We will, thanks to its updates, properly understand what is going on and where importance lies.

由於它的不斷更新，我們將正確地瞭解正在發生的事情以及重要性在何處。

But if we examine the role of this phenomenon with greater skepticism, we may find that it is as responsible for blinding us to ourselves as for introducing us to the complexities of so-called reality.

但如果我們以更多的疑心審視這一現象的角色，我們可能會發現它在矇蔽我們真實自我以及向我們介紹所謂現實的複雜這兩個面向，都負了同等責任。

The presence of the news continuously, albeit slyly, encourages us to forget entirely what we actually feel in relation to certain events.

新聞的存在不斷地（儘管是狡猾地）鼓勵我們完全忘記自己對於某些事件的實際感受。

The way stories are told invariably promotes one particular set of responses:

故事被講述的方式無一例外地促進了一組特定的反應：

This is outrageous, he is bad, this is tragic, she is a victim, they are repulsive....

這太離譜了、他是壞人、這是悲劇、她是受害者、他們是令人厭惡的⋯⋯

These verdicts may seem entirely fair, but only too often, to an extent we are bullied into forgetting they don’t quite.

這些判決可能看起來完全公平，但在某種程度上，我們常被脅迫到忘記它們其實不完全公平。

We might, in our hearts, oddly but authentically, not think that something is such a tragedy after all.

我們內心可能奇怪但真實地不認為某件事終究是如此的悲劇。

We might not really care in the least about something which we have been repeatedly pressed to think is vital.

我們可能一點也不關心那些我們已經不斷被強迫認為是重要的事情。

We might fancy someone we're definitely meant to hate.

我們可能會喜歡上一個我們無疑注定要討厭的人。

The news quietly closes off alternative avenues of investigation and response.

新聞報導悄悄地關閉了調查和應對的其它途徑。

At its core, the news is opposed to introspection.

新聞的核心是反對自省。

It doesn’t want us to know ourselves better, and compulsively disconnects our emotions from their true but often hard-to-grasp targets.

它不希望我們更好地瞭解自己，並且強迫性地阻斷我們的情感與它們真實但時常難以把握的目標。

It takes our nascent feelings of anger, for example, and redirects them away from our acquaintances or early care-givers to causes that aren’t remotely for us to bother with.

舉例而言，它將我們新生的憤怒情緒從生活中熟人或早期照顧者身上轉移到那些跟我們不相關到不想管的事業。

It co-opts our fears to an ever-changing roster of monsters and thereby blinds us to what we really need to be vigilant about before it’s too late.

它將我們的恐懼強拉進一個不斷變化的怪物名單上，從而使我們看不到在為時已晚前真正應該提高警覺的的東西。

Because of the prestige that we have collectively accorded to the news, the hurried judgements of skittish third-rate minds are allowed to determine nothing less than our view of "normality".

由於我們集體賦予新聞的威望，對於易變三流思想的匆忙判斷被允許決定我們對「正常」的看法。

It is almost universally taken to be sensible to "catch up on the news" rather than, as is actually the case, for the most part extremely dangerous and irrelevant.

幾乎所有的人都認為「跟上新聞」是明智的，而不是（正如實際情況一樣）在大多數情況下是極其危險和不相關的。

There is almost nothing we really need to know outside of what has happened in our own heads and in the lives of ten or so people who count on us.

除了我們腦中正在上演的事件以及仰賴我們時來人的生活之外，幾乎沒有什麼是我們真正需要知道的。

We would surely be made to feel untenably odd if we decided, as really we should, that we were, from now on, going to check the news only once a week.

如果我們決定（其實我們應該這樣決定）從現在開始，我們每週只看一次新聞，肯定會不得不感到自己是難以忍受地怪異。

And the rest of the time, devote ourselves to exploring the contents of our soul via meditative reflection.

其餘時間都要把自己奉獻給透過冥想反思，致力探索我們靈魂。

While pretending to inform us about the state of the world, the news has become a formidable instrument of self-forgetting.

在假裝向我們通報世界狀況的同時，新聞已經成為一個強大的自我忘卻的工具。

"How to Survive the Modern World" is a guide to coping with the present.

《如何在現代世界生存》是一本應付現實生活的指引。

It explores why some key features of modern life, including capitalism, advertising, mass media, and the rise of individualism, can have harmful effects on our psychological health.

它探討包含資本主義、廣告、大眾傳媒和自我主義崛起等現代生活面向會如何對我們的心理健康造成有害影響。