In an age of perpetual digital connectedness, why do people seem so disconnected In a Duke University study, researchers found that from 1985 to 2004, the percentage of people who said there was no one with whom they discussed important matters tripled, to 25%; the same study found that overall, Americans had one-third fewer friends and confidants than they did two decades ago.
Another recent study, by researchers at the University of Michigan, found that college students today have significantly less empathy than students of generations past did. The reason, psychologists speculate, may have something to do with our increasing reliance on digital communication and other forms of new media.
It’s possible that instead of fostering real friendships off-line, e-mail and social networking may take the place of them—and the distance inherent in screen-only interactions may breed feelings of isolation or a tendency to care less about other people. After all, if you don’t feel like dealing with a friend’s problem online, all you have to do is log off.
The problem is, as empathy wanes, so does trust. And without trust, you can’t have a cohesive society. Consider the findings of a new study co-authored by Kevin Rockmann of George Mason University and Gregory Northcraft at the University of Illinois who specializes in workplace collaboration. Northcraft says high-tech communications like e-mail and (to a lesser extent) videoconferencing—which are sometimes known as "lean communication" because they have fewer cues like eye contact and posture for people to rely on—strip away the personal interaction needed to breed trust. In a business setting—as in all other social relationships outside the workplace—trust is a necessary condition for effective cooperation within a group. "Technology has made us much more efficient but much less effective," said Northcraft in a statement. "Something is being gained, but something is being lost. The something gained is time, and the something lost is the quality of relationships. And quality of relationships matters."
In Rockmann and Northcraft’s study, 200 students were divided into teams and asked to manage two complicated projects: one having to do with nuclear disarmament; the other, price fixing. Some groups communicated via e-mail, some via videoconference and others face to face. In the end, those who met in person showed the most trust and most effective cooperation; those using e-mail were the least able to work together and get the job done.
Northcraft thinks this is because real-life meetings, during which participants can see how engaged their colleagues are, breed more trust. Over e-mail, meanwhile, confirmation of hard work gets lost, which tends to encourage mutual slacking off.
We learn from Paragraph 2 that nowadays college students（）
A. can hardly find real friendship in their daily life
B. are more skillful at using new forms of media
C.realize the disadvantage of digital communication
D. are less able to understand others’ feelings
参考答案：D
解析：
[试题类型] 推理引申题。
[解题思路] 根据题干关键词Paragraph 2定位到文章第二段 该段指出，现在的大学生缺乏同情心(have significantly less empathy)，这可能是因为我们对各种新媒体形式日益依赖，而缺乏同情心就是不能很好地理解他人的感受，故选项[D]与原文相符。
[干扰排除] 原文只是说，与过去相比，现在大学生更缺乏同情心，但不能由此推断他们很难找到真正的友谊，选项[A]过度引申，故排除。本段只提到我们对新媒体日益依赖，至于是否可以熟练地使用新媒体文中并没有说明，故排除选项[B]。第二段第二句提到，心理学家推测，大学生缺乏同情心的原因可能与他们对电子通讯的依赖有关，并没有说大学生认识到了电子通讯的缺点，故排除选项[C]。