【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 小時(shí)光景與電腦廝守在一起。對此我深惡痛絕。This is not just fear of new course, there is value in instant access to information banks worldwide and, of course, is revolutionizing the way we correspond with each other. My mistrust is based on the fact that this use of the Internet is such a pale copy of the timehonoured way in which people municate with each other. It leads to intimacy before acquaintance。 it scatters secrets outwards, not inwards。 and, most worrying of all, it is a vehicle for liars.這不完全是對新科技的恐懼。當(dāng)然，能隨時(shí)獲取全世界信息庫中的信息是很有價(jià)值的，電子郵件正在完全改變?nèi)藗兿嗷ラg通信聯(lián)系的方式。我的不信任感是基于這樣一個(gè)事實(shí)：使用互聯(lián)網(wǎng)通訊與人們傳統(tǒng)的相互交流方式相比實(shí)在大為遜色。它使人們還未相識(shí)就已親近；它不能保守秘密反而擴(kuò)散秘密；而最令人擔(dān)心的是，它是撒謊人傳播謊言的工具。What frightens me is that my daughter rejects all this. The denial is there in the language she uses. I 39。met39。 Janet in January, she says, and we39。ve been 39。friends39。 ever since. At other times, I was 39。talking39。 to Alex the other day and he 39。said39。 ... No, he didn39。t, I argue。 friends are friends when, and only when, you have seen the whites of their eyes. She just rolls hers, skywards.最令我心驚膽戰(zhàn)的是女兒對我的一切規(guī)勸都拒之不理。這在她的言談間流露無遺。“我是一月份‘遇見’珍妮特的，”她說，“那以后我們就成了‘朋友’。 ”有時(shí)，她又說“前幾天我和亞歷克斯‘聊天’，他‘說’…… ” “不對，他沒有說，”我爭辯道；只有當(dāng)你親眼見過一個(gè)人之后，只有在那個(gè)時(shí)候，朋友才成其為朋友。她只是朝上翻了翻白眼。Imagine this. When I was planning to go away for a few days last month, this intelligent 22yearold announced a plan for a party, the guests to include a variety of Internuts who, ing as they would from all corners, would need to stay overnight.你想像得到嗎，上個(gè)月我正打算外出數(shù)日的時(shí)候，這位聰明的22歲的姑娘宣布打算舉行一次聚會(huì)，客人包括各色網(wǎng)蟲，他們來自各地，還要在我家過夜。Overnight? In my home, my home that contains everything I care about, rather high on the list being my daughter herself.在我家里過夜？在這個(gè)有我珍愛的一切的家里，而女兒本身就是我的最珍愛的寶貝之一。She said: Don39。t be silly. She said it would be quite all right, because the people she was planning to invite were those whom she had known for at least a year and whom she knows as well as any of her other friends that, on the whole, I tend to like. I said, trying to be reasonable but not altogether succeeding, that in and among the things they tell each other on the taptap, a tendency to murder might just have been overlooked, might it not?她說，“別傻?！彼f不會(huì)有事的，因?yàn)樗郎?zhǔn)備邀請的那些人都是“認(rèn)識(shí)”了至少有一年的，而且她“了解”他們，就像了解我總的來說比較喜歡的她的其他朋友一樣。我說，他們啪噠啪噠“講”給互相聽的事情中，殺人的傾向或許就被忽略了，難道這不可能嗎？我說這話時(shí)盡量想做到通情達(dá)理，但不完全成功。The party did not happen. The row most certainly did.聚會(huì)不了了之。但我和她確實(shí)大吵了一場。When I say that if they are not nutters they are nerds, she tries to reason. Do I think she is a nerd? Absolutely not. Well, then, why should they be? Do I think she is a liar? Just as absolutely not. Seizing the initiative she moves over to the attack.當(dāng)我說那些人即使不是瘋子也一定是些怪人時(shí)，她試圖跟我爭論。那我是不是覺得她就是怪人一個(gè)？絕對不是。既然這樣，那他們?yōu)槭裁磿?huì)是怪人呢？我是不是覺得她就是個(gè)謊言家？當(dāng)然也不是。她抓住了主動(dòng)權(quán)，開始反攻。You remember that favourite story of yours, the one about how the army captain and the woman whose book he discovered got to know one another solely through writing letters? And how she refused to send him a photograph because she felt that if he really cared, it wouldn39。t matter what she looked like? Well, they hadn39。t seen each other either. She smiles her selfsatisfied smile. Arguing with a daughter is always like that, so annoying. They always know where your weak points are, just where to slip in under your guard. “還記得你最喜歡的那個(gè)講一個(gè)上尉和一個(gè)女人的故事嗎？那個(gè)他看到那女的讀過的一本書便和她通過書信往來而認(rèn)識(shí)的故事？記得嗎，她拒絕給他寄照片，因?yàn)樗J(rèn)為如果他真的喜歡她，她長得怎么樣并不重要？瞧，他們倆也沒見過面嘛。”她得意地笑了。跟女兒爭辯總是這個(gè)樣，總是令你煩惱不堪。她們深知你的弱點(diǎn)，知道如何乘虛而入。But I cannot clear it from my head, the worries refuse to go away. It is not that, as individuals, I have reason to believe they would lie. But they could. They could lie about their age, their state of mind or even their sex. Indeed, apparently in America it is mon for men to taptap pretending to be women on the basis that they then get other women to municate with far greater intimacy.但我總是忘不了這個(gè)事兒，種種擔(dān)憂縈繞心頭。并不是說我有理由認(rèn)為，他們作為個(gè)人，一定會(huì)撒謊。但他們可能會(huì)撒謊。他們可能隱瞞自己的真實(shí)年齡、心態(tài)，甚至性別。的確，在美國顯然有不少上網(wǎng)