing press would lead to loss of memory is very much the same as the belief that the internet is destroying our ability to remember.
Just because these themes have played out benignly time and again does not, of course, mean that all will turn out fine this time, with mobile phones.
So it should come as no surprise that concerns about children and smartphones? For the past decade, researchers have been rising steadily.trying to establish a link between teen depression and obsessive smartphone use. So too have parents, who oscillate between 在兩種情緒之間 complacency and panic as they watch their children—and themselves—become increasingly attached to their devices.
The smartphone is today's emblem主題 of whether one believes in progress or decline. It is a powerful tool, and any such tool has the capacity to do harm as well as great good. Finding balance has never been a reliable human attribute, but it has never been more needed.
▍生詞好句
demonize /?di?m?n??z/: vt. blame sth. or make sth. seem worse than it really is; describe someone or sth. as very bad or dangerous even though they may not be so bad or dangerous
deeply rooted: very strong and firmly fixed and set (= firmly rooted)
trope /tr??p/: n. sth. such as an idea, phrase, or image that is often used by an artist or a film director; a theme that a writer hopes his audience or his readers will immediately recognize and understand
play out benignly /b??n??nli/: "play out", when a situation plays out, it happens and develops in a particular way; "benignly" means pleasant and kind, not harmful / dangerous / serious / severe.
concerns have been rising steadily: "concern" means an important matter or situation [ 常見搭配：a(n) increasing / growing / rising concern(s) ]
oscillate between /??s?le?t/: if you oscillate between two feelings, you continuously change your feelings, opinions, or decisions from one position to the other
emblem /??mbl?m/: n. a picture or an object that is used to represent a particular person, an idea, a group or a country
