Imagine this. Quite by chance, your TikTok feed presents you with footage(视频片段) of the fascists(法西斯分子) who recently took part in highly organised shows of strength(力量展示、示威) in Dover and Portsmouth(英国南部两座港口城市) (and, on Wednesday, outside the London offices of the Daily Mail(英国著名小报), demanding a new house for the mother of their leader, Daniel “Tommo” Thomas). For as long as the images hold your attention, you see and hear flashes of explanation, but then, as usual, you scroll away to someone leaping off a tall building, a fight on the London Underground, or a trick-performing dog.(只要画面还能抓住你的注意力，你就能看到、听到零星的解释，但随后你照例一划，转向跳楼的人、地铁斗殴或耍把戏的狗。)
想象一下这样的场景。你纯属偶然地在 TikTok 信息流里刷到一段视频，画面里是最近在 Dover 和 Portsmouth 举行高度组织化“力量展示”的法西斯分子（周三他们还出现在伦敦《每日邮报》办公楼外，要求给其头目丹尼尔·“汤莫”·托马斯的母亲安排一套新房子）。只要这些画面还能抓住你的注意力，你就能看到、听到零星的解释，但随后，和往常一样，你手指一划，转向了从高楼跳下的人、伦敦地铁里的斗殴，或者一只表演把戏的狗。
Hypothetically(假设地、理论上), TikTok users are able to skip through 260 videos in under 35 minutes. And it’s this distracted, quick-fire(连珠炮式的、快速的) way that so many people receive information that may be responsible for a worrying statistic from YouGov(英国知名民调机构) last week. Its poll on the Dover and Portsmouth events showed that 53% of people aged 18-24 years old simply didn’t have a point of view on whether the masked demonstrations were “a legitimate(合法的、正当的) way of protesting”. Further, 43% of those of all ages were either unaware(不知道的、未察觉的) of the story, or not following it at all.
假设一下，TikTok 用户能在不到 35 分钟内划过 260 条视频。而正是这种心不在焉、快速连发式的信息接收方式，可能造成了 YouGov 上周一项令人担忧的统计结果。该机构就 Dover 和 Portsmouth 事件所做的民调显示，18 至 24 岁人群中，有 53% 对蒙面示威是否算“合法的抗议方式”根本没有看法。此外，所有年龄段中有 43% 的人要么不知道这件事，要么完全没在关注。
Those figures probably highlight one of the most worrying aspects of the times we live in: the decline(衰落、下降) of reading. Millions of us know what that phenomenon feels like: trying desperately to keep your attention glued to(让注意力紧贴、全神贯注于) a book or news article with the nagging(挥之不去的、纠缠的) certainty that you will be tempted back to the more ephemeral(短暂的、转瞬即逝的) attractions offered by your phone. But a background in the pre-digital world helps people not just follow national and global events, but clarify and contextualise them. In this case, at the risk of sounding hopelessly pompous(冒着听起来无比迂腐的风险), the fear many of us felt as we watched what happened in both ports was surely full of the perspectives gleaned(搜集到的、一点点获得的) from years of soaking up(吸收、沉浸于) books and newspapers – and the sense that history often either repeats itself, or rhymes.
这些数字或许凸显了我们这个时代最令人担忧的方面之一：阅读的衰落。我们中许多人都知道那种感觉：拼命想让注意力黏在书本或新闻文章上，却始终有个挥之不去的确定感——你终会被手机提供的更短暂易逝的诱惑勾回去。然而，在数字时代之前成长起来的背景，不仅帮助人们跟进国家和全球事件，还能澄清并赋予它们语境。就这件事而言，冒着听起来无比迂腐的风险，我们许多人在观看两座港口发生的一切时所感到的恐惧，无疑充满了多年浸淫书报所获得的视角——以及那种历史常常要么重演、要么押韵的感觉。