原文：

　　In barely one generation we’ve moved from exulting in the time-saving devices that have so expanded our lives to trying to get away from them-often in order to make more time. The more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug. Like teenagers, we appear to have gone from knowing nothing about the world to knowing too much all but overnight.

　　翻译：过去，我们因使用生活中无处不在的节时设备而欣喜若狂，但仅仅一代之隔，我们却又由于希望能更多利用时间而对它们敬而远之。我们接触到这些设备的途径越多样化，越来越多的人群反而极度渴望远离这些设备。像青少年一样，仅仅一夜之间，我们似乎已经从对世界一无所知变成无所不知。

　　原文：

　　The average American teenager sends or receives 75 text messages a day. Since luxury, as any economist will tell you, is a function of scarcity, the children of tomorrow will crave nothing more than freedom, if only for a short while, from all the blinking machines, streaming videos and scrolling headlines that leave them feeling empty and too full all at once.

　　翻译：美国青少年平均每天发送或接受75个文本信息。正如经济学家所说，物以稀为贵。因此如果所有灯光闪烁的机器、川流不息的视频以及滚滚而来的标题让我们下一代的孩子们感到应接不暇却又内心空虚，那么对于他们来说，他们所渴望的只有哪怕片刻的自由。

　　原文：

　　The urgency of slowing down — to find the time and space to think — is nothing new, of course, and wiser souls have always reminded us that the more attention we pay to the moment, the less time and energy we have to place it in some larger context. “Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for miseries.” the French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in the 17th century.” and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries. “ He also famously remarked that all of man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

　　翻译：目前我们迫切需要的是减缓生活节奏，从而找到用于思考的时间和空间，这当然已经是老生常谈。智者们经常提醒我们需要站在当下，着眼大局，节约时间，节省能源。17世纪，法国哲学家Blaise Pascal的笔下曾写过： “ 我们如欲从不幸中寻求慰藉，唯一的途径就是分散注意，而这本身就是我们最大的不幸”。他还提出人类所有的问题均源自无法独居一室，静心思考，这成为了他的又一名言。

 (实习编辑：高奕飞)