雅思课外读物--Can you survive university without social media?

2016年04月15日15:19 来源：互联网

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这篇雅思阅读素材是要跟大家分享关于“社交媒体”的话题。睁眼查微信，吃饭刷微博，没事儿上上脸书，有事儿也不忘瞄眼推特……恨不得把所有信息翻个底朝天，生怕遗漏一丁点儿推送。真是“药”不能停啊!而有人下定决心“珍爱生命，远离社交媒体”，然而，没过几天便“浪子回头”，对社交工具爱恨交加(love-hate relationship)。有人直呼，不让使用这些社交媒体(social media)工具，那还让不让人好好活了?!

University can be the most sociable(社交的，好交际的)time of your life. With student nights, academic events and halls parties aplenty(adj. 丰富的), anyone can be a socialite(社交达人).

But a packed (拥挤的) events calendar requires management, and for most students, social media is the glue that holds packed social diaries together. Facebook will let you know if Quidditch practice魁地奇球赛(出自《哈利·波特》系列故事)is cancelled, Twitter can promote your DJ set in 140 characters(注：推特限字140), and your student union’s Instagram account will alert you when Snoop Dogg is chilling(放松，休息)on your campus.

These tools have made the world increasingly connected, and most students wouldn’t consider shunning(避开，回避)them at such a sociable stage of their lives. But social media is by no means a requirement at university, and many do without (没有也行) .

“I’m a private person and don’t feel the need to share everything with everybody I know,” says CatyForster, 20, a student at the University of Manchester, who has never used Facebook or Twitter. Despite social media’s proclaimed(标榜的)benefits, Forster is largely indifferent(漠不关心的，冷淡的). “Social media was just never something that particularly interested me.”

Bethany Elgood, 25, stopped using Facebook after splitting with(和…分手)a long-term boyfriend. During her first year at Norwich University of the Arts, she discovered his new relationship via Facebook. “I developed a bit of an anxiety towardst he social media platforms that contain lots of personal details,” she says.(她说：“我从此对社交媒体平台产生了焦虑，因为里面有大量的隐私细节。”)

I quit Facebook in 2011, when I was in year 13. I left because, not only was I bored of passively scrolling through(滚动)my newsfeed(信息推送，新闻推送), I was also experiencing anxiety. To me, Facebook meant clickbait(点击诱饵) and nosing around(窥探，探听)people’slives.

Occasionally, the latter would trigger Facebook envy – pessimism fuelled by comparing yourself to others online.(后者时常令人心生醋意——拿自己和他人比较后更产生一种悲观情绪。)I deleted my account, and for three years, I didn’t regret a thing.

People would ask: “How do you keep in touch with people?” and “Won’t you miss out on stuff?” During my first week at University of East Anglia (UEA), I was interrogated(询问，审问，质问)like a mobster(暴徒)gone rogue(胡闹). I whittled down(逐渐减少)my comprehensive answers to weary(令人厌烦的)grunts(咕哝)about the wonders of text messaging. (把发送文本信息夸得天花乱坠的言论令人厌烦，对此，我逐渐不再详细回应。)As Elgood says: “There could be an element of net working that I maybe missing out on, but how would I know?”

Ignorance is bliss(极乐). But it has also been the root of some very awkward situations. In the social media-lite days of MySpace, I was never accidentally missed off party guestlists. But thanks to Facebook invites, this is now standard procedure. I had to start asking people straight-up whetherthey had forgotten me.

I gained a superhuman shamelessness,(我变得超级无敌厚脸皮) and the week before a birthday, I would tell friends: “It’s my birthday next Thursday.Any token (表示，标记)of affection would be great. A birthday hug, a card, chocolate...” A lot of people forget your birthday if you’re not on Facebook.

Regardless, I wasn’t initially tempted to re-join social media at university. I was in agreement with Forster, who says:“I never feel like I’m missing out too much. I don’t feel like I’d have anything valuable to share or gain from it.”