How Not to Use a Smartphone (2)

Disconnecting from people
Smartphones are great tools for communication – except when they replace personal interaction. It’s not uncommon to see people sitting together not speaking, but staring silently at their smartphones. Real friendships require face-to-face interaction. Facial expressions and body language express far more than words – or emoticons. What you focus on reflects your priorities. Interrupting a conversation to check your phone implies that the person you’re with is less important than your messages.

Missing experiences 
If you're at a special event, don't let your phone become a distraction. Turn it off, or use the silent mode so everyone can fully enjoy the experience.

Stifling your creativity
With your smartphone always available, you always have something to do. But that may not be a good thing. Some say that unused time is necessary for creative thinking. So resist the impulse to spend every spare moment with your phone. Instead, see what great ideas you can think up.

By avoiding these habits, you can be sure your smartphone is helping - not hurting - you.

Info Cloud
Emoticons are pictorial symbols that people include in their e-mails, blogs and instant messages to communicate feelings that words simply can’t express by themselves.

There are hundreds of emoticons in use today. However, the most popular still remains the smiley face. In the Western world, they’re made by hitting the colon key for the eyes, a hyphen for the nose, and then a right parenthesis, which represents the upturned mouth.

Now most Western emoticons like the smiley face are vertical – that is you have to tilt your head to the left to read them – compare them with Japanese emoticons, which tend to be horizontal. :-)

Right. They might require a few extra steps to make, but there’s no head tilt required.

For example, a Japanese style happy face emoticon has an underscore for the mouth, carets for eyes, and parentheses symbolizing the outline of the face.

Asian people will also sometimes use language characters as emoticons. For example, the Chinese character (冏), which means bright.

But because (冏) kind of looks like a wacky square face, when it’s used as an emoticon, it can express annoyance, embarrassment awkwardness and frustration, depending on the context.

Language Lab
disconnect v. 切斷,分開, 斷開 [dis字首-否定/connect 連結]
1 : to separate (something) from something else : to break a connection between two or more things
2 a : to stop or end the supply of electricity, water, gas, etc., to (something, such as a piece of electronic equipment)
b : to stop or end the supply of (electricity, water, gas, etc.)
3 : to end the connection to a system, network, etc., through a telephone, computer, or other device
- Peter's phone was disconnected because he forgot to pay his bill.
- Mark decided to disconnect from the chain and buy his own store.
馬克決定要託離連鎖買下自己的店

imply v. 暗指; 暗示; 意味著
- Susan's remoteness implies her resentment toward her parents.
Susan 的保持距離, 意味著對父母的怨恨
resentment n.憤慨, 忿怒, 怨恨
- Are you implying that I am the one who stole the money?
- His affection toward the girl is not said, only implied.
他對這個女生的好感並沒有明確的說出來, 只是用暗示的

interaction n.
a process by which two or more things affect each other
the activity of talking to other people, working together with them etc

interacting v.
to talk or do things with other people
to act together : to come together and have an effect on each other — often + with

emoticons n.
/ɪˈmoʊtɪˌkɑ:n/
a special sign that is used to show an emotion in email and on the Internet, often by making a picture. For example, the emoticon :-) looks like a smiling face and means that you have made a joke
a group of keyboard characters that are used to represent a facial expression (such as a smile or frown) 

stifle v.扼殺; 抑止
/ˈstaɪfəl/
1 to stop something from happening or developing
2 to stop a feeling from being expressed
- Asking children always to color inside the lines can stifle their creativity.
3 if you are stifled by something, it stops you breathing comfortably
- The policy is meant to stifle people's freedom of speech.
- Sherry tried to stifle her giggles but failed.

resist v.抵抗, 反抗; 抗拒
to stop yourself from having something that you like very much or doing something that you want to do;
to try to prevent a change from happening, or prevent yourself from being forced to do something;
to use force to stop something from happening;
to not be changed or harmed by something
- I can't resist the temptation to buy mouth-watering chocolates.
resist [+v-ing] 忍耐, 忍住
- Larry couldn't resist giving advice to his buddy.


mms://webvod.goodtv.tv/SC/20130514_eec11.wmv

mms://203.69.69.81/studio/20130514baadef88a0a6a983f929c541d854e679159.wma