经济学人下载:巴托比职场专栏--城市孤独病(2)

Perhaps this relates to human history. Mass urbanisation is a relatively recent development; if the history of human existence was squeezed into a single day, the Industrial Revolution did not occur until almost midnight. For much of that time, humans lived in small groups of hunter-gatherers; cities may just overwhelm the senses. 

也许这与人类历史有关。大规模城市化是一个相对较新的发展；如果把人类存在的历史压缩为一天，那么工业革命直到午夜才发生。大部分时间里，人类都以狩猎采集者的身份生活在小群体中；城市可能会淹没人们的感官。

Ms Hertz points her finger at two more recent developments. The first is social media. The internet has led to much cyber-bullying (although it has also been a source of companionship during the lockdown). And people glued to their smartphones spend less time interacting socially. But Robert Putnam noticed a tendency towards solitary activity in his book “Bowling Alone”, published in 2000, well before the creation of Facebook, Twitter and other distractions. 

赫兹女士指出了两个最新的进展情况。首先是社交媒体。互联网引发了许多网络暴力（尽管互联网在封锁期间也是一种友谊来源）。而且，专注于智能手机的人花在社交上的时间更少。但是罗伯特·普特南在2000年出版的《独自打保龄球》一书中就注意到了一种孤独活动的趋势，这远远早于Facebook、Twitter和其他娱乐事物的问世。

The second culprit cited by Ms Hertz is “neoliberalism”, which she defines as a “minimum state, maximum markets” approach. But it is hard to believe that state retreat is as decisive a factor in the loneliness pandemic as she suggests; after all, in 1990 the government of the average advanced economy spent 42% of GDP, and the proportion is the same today, according to the IMF. 

赫兹女士提到的第二个罪魁祸首是“新自由主义”，她将其定义为“最小国家，最大市场”的方法。但很难相信，国家倒退是她所谓的孤独大流行的决定性因素；毕竟，根据国际货币基金组织的数据，1990年发达经济体的政府平均支出占GDP的42%，而今天的支出所占比例也是一样的。

Some changes in behaviour are down to individual choice. Before the pandemic no one was stopping people going to church or taking part in sports. They simply preferred to do other things. Indeed, one reason for the decline in communal activities is that men choose to be with their families rather than head to the bar; American fathers spend three times as much time with their children as they did in the 1960s. That is surely a welcome development. 

行为上的一些变化取决于个人的选择。在新冠疫情之前，没有人阻止人们去教堂或参加体育活动。他们只是更喜欢做其他事情。事实上，公共活动减少的一个原因是，男性选择与家人呆在一起，而不是去酒吧；美国父亲与子女在一起的时间是20世纪60年代时的三倍，这无疑是一个可喜的发展。

So recreating a communal society may be difficult. When the pandemic ends, people may relish the chance to be with their neighbours and colleagues for a while. But the trend is clear. Technology means that people can get their entertainment at home, and work there, too. It is convenient but it also leads to loneliness. Society will be grappling with this trade-off for decades to come. 

因此，重建一个公共社会可能很困难。当疫情结束时，人们可能会享受与邻居和同事相处一段时间的机会。但趋势很明显。科技意味着人们可以在家里娱乐，也可以在家里工作。这很方便，但也会导致孤独。未来几十年，社会将努力解决这一问题。