Odds are, a huge chunk of them are staring down into a glowing mobile device -- passing time by checking on friends, catching up on texts or e-mail or playing a video game that would have required a PC or home console just a few years ago.
(CNN) —— 如今，当你环顾四周，人们不管在星巴克排队，还是在站台候车，或者在机场等行李，很多人都盯着一个发光的移动设备看 —— 通过查看朋友动态、读短信或邮件以及打游戏来打发时间。而在几年前，这些活动都是需要电脑或游戏机来完成的。
"That's me, " said Jeromie Williams, a 36-year-old social media manager and blogger from Montreal. "If I'm on the bus. If I'm waiting in line somewhere ... .
“我就是这样，”Jeromie Williams说，这位36岁的社交媒体经理和博主来自蒙特利尔。“坐车啊，排队啊......"
"The other day I was at a restaurant with a friend. He got up two times -- once to smoke a cigarette and once to go to the bathroom. As soon as his ass was off the seat, 'Boom!' iPhone in hand."
"有天我跟朋友吃饭，他就出去了两次——一次去抽烟，一次去洗手间。每次他屁股一离开座位，‘唰！’我的iphone就拿出来了。”
Thanks to technology, there's been a recent sea change in how people today kill time. Those dog-eared magazines in your doctor's office are going unread. Your fellow customers in line at the deli counter are being ignored. And simply gazing around at one's surroundings? Forget about it.
感谢科技，今天人们打发时间的方式有了巨大的变化。医生办公室里的折角杂志没人读了，熟食店门口的长龙也被忽略了，抬头环顾一下四周？不可能。
Between smartphones, tablets and e-readers, we're becoming a society that's ready to kill even a few seconds of boredom with a tap on a touchscreen.
在智能手机、平板电脑和电子阅读器的帮助下，我们连几秒钟的闲暇都不再放过，一切都只需触摸屏上的轻轻一点。
Smartphone ownership in the United States, and elsewhere, hit a tipping point in 2012. More people now own a smartphone in the United States -- 45% of adults -- than own a traditional cellphone, according to a survey from the Pew Internet & American Life project.
2012年，美国及其它地区的智能手机拥有者首次超过了传统型手机。根据Pew Internet &American Life project， 45%的美国成年人拥有智能手机。
And 42% of all mobile phone users say they expressly use their phone for entertainment when they're bored. (Presumably, non-entertainment uses like texting and e-mail would jack that number up even higher).
而所有手机用户中，42%的人称他们无聊时专门用手机娱乐。（可以预见的是，加上用手机发短信和邮件这样的非娱乐用户，这个比例还会更高。）
"I do everything with my phone, " said Alexandra Reed, 39, a self-employed single mom from Charlotte, North Carolina.
“我干什么都离不开手机，”Alexandra Reed说。这位39岁的单身母亲是自由职业者，来自北科罗莱纳的夏洛特。
"I have five e-mail accounts for different things. I have two phones, one for business and one personal. I use apps -- Mapquest, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google Plus, CNN, ESPN ... ."
“我有5个电子邮件帐户处理不同的事情。我有两个电话，一个工作用，一个联系私人事务。我也用各种应用 —— Mapquest, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google Plus, CNN, ESPN ......”
Is it a boredom killer? Absolutely, she said.
那手机消除无聊了吗？绝对的。
"Even when I'm driving, I might have Facebook open, " she said. "At a red light the first thing I (do is) just look at my phone. I get a little anxious if I see a notification and don't read it."
“即使在开车，我也可能挂在Facebook上，一遇到红灯，我做的第一件事就是看手机。要是有新动态又不能马上看，我就会有点着急。”
Researchers say this all makes sense. Fiddling with our phones, they say, addresses a basic human need to cure boredom by any means necessary.
研究者称这是有道理的。摆弄手机体现了人类无论如何都要消除无聊的本能。
Christopher Lynn, an anthropology professor at the University of Alabama, compares tapping at smartphones to smoking a cigarette. Both can be "pivots, " he says -- things that quickly transfer us from the monotony of everyday life into a world of "unscheduled play."
阿拉巴马的人类学教授Christopher Lynn通过比较，认为使用智能手机和抽烟都是一种转换型行为——可以让我们从日常的单调迅速进入娱乐状态。
"Smartphones are like cigarettes are like junk food are like chewing your nails or doodling ..., " Lynn wrote in a May essay for the Evolutionary Studies Consortium. "Does the naked space of your own mind and the world around you send you screaming into oblivion when you walk across campus, across a street even? Pull out your smartphone and check your email again -- that car will swerve around you."
“智能手机就像烟草，也像垃圾食品，或者咬指甲和涂鸦......," Lynn 在五月号的essay for the Evolutionary Studies Consortium写道。“当你走在校园甚至大街上时觉得被遗忘了？拿出手机检查一下邮件吧 —— 危机解除了。”
With their games, music, videos, social media and texting, smartphones "superstimulate" a desire humans have to play when things get dull, Lynn told CNN in an interview. And he believes that modern society may be making that desire even stronger.
在CNN的一次访谈中Lynn还提到，由于智能手机里有游戏、音乐、视频、社交媒体和短信，这强烈激发了人们打发无聊的欲望，他还认为也许现代社会正在让这种欲望更强烈。
"When you're habituated to constant stimulation, when you lack it, you sort of don't know what to do with yourself ..., " he said. "When we aren't used to having down time, it results in anxiety. 'Oh my god, I should be doing something.' And we reach for the smartphone. It's our omnipresent relief from that."
"一旦我们习惯了经常性的刺激，缺少时就会有点不知所措。这种不习惯会引发焦虑。‘天啊，我必须做点什么。’于是我们拿出手机，它可以随时随地帮我们解决这个问题。”
So, our phones are brutally efficient at addressing an ancient desire. But is that always a good thing?
所以说，手机的确有效地满足了我们打发无聊的欲望。可这总是一件好事吗？
At Oxford, England's Social Issues Research Centre, researchers fear it is not. In their view, by filling almost every second of down time by peering at our phones we are missing out on the creative and potentially rewarding ways we've dealt with boredom in days past.
牛津英国社会事务研究中心的研究者们并不这么认为。在他们看来，用盯着手机来填补每天的无聊，我们正在错失过去那些打发无聊时极具创意和回报的方式。
"Informational overload from all quarters means that there can often be very little time for personal thought, reflection, or even just 'zoning out, ' " researchers there wrote. "With a mobile (phone) that is constantly switched on and a plethora of entertainments available to distract the naked eye, it is understandable that some people find it difficult to actually get bored in that particular fidgety, introspective kind of way."
他们写道，”从四面八方涌来的过量信息意味着我们几乎没时间思考、感觉甚至简单的分类。有了经常开着的手机和其中超级多的娱乐来吸引眼球，有些人觉得很难厌烦它就很容易理解了。“
Williams, the Montreal blogger, admits as much.
蒙特利尔的博主Williams承认这是事实。
"One thing that unfortunately I do miss out on is that sort of quiet time where I can think about something I want to write ... where, if I'm bored, I'm flipping open Word and punching something out, " he said. "Instead, out comes 'Infinity Blade II' and I'm killing titans.
“不幸的是，我现在失去的就是那种你可以思考自己要写什么的安静时间......过去如果觉得烦了，就打开Word随便敲点什么。现在打开的则是‘无尽之剑2’，而我开始杀巨怪。”
"Before smartphones came out, you had that down time where you sit on the bus and your mind just kind of wanders and you think of these amazing things. You get out that old thing called pen and paper and you jot it down."
“有智能手机之前，在车上坐着觉得无聊时会思绪飞转，可以拿出笔和纸轻易把它们记下来。”
But Joel Marx, a 25-year-old research assistant in Baltimore, Maryland, disagrees. Marx juggles two jobs and sees his phone as a way to be productive, and keep up with the news, during gaps in his hectic workdays. He relies on it for fun, but also for research and scheduling.
但来自Maryland巴尔的摩的Joel Marx不这么认为。这位25岁的研究助理同时做两份工作，视手机为保持高效，了解新闻的方式。在他忙乱的工作间隙，要靠手机来娱乐、做研究和计划。
"I feel like it gives me a break from what's at hand, " he said. "I even find it helps to keep me going through the day as I can get in touch with things in the outside world. Most of the time, I would have done nothing during those times anyhow."
“手机能让我放下手边的活放松一下，”他说。“我甚至觉得是手机帮我度过了每一天，因为可以通过它跟上形势。大多数时候，这些零碎的时间我可能什么也做不了。”
Reed, the Charlotte mom, admits her phone use sometimes distracts her from work or even watching a movie. But compared to other time-killers, she thinks the phone is a good option.
而那位来自夏洛特的妈妈Reed则承认，手机有时会让她在工作时甚至看电影的时候走神。但比起其它打发时间的方式，手机还是很不错的。
"I actually feel more productive reading things online and on social media like Twitter and Facebook than if I was just sitting and watching a TV show, " she said. "I follow people who are mostly sports and news anchors, people like that -- interesting people I know I can learn something from."
“我觉得比起坐在那儿看电视，上Twitter或Facebook更有意思一些。我主要关注体育界和新闻界的人——从这些有趣的人身上，我总可以学到些东西。”
|
