Why Do We Pick Up Our Phones?

There are the standard, conventional-sounding answers: we check our phones to see if any messages might have come in, if someone posted an interesting film, if something dreadful has happened overseas.
有一些标准的、听起来很常规的答案：我们查看手机，看看是否收到了任何信息，是否有人发布了有趣的电影，是否有可怕的事情在海外发生。

But this is in danger of sounding far too normal and far too kind to us. The truth is a lot darker and rather more humbling. We don't pick up our phones to find out what's going on; we pick them up to ensure – with considerable ruthlessness – that we are in no danger of finding out anything more about ourselves.
但这听起来可能太过正常，对我们太过仁慈。事实要黑暗得多，也更令人羞愧。我们拿起手机不是为了了解发生了什么；我们拿起手机是为了确保——相当无情地确保——我们不用再面临任何发现自己的危险。

If we forensically study the moments when we are drawn to pick up our devices, these are almost always when some kind of anxiety is pressing in on us – an anxiety on whose analysis and interpretation the correct navigation of our lives might actually depend. We are using our devices as an alternative to thinking about our futures, we employ our machines to block insight, to halt the business of processing, to alienate our minds from their most promising and complex substrata.
如果我们仔细研究一下我们被吸引去拿起电子设备的时刻，就会发现这些时刻几乎总是某种焦虑向我们袭来的时候——我们对生活的正确驾驭可能实际上依赖于对这种焦虑的分析和理解。我们把电子设备当作思考未来的替代品，我们利用机器来阻挡洞察力，停止处理事务，使我们的思想与它们最有希望和最复杂的底层分离。

The thoughts attempting to break into consciousness might be about our mother and the strange, disturbing thing she said to us over the lunch. Or about how we should try to make better use of our talents, given what we learnt in a meeting with an old university friend. Or about an unkind and sharp word our partner had with us this morning, which threatens to throw our relationship into question once again.
试图闯入意识的想法可能是关于我们的母亲和她在午餐时对我们说的奇怪、令人不安的事情。或者关于我们应该如何更好地利用我们的才能，鉴于我们在一位大学老友会面中学到的东西。或者关于我们的伴侣今天早上对我们的一句不友善而尖锐的话语，这有可能使我们的关系再次受到质疑。

How convenient – dreadfully convenient – that we should have invented a device to ensure that we will never have to meet ourselves again, and how darkly ironic that we should blithely refer to this as, of all things, an instrument of communication.
这是多么方便——可怕地方便——我们发明了一种设备，确保我们永远不必再面对自己，而我们却轻率地称之为沟通工具，这是多么黑暗的讽刺。

We take pride in the time we've saved, the dictionaries we don't have to consult, the atlases we can throw away, the many strange and funny things we have discovered. And yet we ignore the fruitful boredom we haven't had, the daydreams we haven't entertained, the reveries we've throttled, the ideas we've not hatched, the novels we haven't written, the businesses we didn't start, the feelings we've not identified, the self-awareness we've lost.
我们为节省下来的时间、为不必查阅的字典、为可以扔掉的地图册、为我们发现的许多奇怪而有趣的事物而自豪。然而，我们忽略了我们没有经历过的富有成效的无聊，我们没有享受的白日梦，我们扼杀的遐想，我们没有孵化的想法，我们未曾动笔的小说，我们未曾起步的事业，我们未曾觉察的情感，以及我们失去的自我意识。

However, this doesn't have to be the end of the story. Precisely when we most want to pick up our phones, we should learn to do something very unusual; pause and ask ourselves a bold question: if I wasn't allowed to consult my phone right now, what might I need to think about?
然而，这不一定是故事的结局。恰恰在我们最想拿起手机的时候，我们应该学会做一些很不寻常的事情；停下来问我们自己一个大胆的问题：如果我现在不允许查看手机，我可能需要思考什么？

The answer can provide us with nothing less than a royal road into our unexamined lives. Rather than using our phones to stop ourselves from thinking, we can study our craving for them as a guide to when and where we particularly need to introspect; we can study the times we most want to flee to them to understand what we should be staying put and exploring.
这个答案可以为我们提供一条通往未经审视的生活的坦途。与其用手机来逃避思考，我们不如观察自己对手机的渴望，以此作为何时何地需要进行自我反省的指南；我们可以研究自己最想逃避到手机中的时刻，以了解我们应该停下来深入探索的问题。

So, when our itch for distraction is at its height, we should turn over the following questions:
因此，当我们对分心的渴望达到顶点时，我们应该思考以下问题：

– What am I trying to do with the rest of my life?
我打算如何度过我的余生？
– What should I concentrate on?
我应该专注于什么？
– What might I be sad about?
我可能因什么而悲伤？
– What might I be angry about?
我可能因什么而愤怒？
– What might I need to tell myself?
我需要告诉自己什么？

The answers are all inside us already, half imploring us – and half begging us not – to download yet more noise to drown them out. Our instruments of non-communication might turn out to be a gateway to insight after all.
答案已经在我们心中，它们在一半恳求我们——一半乞求我们不要——下载更多的干扰来将其淹没。毕竟，我们的非交流工具可能最终会成为通往洞察力的门户。

词汇表
conventional-sounding [kən'venʃ(ə)nəl] 听起来很常规的
in danger of 面临危险，有可能，有风险
humbling ['hʌmb(ə)lɪŋ] 令人羞愧的，谦卑的
ruthlessness ['ru:θləsnəs] 无情，残酷
forensically [fəˈrenzɪkəli] 极其仔细地；法医地；法庭上地
navigation [ˌnævɪˈɡeɪʃ(ə)n] 驾驭，控制；导航，航行
employ [ɪm'plɔɪ] 运用，利用
block insight [ˈɪnsaɪt] 阻碍洞察力，阻止深入了解
halt [hɔːlt] 阻止，停止，中断
substrata [səbˈstrɑːtə] 底层，基础（substratum [səbˈstrɑːtəm]的复数）
break into consciousness 闯入意识
throw...into question 质疑，提出挑战
blithely ['blaɪðli] 愉快地，无忧无虑地，轻率地
take pride in 为…自豪，以…为傲
consult [kən'sʌlt] 查阅，参考；咨询，请教
atlas ['ætləs] 地图集；地图册
fruitful boredom 富有成效的无聊
reverie ['revəri] 幻想，梦想，白日梦
throttle [ˈθrɒt(ə)l] 扼杀，使窒息，压制
hatch [hætʃ] 孵化；策划
self-awareness 自我意识，自我觉察
royal road 坦途，大道，捷径
unexamined [ˌʌnɪɡˈzæm.ɪnd] 未经审视的
craving ['kreɪvɪŋ] 渴望，热望
introspect [ˌɪntrəʊ'spekt] 内省，反省
flee to [fliː] 逃往
stay put 不动，待在原地
itch [ɪtʃ] 渴望，热望；痒
implore [ɪmˈplɔː(r)] 恳求，哀求
gateway [ˈɡeɪtweɪ] 门户，通道；途径，方法