王沫涵：中国海洋大学选手，第17届21世纪杯全国英语演讲比赛三等奖获得者。

自我介绍：

我性格开朗，心态平和。在十年英文学习及四年法文专业学习中，发掘出自己对外语学习的浓厚兴趣和强烈热情，也逐渐总结出我对语言学习的理解。英文演讲比赛对我而言意义非凡，它见证了我在七年里的成长，已成为我生活的一部分。在场场赛事中，总结经验，磨练自己，对未来的规划也渐渐清晰——我立志成为一名中英法三语同声传译，视之为终身理想，愿为此不懈奋斗。

演讲稿：

Technology has changed the world. We are no longer what we were. Teenagers are more responsive to a smart phone ringing than mother’s call. College students search answers on the internet instead of in their brain. They search more, think less. Contact virtually more, but actually less. They have more information at their tips but less thinking of their own. They use plastic surgery to find the beauty of humans, instead of looking inside for the beauty of human mind. Adults often break their marriage and only find love in the virtual world. People depend more on technical gadgets and less on an independent mind. With the rapid development of technology, no one can be sure if someone would buy a tailor made robot girlfriend who is a perfect match, rather than to find an imperfect girl like me.

Science fiction? No. Look at me for example. I used to be addicted to smart technical things and got a disease, HTS, namely High-Tech Syndrome. Look at the symptoms: nervous when I was without my phone, overactive when I was with it. I used to check my smart phone obsessively, and to log in the social network the first thing in the morning and off the last thing at night. To cure this modern disease, someone invented cell phone locks to limit its functions. My mom just threatened to toss my gadget out of window or into the toilet.

That is not the worst. This trend of gadget worship is destroying our values as humans. Your values are no longer what you know. You are measured by what you possess. If you do not have a house and a car of your own, you are nothing for a marriage. If you do not have iPhone or a smarter phone, you are out! 

Actually, I am not a Luddite who opposes technical progress. I am myself a fan of Steve Jobs and like everything he invented. But, no matter how smart these inventions are, they should be the slaves of human being, and not vice versa! Let’s look at the Renaissance for the true values of humans. Leonardo Da Vinci invented machines just to prove how great the human mind is. These great encyclopedic minds had their inventions as diversified as possible, in the areas of art, science, engineering, literature and every corner of human pursuits. Yet, no matter how great an invention is, it is only the child of human mind, a proof of human greatness, not a Frankenstein to slave its inventors.

Ladies and gentlemen, if we do not want to be slaves of our own inventions, we should first of all stick to our basic human values. Let’s raise the banner of humanism against the tech-mania as the Renaissance did against the middle age theology! We should think more, only to use smart machines to help when necessary. We should read more, and only to use MP3 players to aid the reading. We should value people more than BMW cars, LV bags and iPhone. We should love real persons like you and me more than virtual figures. Then, only then, we can have greater inventions because we have greater human minds!

Thank you!