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应用程序带你迈向懒人社会

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When Christopher Kennedy recently wanted his car washed, he parked his car near a San Francisco Starbucks, pulled out his phone and told an app called Cherry where the red Scion was located. About 20 minutes later, a professional car cleaner arrived at his unlocked car and cleaned it inside and out.


不久的一天，32岁的网页设计师克里斯托弗•肯尼迪(Christopher Kennedy)想洗一下自己的车子，于是他把车停在了旧金山一家星巴克(Starbucks)的附近，掏出手机、在一款名为"Cherry"的应用程序上说明了自己那辆红色赛恩车(Scion)的位置。大约20分钟后，一名专业洗车工就到达他的停车地点，把他未上锁的车子里里外外洗了一遍。



'It is incredibly easy,' says the 32-year-old Web designer, who worked on his laptop and sipped a caramel macchiato inside the coffee shop while the $35 carwash took place around the corner.


肯尼迪说，"这非常简单。"洗车工在附近为他洗车时，他则坐在咖啡店内用笔记本电脑上网，喝着焦糖玛奇朵。这次洗车服务花了他35美元。



It is getting simpler to be slothful in a world where there is now an app for everything, including tiresome chores. Don't want to wait in line at Chipotle? You can hire an assistant via Exec to place, pick up and deliver your order. Can't be bothered to do your laundry? TaskRabbit will find someone to do it for you. Too tired to pick up toilet paper? Postmates Inc.'s Get It Now app will have it to you within an hour.


在当今世界，每一件事情，包括令人厌倦的生活琐事在内，都有相应的应用程序。不想在Chipotle餐馆排队？你可以通过Exec雇一名助手来为你订餐、取餐并且送餐上门。懒得自己洗衣服？TaskRabbit可以找人替你洗。累得不想去买卫生纸？没关系，Postmates公司的应用程序"Get It Now"会在一小时内把它送到你的手上。



The services have mainly been embraced by the young and the tech-savvy in major urban centers like San Francisco and New York, but interest is spreading. Developers say the apps help people save time and create new job opportunities for thousands of local workers who respond to the requests. But are these apps tempting us to unload tasks we would benefit from doing ourselves?


这些服务主要受到旧金山和纽约等大都市的年轻人和科技发烧友的追捧，不过其影响正在逐渐扩散。软件开发公司称，这些应用程序可帮助人们节省时间，并为待命提供服务的几千名本地员工创造新的就业机会。但是，这些程序是否也在吸引我们推脱原本自己来做会有好处的事情呢？



The apps 'give us more reasons not to talk to the person standing next to us,' says Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, who says the services are cementing our obsession with mobile devices, which can make us socially isolated. People might begin to outsource tasks they should do for good psychological health -- ones that involve talking to other people face-to-face, such as wishing someone a happy birthday.


加州州立大学多明尼戈斯山分校(California State University Dominguez Hills)心理学教授拉里•罗森(Larry Rosen)称，这些应用程序"为我们提供了更多不和身边的人说话的理由"。他认为，这些服务加重了我们对移动设备的痴迷，可能会使我们变得与社会隔绝。人们可能会开始将有益于心理健康状况而应该自己做的事情交给别人做，比如说为别人送上生日祝福这样需要与人面对面交谈的事情。



Bo Fishback, chief executive of local help-hunting service Zaarly, says he's mindful of the risks. Now that we can outsource virtually anything, 'are we taking three giant steps down the path of creating the laziest society on earth?' he wonders. On the flip side, however, he says the services are fueling a boom in new businesses.


本地求助服务公司Zaarly的首席执行长博•菲什巴克(Bo Fishback)称，他也意识到了上述这些风险。他心想，现在我们几乎可以把任何一件事情交给别人做，如此一来"我们是不是在建立世界上最懒惰的社会这条路上迈出了几大步？"不过，他也说道，另一方面这些服务推动了新企业的繁荣发展。



Mr. Fishback says Zaarly focuses on skilled services, like hiring a musician to play at a party, not those that 'fuel sloth and laziness.' He says the service has removed requests for students trying to outsource writing their term papers, for example.


他指出，Zaarly的业务集中于像请一名乐师在晚会上演奏乐曲这样的技能型服务，而不是那些"助涨懒散和怠惰风气"的服务。他举例说道，Zaarly会把有些学生提出的雇别人代写学期论文的订单删除。



The debate about the trade-offs of new technologies has raged for decades, stirred by innovations from cars to online shopping. Adults grapple with the guilt of unloading responsibilities onto a nanny or a housekeeper.


从汽车到在线购物，在这些新事物的推动之下，人们围绕着新技术的利与弊展开的争论持续了数十年时间。将自己的职责交由保姆或勤杂工处理带来的内疚感也让一些成年人的内心产生挣扎。



The new apps are so easy to use that they make picking up the phone look like hard work. Uber promises to fetch you a car ride within minutes in more than a dozen cities. Others apps, like Get It Now, will bring you a burrito in an hour. The apps will let you track the progress of your request in near real-time. And with users often able to set the price they are willing to pay for a service -- plus free app downloads -- they don't require much of a splurge.


这些新应用程序使用起来非常简便，甚至显得拿起电话这个动作都像是重活。Uber承诺可以在十几个城市让你在几分钟内坐上车。其他一些应用程序，例如Get It Now能够在一小时内为你送上玉米卷饼。你还可以通过这些程序近乎实时地跟踪订单的完成进度。用户常常都能设定价格，他们愿意花钱获得服务（以及免费下载程序），而且这些都不会太过铺张。



History suggests these companies face tough odds. During the late 1990s, companies like Kozmo.com Inc. promised instantdelivery of snacks, movies and household items within an hour in several cities. It didn't charge a delivery fee for awhile, failed to break even and shut down.


以往的案例表明，这些公司生存下来的几率很低。比如说，在上世纪90年代末，Kozmo.com等公司承诺在若干城市为消费者在一小时之内送上零食、影碟和家居用品等。该公司有一段时间免收运费，后来它未能实现盈亏平衡而最终倒闭。



Today's developers of instant-gratification software say they are different, in part because the proliferation of smartphones allows them to manage their couriers and workers more efficiently. They say they learned their lesson and are charging service fees of as much as 20% and don't operatecostly warehouses.


现今开发此类即时满足消费者需求的软件的公司称，他们与那些公司有所不同，一部分是因为智能手机的普及让他们能够更高效地管理他们的快递员和员工。他们说，他们吸取了教训，会收取20%左右的服务费，而且也不会运营价格不菲的仓库。



Adam Nadelson, a 29-year-old surgical chief resident in New York City, says he is eager to outsource as many tasks as he can. Most recently, he hired someone to bake cupcakes for his girlfriend for her birthday, after a photo of some cupcakes caught his eye on shopping site the Fancy. He clicked on a new 'Make it for me' link next to a picture of the S'mores cupcakes, which connected him with a local baker via the Zaarly service. Three days later, the baker left a dozen treats with his doorman.


今年29岁的亚当•纳德尔森(Adam Nadelson)是纽约市一名外科住院总医师，他说他非常想把尽可能多的事情交给别人做。就在不久前，购物网站the Fancy.com上一张拍了几个纸杯蛋糕的照片吸引了他的注意，于是他决定雇人为女友的生日烤了一些纸杯蛋糕。点击了这些S'mores纸杯蛋糕照片旁的一条新链接"我要来一份"(Make it for me)之后，该链接通过Zaarly帮他联系到了当地一家蛋糕房。三天后，这家蛋糕房就把烤好的十几个蛋糕留在了他的门房处。



'It would have been wonderful if I had baked and cooked them myself, but I have no time,' Mr. Nadelson says. He 'came clean' the next day, when his girlfriend commented that the treats, which cost around $40, were particularly delicious and asked where they came from, he says, adding she said she was still impressed.


纳德尔森说，"如果我亲自烘焙制作这些蛋糕的话应该会很棒，可是我没有时间。"第二天，当女友称赞这些蛋糕（花了他40美元左右）特别可口并问他这些蛋糕是哪里来的时候，纳德尔森就"全盘招供"了，不过他补充道女友说她依然挺感动。



I use the personal taxi service Uber a few times a week to keep working while I wait for a cab, or when I just can't find one. I've hired help via TaskRabbit to move boxes, even deliver my favorite New York frozendessert when I was in town for a few days and didn't have time to get it myself.


我每周会使用几次Uber的私人出租车服务，以便在等出租车时继续工作，我找不到出租车时也会使用这项服务。我还曾通过TaskRabbit雇人帮我搬箱子，有时我在纽约呆几天但是没时间去买我最爱吃的纽约冷冻甜品时，我甚至还会通过它雇人送货上门。



Around the time of the dessert splurge, I had a nagging sense I may have taken this too far.


在享受美食送上门的这份奢侈时，我总有一种挥之不去的感觉，觉得自己可能做得太过了。



My decisions to unload tasks had been based on whether the cost was worth it. But what about the other trade-offs? Shouldn't I learn to do some of these things, like cook, even if I find the task irritating?


我会根据是否物有所值来决定要不要雇人替我干活。但是其他方面的利与弊又如何呢？我难道不应该学会其中某些事情（比如做饭），就算我觉得这件事让人恼火？



Pediatrician Michael Rich, director of Boston Children's Hospital's Center on Media and Child Health, says the answer boils down to the deeper purpose of a task, which can be overlooked when everything is a click away.


波士顿儿童医院媒体与儿童健康研究中心(Boston Children's Hospital's Center on Media and Child Health)的主任、儿科医生迈克尔•里奇(Michael Rich)认为，对这个问题的回答可归结为一件事情的深层目的，在所有事情只要轻点鼠标便可完成时，这个目的可能会遭到忽视。



'If you can't really be bothered to wash your car, outsourcing it really isn't that bad,' he says. 'If washing your car is something you do with your kids on the weekend, you are outsourcing part of the activities of daily living that make living fun and meaningful.' By that metric, I think I'm largely safe. Waiting for a cab doesn't help me get more out of life, although it could help me become more patient.


里奇说，"如果你确实懒得自己洗车，那么雇人洗车实际上也没什么不好。如果洗车是你和孩子在周末一起做的事情，那么（雇人洗车）就是把让生活变得有趣和有意义的日常生活活动的一部分交给了别人。"照此衡量，我想我大体上还算适度。等出租车不会让我从生活中获得更多东西，尽管它可能会帮助我变得更有耐心。



But what, for example, about the boxes I hired a TaskRabbit to move? I was eager to clear the clutter and, thanks to the app, storage was $26 and a few clicks away. But these boxes were filled with family belongings of sentimental value. A day later, I wondered whether I ought to have taken the time to go through them myself.


话又说回来，那么我通过TaskRabbit雇人搬箱子又怎么说呢？我急于把杂物清理掉，多亏了这款软件，把这些物件储存起来只花了26美元，而且也就花了点几下鼠标的功夫。然而，这些箱子都装满了倾注了情感价值的家庭用品。第二天，我就在想我原本是不是应该自己花些时间来整理它们。



Jessica E. Vascellaro


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