Whether personal or political, the problem with the very public lives we now all live is essentially the same. People generally arrive at positions through trial, error and experimentation. They mature by making mistakes and learning from them. But if you feel the mic is always on, you're far more likely to do something anodyne for the record than think of something creative and take risks for all to see. The power to transmit amplifies not just the audience, but the consequences.
Less filth. Less fun. Less candour. We are experiencing the Hawthorne effect, in whichstudying behaviour alters the behaviour itself, writ large. And while greater transparency may be one of the main outcomes, greater inhibition is no less so.
Hawthorne effect 霍桑效应(指工人、学生等因受到研究人员的关注而增加产量或提高成绩)
To a large extent, this is a problem of our own making. Our personal diaries are, in no small part, an open book because we open them. We put details about ourselves out into the ether that often forfeit our right to privacy. It is now not uncommon to see relationships disintegrate in real time as long-term partners air grievances openly online.
to a large extent 在很大程度上
forfeit n. 没收物，罚金 v.[T] 没收，丧失 a. 被没收，被罚
The personal, the private, the privileged and the confidential no longer really exist. The stories we would otherwise choose not to share are no longer ours to keep; the conversations we hope will go no further may just keep traveling. A remark may be off-the-cuff or off-the-top-of-your-head – but nowadays, you must always assume it's on the record.
Question time:
1. What's the influence on politics when the limits of candour are constantly breached?
2. Why did the auther say that the personal, the private, the privileged and the confidential no longer really existed?
【参考答案】
1. On one hand, it forces elites out into the open where their deliberations and pronouncements might be judged against their actions. However, on the other hand, what we have is not more openness, but more gaffes.
2. Because with blogs, tweets, webcams, Facebook and YouTube, there is always a mic or camera somewhere and it is always running.
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