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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Good morning. Until this week I’d not heard of iRights. It’s a campaign to enable young people under the age of 18 to edit and delete content they’ve created online. Already the NSPCC and Barclays are among the charities and companies backing the idea. The Children’s Commissioner1 is examining the possibility. Social media has meant that an adverse2 online remark about a first employer or an indiscreet photograph can be accessible years afterwards. Such things can harm a young person’s future. Even if they don’t, they can haunt someone so much their self-confidence is destroyed.
Most of us edit our personal histories more than we probably admit. Our CVs and profiles are tailored to focus on the things we think are most positive about us. We don’t usually include past failures and stupidities.
But can the delete button really wipe out the unfortunate or unseemly bits of our personal history? I doubt it’s quite so easy, though how we deal with our regrets really matters.
The Church has long encouraged confession3 as an integral part of the Christian4 life. An acknowledgement of sins and mistakes is met with a declaration of God’s forgiveness. Not deletion but absolution.
What’s good about the iRights campaign is that young people will be encouraged to take responsibility for their own past mistakes. Without doing so, none of us can grow as moral beings. Someone who wrote about this a couple of generations ago was the novelist Dorothy L Sayers. She once commented that even in the 1940s she was unusual in reckoning her personal problems were so clearly the result of her own sins and mistakes. She said “most people today look upon themselves as victims of undeserved misfortunes which they have done nothing to provoke.”
Sacramental confession - someone making their confession to a priest and receiving God’s forgiveness – has sometimes been criticised for being too formulaic, a bit like pressing a divine delete button. Yet it’s meant to encourage realism about our weaknesses, a way of taking responsibility for our sins and shortcomings, and resolving to live a better life. As I read of young people regretting what they’ve posted online and longing5 for a fresh start I want to support them. The very act of considering what they regret is a possible first step to a more morally responsible life. I’m rather grateful to have grown up in an era when our adolescent indiscretions were not preserved in an iCloud. Encountering young people worried about their online history I instinctively6 think “there but for the grace of God go I.” And I expect I’m not alone.
早上好。本周之前，我从来没听说过“互联网权利”。这是一项运动，允许18岁以下的年轻人在互联网上编辑和删除他们曾经发表的内容。许多慈善组织和公司已经表示支持该提议，全国防止虐待儿童协会(NSPCC)和巴克莱银行就在其中。儿童专员正在查看其可能性。社交媒体表示，几年以后，关于第一雇主的负面网络评论或不慎重的照片都会被看到。这样的内容会危害年轻人的未来。即使没那么严重，也会让他们耿耿于怀，损害他们的自信心。
我们大部分人比我们承认的更经常编辑个人历史。我们的简历和个人简介经过剪裁，集中在我们认为对自己更加积极的事情。我们通常不会提及过去的失败和愚蠢。
但是，删除键真的能够删除我们过去的个人历史中不幸的或者不恰当的事情吗？我怀疑这一点非常简单。但是我们如何应对这些遗憾则非常重要。
基督教堂长期以来都鼓励忏悔作为基督徒生活不可分割的部分。承认罪行和错误可以得到上帝的宽恕。不是删除而是宽恕。
互联网权利运动好的方面是，年轻人将受到鼓励，为自己过去的错误承担责任。否则，任何人都不能成长为有道德的人。几十年前，小说家多萝西·L.塞耶斯就曾写到这一点。她曾经评论，即使在上世纪40年代，她在明确反省自己的问题，认识自己的罪行和错误方面也不同寻常。她说，“今天大部分人都认为自己是不应承受的不幸的受害者，他们没有做任何事引起这些不幸。”
告解——某人向神父忏悔，受到上帝的宽恕——有时因为太公式化而受到批评，有点像按下神赐的删除键。然而，这意味着鼓励人们意识到我们的弱点，为自己的罪恶和缺点承担责任，决心过更好的生活。当我读到年轻人后悔自己曾经发表在互联网上的内容，渴望全新的开始时，我决定支持他们。考虑让自己后悔的行为是在道德方面更加负责的第一步。我很幸运地生活在青少年不慎重的举止不会保存在云笔记的时代。鼓励年轻人担忧他们的网络在线历史，我本能地想到，“多亏有上帝的恩惠施予我们。”我期望我不是唯一的一个。
收听单词发音 |
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commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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adverse
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| adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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