網絡社交讓人與世隔絕

They call themselves social networking sites but now it appears that the likes of Twitter and Facebook could be downright anti-social. A leading academic claims that the technology is threatening to dominate our lives, making us more isolated and "less human."

Professor Sherry Turkle has even branded the use of the social networking sites a form of "modern madness."

She argues that, under the illusion of allowing us to communicate better, technology is isolating us from real human interactions in a cyber-reality that is a poor imitation of the real world。

Professor Turkle, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the US, is leading an attack on the information age with her book Alone Together。

The professor even suggests social networking can make us mad, citing "pathological behaviour"she has witnessed, such as mourners at funerals checking their iPhones。

Her book is part of an intellectual backlash in America calling for the people to devote less time to sites such as Twitter。

Other American academics have criticized the growing trend of internet activity. One, Professor William Kist, of Kent State University in Ohio, has cited the death in Brighton of Simone Back who posted her suicide note on Facebook at Christmas。

Not one of 42-year-old Miss Back's 1,058 "friends" on the site called for help. Instead they traded insults on her page。

However, defenders of Twitter and Facebook claim social media has many benefits and has, for example, led to more communication for people who are separated by long distances。臉譜網、推特這些自稱社交網絡的網站其實有違社交功能的初衷，一位知名學者稱技術正一點點蠶食我們的生活，讓人們更加隔絕孤立，人情味越來越淡。

學者謝莉•圖科爾甚至宣稱使用社交網站本身就是一種“現代病態”。

她說，技術聲稱可以促進交流，實際上卻讓人們在虛擬的世界裏與現實隔絕，剝奪與真人交流互動的機會。

美國麻省理工大學的圖科爾教授在她的新書《集體孤獨》中，抨擊了這個信息時代。

她甚至認爲社交網站讓人失去理智，出現"病態行爲"，如在葬禮上玩兒iPhone。

圖科爾教授的新書代表了美國知識分子的反思，呼籲人們少上諸如推特這樣的網站。

一些美國知識分子也對網絡活動日益活躍這一趨勢表示擔憂，俄亥俄州的肯特州立大學教授威廉•基斯特提及布萊頓的西蒙•班克就在聖誕節時臉譜網上發表了自殺留言。

然而也有人爲推特和臉譜辯護，稱社交網站益處很多，例如，可以幫助分隔兩地的人們更加容易的交流。