精读 苹果自带软件又添新成员:为什么是一款日记APP?​@​王芃芃

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作者：微信文章
课程导读

你是否有过这样的体验：在日记本上事无巨细地写下最近的经历、此刻的心情。若干年后，回看潦草的字迹和随意的涂鸦，都能感受到自己当时的喜悦或悲伤，并且感悟这一路以来的成长。日前，苹果手机iOS系统在一次版本更新中，推出了一款全新日记APP——Journal（手记）。作为引领未来风向的科技巨头，苹果把日记APP变成了系统内置的应用程序，这一新动向似乎表明，日记写作从线下转到线上，已是大势所趋。那么，日记究竟为何让人如此迷恋？记录媒介的改变又引发怎样的思考？



本篇课程首发于2024年3月18日

文本难度：CSE6

中英文对照版

An Analog Library of All the Lives I've Lived

我经历过的所有人生，构成的实体图书馆

Photographs and Text by Josephine Sittenfeld

①After a routine iPhone update, a new Journal app recently appeared. Intrigued, I tapped it, which led to the instruction "Enable journaling suggestions." If I agreed, my phone promised to give prompts like "Take a moment to write about something special in your life you've been taking for granted."

在iPhone手机的一次例行更新中，一款新的日记应用程序（Journal）上线了。出于兴趣，我点击了一下，接着出现了“日记启用建议”的提示。如果我点击同意，手机就会给出一些提示语，比如“花点时间写写你生活中一些特别的事情，那些你一直认为是理所当然的事情。”



②This isn't the first time outside forces have suggested I reflect on my life. When I was 9, a family member gave me a "Ramona Quimby Diary." The spiral-bound book contained a page of stickers that said "Private! Keep out!" as well as leading prompts like "The nicest person in my class is …."

这不是第一次有“外力”建议我反思自己的生活了。在我9岁的时候，家人送给我一本“雷蒙娜·昆比日记本”。这本螺旋装订的本子里有一整页贴纸，上面写着“私人物品！请勿翻阅！”，还有一些引导性的提示语，比如“我班上最好的同学是……”。



③I've kept a journal ever since. I have an oversize Tupperware bin containing dozens of musty diaries. Each is filled with anecdotes from my life, scrawled in sloppy handwriting, riddled with misspellings. They contain my shames and terrors, my crushes, my dreams, my worries and mundane accounts of more than 30 years of my life. They remind me of who I was, who I've always been and, to some extent, who I still am.

从那时起，我就一直坚持写日记。我有一个超大的特百惠牌储物箱，里面装着几十本发霉的日记。每一本都写满了我生活中的趣闻轶事，字迹潦草马虎，错别字连篇。它们容纳着我的羞耻和恐惧、我的暗恋、我的梦想，我的烦恼和我30多年生活的平凡记录。它们让我想起曾经的那个我，这一路走来的我，以及某种程度上，如今仍未改变的我。



④Paging through an old diary is an emotional, time-travel experience. If a teenager today uses the Journal app, what will her experience be decades from now? Assuming the technology exists to retrieve her writing, will revisiting an online journal have the same power to transport her back in time?

翻看旧时的日记，是种激动人心、穿越时空般的体验。如果现在的青少年选择使用这款“手记”应用程序，那几十年后的她会有怎样的体验？如果有一种技术可以检索她的文字，那么重温电子日记，是否也能让她感受穿越时空、回到过去的魔力？

生词好句

1.an analog library 一座实体的图书馆

analog adj. （本文）实体的（not digital）；模拟的

analog camera 有实体胶卷的老式相机

digital camera 数码相机

analog clock 有表盘和指针的钟表

digital clock 数字时钟

2.routine 英 [ruːˈtiːn] 美 [ruːˈtiːn] adj. 常规的

3.journal 英 [ˈdʒɜːnl] 美 [ˈdʒɜrːnəl] n. （本文）手记；日记；日报

The Wall Street Journal 《华尔街日报》

4.intrigued 英 [ɪnˈtriːɡd] 美 [ɪnˈtriːɡd] adj. 好奇的，感兴趣的

I'm intrigued to hear you out. 我想听听你的想法。

过去分词+"，"+ 句子 表示"出于.........原因，然后就......"

Concerned, she called her kids. 她很担心，所以就给孩子打了电话。

5.tap 英 [tæp] 美 [tæp] v. 点开

6.journal 英 [ˈdʒɜːnl] 美 [ˈdʒɜːnl] v. 记日记

7.promise to do 某件事将来会发生

The weather promises to be fine tomorrow.天气预报说明天天气会很好。

8.prompt 英 [prɒmpt] 美 [prɑːmpt] n. 提示

9.take a moment to do something 花时间来做某事

We need to take a moment to reflect each day. 我们每天要专门花时间进行反思。

10.take something for granted 把某物视作理所当然的

take love for granted 认为被爱是理所当然的

take peace for granted 认为和平是理所当然的

11.This isn't the first time + 完整句子  某件事不是第一次发生了

This isn't the first time you are late! 迟到这事你可不是第一次犯了！

12.reflect on 对......进行反思

reflect on one's past 反思自己的过去

reflect on one's behavior 反思自己的行为

13.spiral-bound 英 [ˌspaɪrəl ˈbaʊnd] 美 [ˌspaɪrəl ˈbaʊnd] adj. 螺旋装订的

14.keep a journal 记日记

词组辨析：write a diary vs. keep a journal

相当于 write a diary，但 keep a journal 这个表达中的 keep 强调了持续性。

15.oversize 英 [ˈəʊvəsaɪz] 美 [ˈoʊvərsaɪz] adj. 超大号的

16.bin 英 [bɪn] 美 [bɪn] n. （本文）储物箱；垃圾桶

17.dozens of 好几十个；许多

18.musty 英 [ˈmʌsti] 美 [ˈmʌsti] adj. 发霉的

19.scrawled in sloppy handwriting 字迹潦草

scrawl v. 潦草地写

sloppy handwriting 潦草的笔记

20.be riddled with ... 充满了......

riddle v. 布满；n. 谜题

The article is riddled with errors.这篇文章充满了错误。

21.crush 英 [krʌʃ] 美 [krʌʃ] n. 暗恋

have a crush on somebody 对某人动心

22.mundane 英 [mʌnˈdeɪn] 美 [mʌnˈdeɪn] adj. 平凡的，单调的

23.page through 翻阅

page n. 一页纸；翻书页

page through today's newspaper 大致浏览今天的报纸

page through a magazine 快速翻看杂志

24.retrieve 英 [rɪˈtriːv] 美 [rɪˈtriːv] v. （本文）检索，读取；找回

the golden retriever 金毛犬

25.transport somebody back in time 把某人送回过去

The historical movie transported the audience back in time. 这部历史片让观众感觉好像回到过去了一样。

英文原文

An Analog Library of All the Lives I’ve Lived

Photographs and Text by Josephine Sittenfeld

@The New York Times March 2, 2024

After a routine iPhone update, a new Journal app recently appeared. Intrigued, I tapped it, which led to the instruction “Enable journaling suggestions.” If I agreed, my phone promised to give prompts like “Take a moment to write about something special in your life you’ve been taking for granted” and “Take a look around you and take a picture of something you’ve overlooked. What do you notice about it?”

Apple is attempting to lure me into the world of Journaling 2.0, complete with the help of artificial intelligence. The app promises meaningful reflection, apparently gleaned from my phone usage, that I can share with people around me via Bluetooth. In the multipage permissions, the creepiest line explained that all I would have to do is tap a button for the app to utilize “information about your workouts, media use, communications and photos,” which would “create meaningful suggestions for you.”

This isn’t the first time outside forces have suggested I reflect on my life. About 34 years ago, when I was 9, a family member gave me a “Ramona Quimby Diary.” The spiral-bound book contained a page of stickers that said, “Extra special!” and “Private! Keep out!” as well as leading prompts like, “This month I was really happy when …” and “The nicest person in my class is ….” Around then, a friend of my parents gave me another journal, with the title “My Private World.” That cover has a pensive, apron-wearing, barefoot girl seated under a sinewy tree, nestled alongside a dog, two cats and a book, with rolling mountains in the distance. I’ve never felt a connection to the girl, blissfully lost in thought in her bucolic setting. But the journal’s title? That spoke to me. It still does.

I’ve kept a journal ever since. I have an oversize Tupperware bin in my basement containing dozens of musty diaries. Each is filled with anecdotes from my life, scrawled in sloppy handwriting, riddled with misspellings. They’re filled with rants about friends, family and feelings. They contain my shames and terrors, my crushes, my dreams (both literal and figurative), my worries and mundane accounts of more than 30 years of my life. Like a boy with a porn stash under his mattress, I’ve always carefully tucked them away, embarrassed they exist.

I hold on to these journals because when I feel discombobulated and lost, reading through who I was at 14 or 19 or 25 years old helps connect me to myself. Paging through the diaries now, I’m startled to realize how far I’ve come and also how little I’ve changed. In Journal No. 1, I’m a 9-year-old living in Ohio. I’m 4 feet 5 inches tall, weigh 75 pounds and feel a kinship with Curious George. In Journal No. 11, I’m 20, working for my college professor on an archaeological dig in Syria and flirting with a German man twice my age. Journal No. 19 leaves off in June 2009, when, unbeknown to me, life is about to pivot: In a month I’ll become engaged, in six months I’ll be married, and in a year I’ll be pregnant with my first child.

It’s not just their contents that are interesting time capsules. I am also drawn back to their covers. Teenage me decorated them with political stickers, funny headlines, inspiring fortune cookie fortunes. Young adult me used postcards from my travels and darkroom contact sheets. I collaged the covers in order to express myself to myself, lovingly crafting keepsakes for an audience of one. At some point I numbered each book with a black Sharpie, but even these “permanent” markings are now wearing off.

Returning to these covers makes me think about girlhood, secrets, memories and the passage of time. It’s not lost on me that I work as a photographer, meaning I document people and events for posterity. I’m paid to be a memory maker and keeper. I’ve made a career trafficking in nostalgia.

I recently photographed my diaries set against sentimental garments: delicate, pint-size floral dresses my mom saved from the 1980s and stretched-out extra-large T-shirts from the 1990s. By making these photographs, I entered a portal to my youth, simultaneously connecting with my angsty, decorative, teenage self and appreciating her from afar. They remind me of who I was, who I’ve always been and, to some extent, who I still am. Whether or not it’s healthy, on some level, holding on to the stuff of my youthmakes it more bearable to swallow the fact that time is always, incessantly, marching on.

Which brings me back to that iPhone update. I still don’t fully understand Apple’s new Journal app. If it weren’t for the eerie fact that it mines phone usage to prompt reflection, I would be open to trying it. Regardless, I’m curious what changes when journaling moves into the cloud. Paging through an old diary is an emotional, time-travel experience. If a teenager today uses the Journal app, what will her experience be decades from now? Assuming the technology exists to retrieve her writing, will revisiting an online journal have the same power to transport her back in time? What’s her online equivalent of me holding the crispy, lined pages of my spiral-bound books from decades ago, touching the stickers, seeing my childhood handwriting and doodles in the margins?