完整版本Unit3AlienationandtheInternet课文翻译综合教程四.docVIP

Unit 3 Alienation and the Internet Will Baker The Internet provides an amazing forum for the free exchange of ideas. Given the relatively few restrictions governing access and usage ， it is the communications modal equivalent of international waters.1 It is my personal belief that the human potential can only be realized by the globalization of ideas. I developed this position2 years before the Internet came into wide spread use. And I am excited at the potential for the Internet to dramatically alter our global society for the better. However I am also troubled by the possible unintended negative consequences. 2. There has been much talk about the “new information age.”But much less widely reported has been the notion that the Internet may be responsible for furthering the fragmentation of society by alienating its individual users.3 At first this might sound like an apparent contradiction ： how can something ， that is on the one hand responsible for global unification by enabling the free exchange of ideas ， alienate the participants ？ I had a recent discussion with a friend of mine who has what he described as a“problem ”with the Internet. When I questioned him further he said that he was“addicted ， ”4 and has “forced ”himself to go off-line. He said that he felt like an alcoholic ，in that moderate use of the Internet was just not possible for him.5 I have not known this fellow to be given to exaggeration ， therefore when he described his internet binges ，6 when he would spend over twenty-four hours on line non-stop ，it gave me pause to think. He said ，“the Internet isn ‘treal ，but I was spending all my time on line ，so I just had to stop. ”He went on to say that all of the time that he spent on line might have skewed7 his sense of reality ，and that it made him feel lonely and depressed. The fragmentation of society has been lamented for some time now. It seems to me that it probably began in earnest after World War II when