手機入侵人類 我們爲什麼對手機上了癮大綱

I was sitting alone in a dark room, a tall glass of water in one hand, my iPhone in the other. On the screen in front of me was the Spike Jonze film Her. As it played, the romance in which Theodore, the human, and Samantha, the software, found themselves unfolded.

我獨自坐在一個黑暗的房間裏，一隻手拿着裝水的高腳杯，另一隻手拿着iPhone。屏幕中放映着斯派克o瓊斯導演的電影《她》（Her）。電影中的人類西奧多和軟件薩曼莎之間的浪漫故事，正在我的眼前徐徐展開。

Then it hit me: I am Theodore. My smartphone is Samantha. I am in love with my iPhone.

然後我突然想到：我就是西奧多，我的手機就是薩曼莎。我正在跟我的手機熱戀。

The parallels were uncanny. Deep inside the device in my hand, my darkest secrets are stored: My true feelings surrounding my father’s death, the struggles of being a parent, the self-doubt I shrug off each day, photos from my wedding day, a video of my daughter’s first steps. My phone knows the finite details of my brightest and darkest moments.

這種類比十分不可思議。我手中的這臺設備儲存了我內心最深處的祕密：關於我父親逝世的真實感受，初爲人父的掙扎，每天努力擺脫的自我懷疑，婚禮時的照片，女兒第一次走路的視頻。我的手機對我最精彩和最黑暗的時刻都瞭如指掌。

In the movie, Samantha constantly verbalized her feelings and formed her own opinions. Today’s phones aren’t like that. Mine requires me to tap and swipe across its screen in order to access the information stored within. It’s easy to see this as a one-sided relationship: Through snaps and taps I’m constantly pouring my heart out to my hand-held device and get nothing in return. Actually, that’s not true. I only have to open one of the many apps installed on my handy device and an emotional need is met. Instagram and Facebook provide endless self-worth support with likes. (Or, in their absence, not.) Twitter gives me a platform to vent, or crack jokes that are by most estimates not funny. Safari holds the answer to every question I’ve had or will ever have. Games provide a momentary escape.

在電影中，軟件薩曼莎不斷用語言描述感受，形成觀點。如今的手機與此有些不同。我的手機需要我不斷點擊和滑動屏幕，以獲取儲存於其中的內容。我們很容易把這看成一種單相思：通過按鈕和點擊，我不斷把我的感情傾注在這臺手持設備上，卻得不到回報。但實際上並非如此。我只需要打開手機上安裝的衆多程序，就能滿足我的情感需求。Instagram和Facebook的“點贊”功能可以給我帶來無限的自我認同感。（而如果沒有得到“贊”，這種感覺則會缺失。）Twitter給我提供了一個平臺，讓我發泄感情，或是開一些大多數人覺得不好笑的玩笑。Safari能夠解答我現有或者即將有的一切問題。遊戲則讓我有了個暫時能夠逃避現實的地方。

I can’t fulfill my phone’s emotional needs, of course. But I can be its protector. A software update, a nighttime charge, a case to protect its beauty—I provide for my phone, and in return, it promises to keep my secrets safe from the outside world, and provide me with an unending, unconditional emotional outlet.

當然，我無法滿足手機的情感需求。但我可以保護它。我會給手機的軟件升級，在晚上給它充電，再買個手機套免得它磨壞，而作爲回報，手機承諾會爲我保密，併成爲我無止境、無條件的情感宣泄口。

This is a terrifying thing to realize. I begin and end my day interacting with my phone. When chaos arises, my phone is an oasis of relative calm. When I fumble in spelling a word, it automatically corrects me—a selfless act to keep my best interests in mind.

意識到這一點，讓我嚇了一跳。我每天從早到晚都在和手機互動。身處喧譁之所時，手機就是一片寧靜的港灣。當我不小心拼錯了單詞，手機也會自動糾正我——它總是無私地以我的最佳利益爲優先考慮。

When you hand someone your phone, don’t you feel a hint of anxiety? As if you handed over a part of your own body? And yet the hesitation comes from a fear of being exposed. It’s not that we have something to hide—well, many of us, anyway—but to grant someone use of your phone is like opening a door to your mind and allowing someone to freely browse for awhile.

當你把手機交給其他人的時候，有沒有感覺到一絲焦慮，就像你把自己身體的一部分交了出去？這種猶豫源於害怕被暴露。這不是說我們要隱瞞什麼——好吧，對許多人來說是這樣——但是讓其他人用你的手機，就如同你打開了思想的大門，並允許其他人隨意進來看看。

At one point in Her, Theodore holds up his phone, closes his eyes, and listens as Samantha guides him blindly through a carnival. Take a look around the next time you’re in a public space. How many people do you see doing the same thing—only, instead of closing our eyes and letting a voice guide us, we let a screen be the guide? The primary object through which we are experiencing the moment is the phone, not our eyes. And certainly not whoever happens to be with us.

《她》中有一個片段：西奧多拿着手機，閉着眼睛，聽從薩曼莎的引導，走進一場狂歡中。你下次到公共場所去，可以看一看周圍。你會看到多少人在做同樣的事情？唯一的區別只是，我們沒有閉上眼睛，讓聲音來引導，而是讓屏幕來引導。我們用來感受當下的主要工具，不是我們的眼睛，而是我們的手機。無論誰在我們旁邊都是如此。

At the end of the movie—and though it’s a 2013 film, if you haven’t watched it, you should skip to the next paragraph to avoid the plot details I’m about to reveal—Samantha announces that she is leaving and thanks Theodore for teaching her how to love. Technology taught the movie’s human protagonist how to love. Today’s tech is already this powerful. It can teach us how to live, love, laugh, forgive, grieve, forget, desire, cook, and anything else you enter into a search bar.

在電影最後——儘管這是一部2013年的電影，不過如果你還沒有看過，你可以跳過接下來這一段，以免被劇透——薩曼莎宣稱她要走了，感謝西奧多教會她如何去愛。科技教導這部電影的主角如何去愛。而如今的科技也已經如此強大，足以告訴我們如何生活、愛、歡笑、寬恕、悲痛、遺忘、渴望、烹飪和其他一切你輸入搜索欄的東西。

How deep my feelings are for my phone has shocked me, to say the least, but I don’t plan on breaking up with it anytime soon. (My wife will just have to understand.) I do, however, plan on taking prolonged breaks from it, something I haven’t done in the last 10 years, not since I owned a Sidekick 2 in 2004.

我對手機的感情之深讓我震驚，但在短期內，我不打算與它斷絕關係。（我的妻子必須得理解這一點。）然而，我確實計劃跟它分開一段時間。自從我2004年買了Sidekick 2起，十年來我從未這樣做過。

I recently declared that every Sunday would be “No Screen Sunday” in my home. For the entirety of the day, we can do whatever we want, so long as it didn’t involve a screen. No cartoon marathons for the kids, no reading on a Kindle for my wife, no wasting time on Twitter or answering e-mails for me. All of it would have to wait 24 hours. The result was a day unbroken eye contact, laughing, sharing, and enjoying each moment as a family.

我最近宣佈，每週日是我家的“無屏幕日”。在這一天中，我們可以做我們想做的任何事，只要它與屏幕無關。孩子們不可以看動畫片，我的妻子不可以看Kindle電子書，我也不再在Twitter和回覆郵件上浪費時間。這一切都得等到第二天再做。結果就是，我們一家度過了眼神不斷交匯，充滿歡聲笑語的一天。

For once, my phone wasn’t part of any of it—not even as a camera. It felt fantastic to live in the moment, instead of through it.

這一次，我的手機沒有攙和其中，甚至連相機的角色也沒有扮演。活在當下的感覺實在太棒了。