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Are manners dead? Cellphones and social networking may be killing off the old civilities and good graces, but a new generation of etiquette gurus is rising to make old-fashioned protocols relevant to a new generation.
禮儀已死？盡管手機和社交網絡可能正在扼殺傳統禮節與優雅舉止，但新一代的禮儀專家們正在致力于將似乎已經過時的禮儀變得與新一代人的生活息息相關。
Their goal: to help young people navigate thorny, tech-age minefields, like invites on social networking sites and online dating, not to mention actual face-to-face contact with people.
他們的目標是：幫助年輕人來規避科技時代中那些令人棘手的雷區，比如社交網站上的邀請以及在線交友，更不用說實際生活中人與人之間面對面的接觸了。
Perhaps the fastest growing area of social advice is what’s been termed “netiquette”. There are online tutorials on using emoticons in business e-mails, being discreet when posting on social networks and re-posting too many micro blog messages.
或許在一系列社交指南中，風頭正勁的就要屬“網絡禮儀”部分了。網上出現了很多有關公務郵件中表情符號的使用指導、社交網站發帖以及轉發微博的注意事項。
Young people “are getting sick of the irony and rudeness that is so prevalent in their online lives”, said Jane Pratt, editor in chief of XoJane, a women’s lifestyle website. “The return of etiquette is in part a response to the harshness of the interactions they are having in the digital sphere.”
“網絡生活中充斥的毒舌與無禮令年輕人頭疼不已，XoJane女性生活網站的主編簡·普瑞特表示。“某種程度上，禮儀的回歸是他們對那些令人反感的網絡互動的回應。”
“Nice is very cool right now,” she added.
“如今，友好才是最酷的事情，”她補充道。
The social quandaries seem to be endless. Are you obligated to respond to party invitations on Sina Weibo? Is it rude to listen to your iPod while sharing a ride with someone else?
社交難題似乎沒完沒了。你有義務去回復新浪微博上的聚會邀請嗎？與人共乘一車時用iPod聽歌是不是很沒有禮貌？
When Daniel Post Senning, the great great grandson of Emily Post, a well-known etiquette writer in the US, was working on the 18th edition of Emily Post’s Etiquette, he found it impossible to cover technology in a single chapter. Instead, he devoted an entire book to it, Emily Post’s Manners in a Digital World: Living Well Online.
美國著名禮儀作家艾米莉·博斯特 的玄孫丹尼爾·普斯特·森寧在編纂第18版的《西方禮儀集萃》時發現，科技方面很難用一章講清楚。而他就這一點寫出了《艾米莉·博斯特的網絡禮儀》這本書。
The book tackles questions like whether one should announce a serious illness on a social networking site. (Yes, Senning said, but medical updates should be confined to close friends and family.)
書中解答了諸如一個人是否應該在社交網站上發布身患重病的消息之類的問題。（森寧表示：答案是“可以”，但治療狀況應僅對家人和密友公開。）
Even the gurus who position themselves as the embodiment of Old World civility feel obliged to tackle 21st-century conundrums.
即使是那些古典禮儀專家們也感到自己有責任來解答21世紀的新難題。
Charles MacPherson runs a school for butlers in Canada. In his new book The Butler Speaks, MacPherson talks about whether one may keep a cellphone on the table during a dinner party.
查爾斯·麥克弗森在加拿大經營一所男管家學校。在他的新書《男管家的話》中，麥克弗森探討了晚宴時是否應將手機放在桌上的問題。
“It is never OK to leave your cellphone on the dinner table,” he said. “If you must go out and anticipate a call, first inform your hostess of the situation and keep your cellphone on vibrate and in your pocket or on your lap. In the event that it does ring, excuse yourself from the table — don’t explain why, just a simple ‘excuse me’ — and leave the dining room before taking the call.”
“把手機放在餐桌上是大忌，”他說。“如果你不得不起身去接電話，那么首先一定要將情況告知主人，并且將手機調成振動放在包里或者腿上。如果手機響了，表示歉意然后起身離開——不用解釋原因，只要說聲‘不好意思’就好——然后走出餐廳再接電話。”
Indeed, there is a retro allure to etiquette that appeals to 20-somethings, said Pam Krauss, a publisher of several etiquette books. “There’s a whole generation of young people for whom etiquette, much like cooking, sewing, and other ‘home arts’, was not passed down from their parents or grandparents the way it would have been in years past,” Krauss told The New York Times.
的確，對于二十幾歲的年輕人來說，禮儀有一種復古的魅力，曾發行過多本禮儀指導書的出版商帕姆·克勞斯表示。“對于整個年輕一代來說，禮儀就像廚藝、縫紉及其他的‘居家藝術’一樣，并沒能像在過去那樣從父母或者祖父母身上傳承下來。”克勞斯在接受《紐約時報》采訪時說道。
