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1、学 海 无 涯 A Virtual Life Maia Szalavitz formerly a television producer now spends her time as a writer In this essay she explores digital reality and its consequences Along the way she compares the digital world to the real world acknowledging the attractions of the electronic dimension 迈亚 塞拉维茨曾是电视制片人
2、 目前从事写作 她在本文中探索了数字化世界及其 后果 与此同时 她将数字化世界与真实世界做了比较 承认电子空间自有其魅力 Maia Szalavitz 1 After too long on the Net even a phone call can be a shock My boyfriend s Liverpool accent suddenly becomes impossible to interpret after his easily understood words on screen a secretary s clipped tone seems more rejectin
3、g than I d imagined it would be Time itself becomes fluid hours become minutes or seconds stretch into days Weekends once a highlight of my week are now just two ordinary days 虚拟世界的生活 迈亚 塞拉维茨 在网上呆了太久 听到电话铃声也会吓一大跳 显示屏上看多了我男朋友那些一目了 然的文字 他的利物浦口音一下子变得难以听懂 而秘书的清脆快速的语调听上去比我想象 的要生硬 时间本身变得捉摸不定 几小时变成几分钟 或几秒钟
4、延伸为几天 周末原本 是我一周的黄金时段 现在却不过是平平常常的两天 2 For the last three years since I stopped working as a television producer I have done much of my work as a telecommuter I submit articles and edit them via email and communicate with colleagues on Internet mailing lists My boyfriend lives in England so much of ou
5、r relationship is also computer assisted 在我不再当电视制片人的这三年间 我的大部分工作都是在家里使用计算机终端进行 的 我通过电子邮件投稿和校订 利用互联网上的人名地址与同行交流 我男朋友住在英国 因此两人的关系也在很大程度上借助于电脑维系 3 If I desired I could stay inside for weeks without wanting anything I can order food and manage my money love and work In fact at times I have spent as long
6、 as three weeks alone at home going out only to get mail and buy newspapers and groceries I watched most of the endless snowstorm of 96 on TV 我要是愿意的话 可以一连几个星期不出门而什么也不缺 我可以在网上订购食品 网上理财 网上恋爱 网上工作 事实上我有时独自呆在家里长达三个星期 只偶尔出去拿 信 买报纸及日用品 1996 年那一场接一场的暴风雪我大都是在电视上看到的 4 But after a while life itself begins to
7、feel unreal I start to feel as though I ve become one with my machines taking data in spitting them back out just another link in the Net Others on line report the same symptoms We start to feel an aversion to outside forms of socializing We have become the Net critics worst nightmare 然而 一段时间之后 生活本身
8、就显得不那么真实了 我开始觉得自己似乎与机器融 为一体了 我接收信息 再发送出去 就如同互联网的一个连接点 其他上网的人也谈到了 学 海 无 涯 同样的症状 我们开始厌恶外面的社交方式 我们的状况成了批评互联网的人们最害怕见到 的一幕 5 What first seemed like a luxury crawling from bed to computer not worrying about hair and clothes and face has become a form of escape a lack of discipline And once you start repla
9、cing real human contact with cyber interaction coming back out of the cave can be quite difficult 一下床就上机 不再为发型 服饰 面部化妆烦心 起初看似高级的享受如 今却成为一种对生活的逃避 一种缺乏自律的表现 你一旦开始用网络交际取代人与人的真 实接触 要走出这种穴居状态就会相当困难 6 I find myself shyer more cautious more anxious Or conversely when suddenly confronted with real live huma
10、ns I get overexcited speak too much interrupt I constantly worry if I am dressed appropriately that perhaps I ve actually forgotten to put on a skirt and walked outside in the T shirt and underwear I sleep and live in 我发现自己变得比以前怯生 谨慎 焦虑 或者 反过来 当我突然面对现实中活生 生的人时 会变得过于兴奋 说个不停 爱打断别人的讲话 我老是担心自己衣着是否得体 担心自
11、己会不会真的忘了穿裙子 只穿着夜间睡觉 白天活动的那件 T 恤和内衣就出门了 7 At times I turn on the television and just leave it to talk away in the background something that I d never done previously The voices of the programs are comforting but then I m jarred by the commercials I find myself sucked in by soap operas or needing to k
12、eep up with the latest news and the weather Dateline Frontline Nightline CNN New York 1 every possible angle of every story over and over and over even when they are of no possible use to me Work moves into the background I decide to check my email 有时我把电视机开着 让它作为背景声音一直响着 以前我从不这样做 电视节目中 的说话声让人感到宽慰 可那
13、些广告又叫我心烦 我发现自己沉浸在肥皂剧里 或者不停地 收看最新的新闻报道和天气预报 一而再再而三地从 每日新闻 一线新闻 夜间新 闻 有线新闻电视网 纽约一套上收看有关每一条新闻的各种不同视角的报道 尽管它们 对我毫无用处 工作成了次要的 我决定去看一下自己的电子信箱 8 On line I find myself attacking everyone in sight I am bad tempered and easily angered I find everyone on my mailing list insensitive believing that they ve forgo
14、tten that there are people actually reading their wounding remarks I don t realize that I m projecting until after I ve been embarrassed by someone who politely points out that I ve attacked her for agreeing with me 在网上 我发现自己见谁攻谁 我脾气暴躁 动辄生气 我觉得我与之通信的每一个 人都麻木不仁 认为他们已经忘却还有人真会去读他们那些刻薄伤人的言辞 直到有人礼貌 地指出 她
15、同意我的观点却遭到我的抨击时 我才意识到 自己是在以己度人 不由得深感 尴尬 9 When I m in this state I fight my boyfriend as well misinterpreting his intentions because of the lack of emotional cues given by our typed dialogue The fight takes hours because the system keeps crashing I say a line then he does then crash And yet we keep o
16、n doggedly 在这种精神状态下 我也和男朋友吵架 常因键出的对话缺乏情感暗示而误解他的本 意 由于系统常出故障 两人一争就是几个小时 我写一句 他回一句 接着系统失灵 可 学 海 无 涯 我们俩还是锲而不舍地接着吵 10 I d never realized how important daily routine is dressing for work sleeping normal hours I d never thought I relied so much on co workers for company I began to understand why long term unemployment can be so damaging why life without an externally supported daily plan can lead to higher rates of drug abuse crime suicide 以前我从未意识到日常的生活起居是多么重要 如穿戴整齐去上班 按时就寝 以前 我从未想过自己会那么依赖同事做伴 我开始理解为
