（本文發(fā)表于時(shí)報(bào)觀點(diǎn)與評(píng)論版面,。作者是Cal Newport,。）

Smartphones are our constant companions. For many of us, their glowing screens are a ubiquitous presence, drawing us in with endless diversions, like the warm ping of social approval delivered in the forms of likes and retweets, and the algorithmically amplified outrage of the latest “breaking” news or controversy. They’re in our hands, as soon as we wake, and command our attention until the final moments before we fall asleep.

智能手機(jī)是我們忠實(shí)的伴侶,。對(duì)于我們中的很多人來(lái)說(shuō)，它亮著光的屏幕無(wú)處不在,，無(wú)休止地轉(zhuǎn)移我們的注意力,，比如那些溫暖的提示音，代表著社交認(rèn)可,，以喜歡和轉(zhuǎn)發(fā)的形式送達(dá),，還有最新的“突發(fā)”新聞或爭(zhēng)論中被算法放大的憤怒。一醒來(lái),，它們就在我們手中,，博得我們的注意，直到入睡前的最后時(shí)刻,。

Steve Jobs would not approve.

史蒂夫·喬布斯(Steve Jobs)不會(huì)贊成,。

In 2007, Mr. Jobs took the stage at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco and introduced the world to the iPhone. If you watch the full speech, you’ll be surprised by how he imagined our relationship with this iconic invention, because this vision is so different from the way most of us use these devices now.

2007年，喬布斯在舊金山莫斯克尼會(huì)議中心(Moscone Convention Center)登臺(tái),，向全世界介紹iPhone,。如果你看了完整的演講，他對(duì)我們與這個(gè)標(biāo)志性發(fā)明之間關(guān)系的想象會(huì)令你驚訝,，因?yàn)樗脑妇芭c現(xiàn)在我們大多數(shù)人使用該設(shè)備的方式截然不同,。

In the remarks, after discussing the phone’s interface and hardware, he spends an extended amount of time demonstrating how the device leverages the touch screen before detailing the many ways Apple engineers improved the age-old process of making phone calls. “It’s the best iPod we’ve ever made,” Mr. Jobs exclaims at one point. “The killer app is making calls,” he later adds. Both lines spark thunderous applause. He doesn’t dedicate any significant time to discussing the phone’s internet connectivity features until more than 30 minutes into the address.

在講話中探討這款手機(jī)的界面和硬件之后，喬布斯花了很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間展示該設(shè)備如何利用觸摸屏,，然后詳細(xì)介紹了蘋(píng)果工程師改進(jìn)過(guò)去電話撥打流程的多種方式,。“這是我們做過(guò)的最好的iPod,，”喬布斯感嘆道,。“撥打電話是最為驚艷的應(yīng)用,，”他后來(lái)又補(bǔ)充說(shuō),。這兩句話都引發(fā)了雷鳴般的掌聲。在講話的前30分鐘內(nèi),，他都沒(méi)有花任何重要時(shí)間來(lái)討論手機(jī)的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)連接功能,。

The presentation confirms that Mr. Jobs envisioned a simpler and more constrained iPhone experience than the one we actually have over a decade later. For example, he doesn’t focus much on apps. When the iPhone was first introduced there was no App Store, and this was by design. As Andy Grignon, an original member of the iPhone team, told me when I was researching this topic, Mr. Jobs didn’t trust third-party developers to offer the same level of aesthetically pleasing and stable experiences that Apple programmers could produce. He was convinced that the phone’s carefully designed native features were enough. It was “an iPod that made phone calls,” Mr. Grignon said to me.

這場(chǎng)發(fā)布會(huì)證實(shí)，比起我們?cè)谑嗄旰笏鶎?shí)際擁有的,，喬布斯憧憬的是一種更簡(jiǎn)單,、更具約束力的iPhone體驗(yàn)。比如,，他不太側(cè)重應(yīng)用程序,。iPhone最初推出時(shí)沒(méi)有應(yīng)用商店，而且原本就是這樣設(shè)計(jì)的。iPhone團(tuán)隊(duì)最初成員安迪·格里尼翁(Andy Grignon)在我研究這個(gè)問(wèn)題時(shí)告訴我,，喬布斯當(dāng)時(shí)不信任第三方開(kāi)發(fā)商能提供與蘋(píng)果程序員同等的美感和穩(wěn)定體驗(yàn),。他確信，這款手機(jī)精心設(shè)計(jì)的原生應(yīng)用已足夠,。它是“一款能打電話的iPod”,，格里尼翁對(duì)我說(shuō)。

Mr. Jobs seemed to understand the iPhone as something that would help us with a small number of activities — listening to music, placing calls, generating directions. He didn’t seek to radically change the rhythm of users’ daily lives. He simply wanted to take experiences we already found important and make them better.

喬布斯似乎將iPhone理解為能幫我們處理少量活動(dòng)的玩意兒——聽(tīng)音樂(lè),、打電話,、導(dǎo)航。他并不追求大大改變用戶(hù)的日常生活節(jié)奏,。他只想選取我們已經(jīng)認(rèn)為重要的體驗(yàn),，讓它們變得更好。

The minimalist vision for the iPhone he offered in 2007 is unrecognizable today — and that’s a shame.

他在2007年推出的iPhone的極簡(jiǎn)主義愿景到今天已面目全非——這很可惜,。

Under what I call the “constant companion model,” we now see our smartphones as always-on portals to information. Instead of improving activities that we found important before this technology existed, this model changes what we pay attention to in the first place — often in ways designed to benefit the stock price of attention-economy conglomerates, not our satisfaction and well-being.

在我所稱(chēng)的“忠實(shí)陪伴模式”之下,，如今，我們將智能手機(jī)視為持續(xù)開(kāi)啟的信息通道,。這一模式?jīng)]有改進(jìn)我們?cè)谠摷夹g(shù)存在之前便認(rèn)為重要的活動(dòng),，反而改變了我們最初關(guān)注的方向——它通常旨在抬高注意力經(jīng)濟(jì)巨頭們的股價(jià)，而不是增進(jìn)我們的滿(mǎn)足感和福祉,。

We’ve become so used to the constant companion model over the past decade that it’s easy to forget its novelty. As a computer scientist who also writes about the impact of technology on culture, I think it’s important to highlight the magnitude of this shift, as it seems increasingly clear to me that Mr. Jobs probably got it right the first time: Many of us would be better off returning to his original minimalist vision for our phones.

過(guò)去十年來(lái),，我們太過(guò)于習(xí)慣這個(gè)忠實(shí)陪伴模式，以致于很容易忘記它的新奇可貴之處,。作為兼寫(xiě)一些科技如何影響文化類(lèi)文章的計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)家,，我認(rèn)為有必要指出這一轉(zhuǎn)變是多么巨大，而且有一點(diǎn)對(duì)我似乎越來(lái)越明確,，即喬布斯很可能一開(kāi)始就是對(duì)的：如果回歸他最初設(shè)想的手機(jī)極簡(jiǎn)主義愿景,，我們當(dāng)中很多人都會(huì)過(guò)得更好。

Practically speaking, to be a minimalist smartphone user means that you deploy this device for a small number of features that do things you value (and that the phone does particularly well), and then outside of these activities, put it away. This approach dethrones this gadget from a position of constant companion down to a luxury object, like a fancy bike or a high-end blender, that gives you great pleasure when you use it but doesn’t dominate your entire day.

實(shí)際上,，成為一名極簡(jiǎn)主義智能手機(jī)用戶(hù)意味著,，你要把這個(gè)設(shè)備用于少量你所珍視的事情（也是這個(gè)手機(jī)特別擅長(zhǎng)的事情），除這些活動(dòng)外,，把它收起來(lái),。這一做法會(huì)使這個(gè)玩意兒擺脫忠實(shí)陪伴角色，成為奢侈品,，就像別致的自行車(chē)或高端攪拌器一樣，它能在使用時(shí)給你愉悅感,，但不會(huì)主宰你的一整天,。

To succeed with this approach, a useful first step is to remove from your smartphone any apps that make money from your attention. This includes social media, addictive games and newsfeeds that clutter your screen with “breaking” notifications. Unless you’re a cable news producer, you don’t need minute-by-minute updates on world events, and your friendships are likely to survive even if you have to wait until you’re sitting at your home computer to log on to Facebook or Instagram. In addition, by eliminating your ability to publish carefully curated images to social media directly from your phone, you can simply be present in a nice moment, free from the obsessive urge to document it.

為成功實(shí)現(xiàn)這種做法，第一個(gè)有用的步驟是移除智能手機(jī)上任何依靠你的注意力來(lái)賺錢(qián)的應(yīng)用，包括社交媒體,、引人上癮的游戲和讓屏幕塞滿(mǎn)“突發(fā)”消息通知的新聞推送,。除非從事有線新聞制作，否則你不需要每分每秒都知曉最新世界動(dòng)態(tài),；就算你得等到回家才能用電腦登錄Facebook或Instagram,，你的友誼也應(yīng)該能夠保住。此外,，摒棄直接用手機(jī)在社交媒體上發(fā)布精心編輯的照片這一能力,，還可以讓你活在美好的當(dāng)下，擺脫非要把它記錄下來(lái)不可的強(qiáng)迫沖動(dòng),。

Turning our attention to professional activities, if your work doesn’t absolutely demand that you be accessible by email when away from your desk, delete the Gmail app or disconnect the built-in email client from your office servers. It’s occasionally convenient to check in when out and about, but this occasional convenience almost always comes at the cost of developing a compulsive urge to monitor your messages constantly. If you’re not sure whether your work requires phone-based email, don’t ask; just delete the apps and wait to see whether it causes a problem — many people unintentionally exaggerate their need to constantly be available.

將我們的注意力轉(zhuǎn)移到專(zhuān)業(yè)活動(dòng)中去,，如果你的工作并非絕對(duì)要求你不在辦公桌邊也能通過(guò)電子郵件聯(lián)系上，那就刪除Gmail應(yīng)用程序,，或者斷開(kāi)辦公室服務(wù)器和手機(jī)內(nèi)置電子郵件客戶(hù)端的連接,。在外出時(shí)偶爾登錄查看郵件很方便，但這種偶爾的方便幾乎總以難以抑制自己不斷監(jiān)控信息的欲望為代價(jià),。如果你不確定自己的工作是否需要手機(jī)上的電子郵件功能,，那就別去問(wèn)；只需刪除應(yīng)用程序,，等著看看這樣是否會(huì)導(dǎo)致問(wèn)題——許多人無(wú)意識(shí)地夸大了自己總能被聯(lián)系上的必要性,。

Once you’ve stripped away the digital chatter clamoring for your attention, your smartphone will return to something closer to the role originally conceived by Mr. Jobs. It will become a well-designed object that comes out occasionally throughout your day to support — not subvert — your efforts to live well: It helps you find that perfect song to listen to while walking across town on a sunny fall afternoon; it loads up directions to the restaurant where you’re meeting a good friend; with just a few swipes, it allows you to place a call to your mom — and then it can go back into your pocket, or your bag, or the hall table by your front door, while you move on with the business of living your real-world life.

一旦擺脫了吵著要求得到關(guān)注的數(shù)字聒噪，你的智能手機(jī)將回歸到更接近喬布斯最初設(shè)想的角色,。它將成為一個(gè)精心設(shè)計(jì)的物品,，在一天中會(huì)偶爾出現(xiàn)，支持（而不是顛覆）你對(duì)美好生活的努力：它可以幫你找到一首完美適合在陽(yáng)光明媚的秋日下午走過(guò)城鎮(zhèn)時(shí)聽(tīng)的歌曲,；它會(huì)儲(chǔ)存前往餐廳會(huì)見(jiàn)好友的路線,；只需幾次滑動(dòng)，它就可以讓你給媽媽打個(gè)電話——然后它就可以回到你的口袋里,、你的包里或者大門(mén)一側(cè)的邊桌上,，而你則繼續(xù)從事現(xiàn)實(shí)生活里的各種事情。

Early in his 2007 keynote, Mr. Jobs said, “Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.” What he didn’t add, however, was the follow-up promise that “tomorrow, we’re going to reinvent your life.” The iPhone is a fantastic phone, but it was never meant to be the foundation for a new form of existence in which the digital increasingly encroaches on the analog. If you return this innovation to its original limited role, you’ll get more out of both your phone and your life.

早在他2007年的主題演講中,，喬布斯就曾說(shuō),，“今天，蘋(píng)果將重塑手機(jī),?！比欢麤](méi)有進(jìn)一步承諾說(shuō),，“明天,，我們將重塑你的生活,。”iPhone是一款出色的手機(jī),，但它從來(lái)無(wú)意成為數(shù)字技術(shù)日益蠶食模擬技術(shù)這種新生活方式的基礎(chǔ),。如果你讓這種創(chuàng)新產(chǎn)品回歸到其原本的有限角色，你將從手機(jī)和生活之中獲得更多,。

Cal Newport是喬治城大學(xué)一名研究計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)的副教授,，即將出版《數(shù)字極簡(jiǎn)主義：在嘈雜的世界中選擇專(zhuān)注的生活》(Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World)。