No cell signal, no Wi-Fi, no problem
Viral ( ) dance memes ( ) and dance challenges on TikTok largely bypass ( ) Green Bank, West Virginia. So do viral sensations like augmented reality filters ( ) on Snapchat and Instagram.
And when a Facebook fad had people all over the globe dumping ice water on their heads a few summers ago, Charity Warder, now a senior at Pocahontas County High School, was late to the game.
Sure, Charity has an iPhone, but she uses it mostly as a clock and a calculator. She makes phone calls from a landline, and she rarely texts her friends. Texting and driving? “It’s not a thing here,” she said.
When Charity wants to get online at home, she sits at her family’s desktop computer, which has a broadband connection that is so sluggish ( ), it takes minutes to load a YouTube video.
Welcome to Green Bank, population 143, where Wi-Fi is both unavailable and banned and where cellphone signals are nonexistent.
The near radio silence is a requirement for those living close to the town’s most prominent ( ) and demanding resident, the Green Bank Observatory, home to the world’s largest fully steerable ( ) radio telescope. To protect the sensitive equipment from interference ( ), the federal government in 1958 established the National Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000-square-mile area near the state’s border with Virginia.
The observatory’s telescope “could detect your phone on Saturn in airplane mode,” states a sign outside its science center building, but is rendered ( ) much weaker if anyone uses electronics that emit radio waves. For those who live within 10 miles of the observatory, the limitations also include a ban on Bluetooth devices and microwaves, unless they are contained in a metal box, known as a Faraday cage, which blocks electromagnetic fields.
Nearly 15 million Americans live in sparsely ( ) populated communities where there is no broadband internet service at all, a stark ( ) digital divide across America between those with access to uber-fast connections and those with none.
But in Green Bank, where the restrictions are mandatory, the quiet zone has in many ways created a time warp ( ) in the mountainous region. Phone booths loom ( ) near barns and stand guard on rural roads. Paper maps are still common. Here, people are less distracted by the technologies that have come to dominate 21st-century American life.
At a time when nearly 60% of American teens say they have been bullied or harassed ( ) online, and studies have found links between social media use and teen mental health problems, the digital limitations around Green Bank have created a unique kind of modern childhood, providing a glimpse into what it means to grow up without the constant buzz ( ) of texting and social media.
沒手機訊號、沒無線網路的無憂
在美國西維吉尼亞州綠岸鎮，人們看不到短影音應用程式「抖音」大多數的網路爆紅舞步和改編舞步挑戰。這個地方的人也看不到擴增實境濾鏡等在社群軟體Snapchat和Instagram上爆紅的事物。
而在幾年前夏天，臉書掀起一陣風潮，使全球各地網友紛紛朝自己頭上傾倒冰塊和水時，目前已是波卡洪塔絲縣高中畢業班學生的Charity Warder，很晚才加入這行列。
查瑞蒂是有支iPhone，但她多半用來當鬧鐘和計算機。她只打固網電話，很少傳簡訊給朋友。邊傳簡訊邊開車？她說：「這裡沒這種事。」
查瑞蒂想在家上網時，就坐在全家共用的桌上型電腦前，電腦連接的寬頻網路非常慢，要花上好幾分鐘才能載入一支YouTube影片。
歡迎來到綠岸這個僅143人的小鎮，這裡既沒無線網路也不准使用，更沒有手機訊號。
綠岸天文台是鎮裡最出名且要求最多的「住戶」，世界最大的全可動射電望遠鏡即設置於此，而幾乎禁絕無線電則為其附近居民必須接受的要求。為了保護這裡的精密設備不受干擾，聯邦政府1958年將西維吉尼亞州靠近維吉尼亞州、約3萬4000平方公里的區域劃為「國家無線電寂靜特區」。
綠岸天文台科學中心大樓外的告示牌寫道，這個天文台的望遠鏡很敏銳，「即使手機開飛航模式放在土星上，望遠鏡都偵測得到」，不過若有人使用會發射無線電波的電子產品，望遠鏡偵測能力就會大為減弱。天文台方圓16公里內的居民甚至連藍牙裝置和微波爐都不准使用，除非把這些裝置放在名為「法拉第籠」的金屬籠裡，這種籠子能阻隔電磁場。
近1500萬美國人住在全無寬頻網路的人煙稀少地帶，與美國各地得以使用超快網路的人形成強烈對比。
不過，在強制執行這些限制的綠岸，寂靜特區使這多山地帶在許多方面出現時間錯位現象。電話亭赫然出現在穀倉附近，並佇立在鄉間道路旁。紙本地圖仍盛行。這裡的人比較不會為主導21世紀美國人生活的科技而分心。
近六成美國青少年表示曾遭受網路霸凌和騷擾，而且研究顯示使用社群媒體和青少年出現心理健康問題有關，在這當口，綠岸對數位技術的限制創造出一種獨特的現代童年生活，讓人一窺不在簡訊和社群媒體持續的訊息轟炸下長大，會是什麼樣貌。
#高雄人 #學習英文 請找 #多益達人林立英文
#高中英文 #成人英文
#多益家教班 #商用英文
#國立大學外國語文學系講師
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