并非新词。早在古希腊，苏格拉底就曾劝诫人们，“写作会损害儿童以及成年人的记忆力。”而在15世纪印刷机出现之后，人们担心“一旦文稿不再需要手工抄写，知识就会消失。”后来，尽管固定电话、留声机、收音机以及电视机相继问世，并在一段时间内成为当时的生活必需品，人们对于技术的恐惧和担忧却好像从未停止。从某种程度上说，我们一边享受着技术带来的便利，一边又埋怨技术让我们变懒。如今，智能手机俨然成为人们生活中不可或缺的一部分，但人们也开始担心自己对电子设备越来越依赖。
本篇课程首发于2018年1月29日
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Demonized 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 in our history. In ancient Greece, Socrates 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 have been rising steadily. For the past decade, researchers have been trying to establish a link between teen depression and obsessive smartphone use. So too have parents, who oscillate between complacency and panic as they watch their children—and themselves—become increasingly attached to their devices.
The smartphone is today's emblem 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.
▍生词好句
demonize /ˈdiːmənʌɪz/: 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 /trəʊp/: 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 /bɪˈnʌɪnli/: "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 [ 常见搭配：a(n) increasing / growing / rising concern(s) ]
oscillate between /ˈɒsɪleɪt/: if you oscillate between two feelings, you continuously change your feelings, opinions, or decisions from one position to the other
emblem /ˈɛmbləm/: n. a picture or an object that is used to represent a particular person, an idea, a group or a country
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