2021年经济学人 互联网是有记忆的,言论不当总要买单(2)

In aiming for these, people often miss the mark, one reason the platform hosts so much recklessness, attention-seeking and off-target humour. Yet though tweets may be appraised¹ like speech, they are punished like writing. Posts may seem to disappear in an endlessly flowing river, but unless they are deleted they live on indefinitely. A public figure’s stupid tweets are more likely than most to be screen-captured by others, so that even deletion won’t help (and may suggest a guilty conscience). In the days after Ms McCammond’s contrite² withdrawal³, several of her critics at Teen Vogue⁴ made their Twitter accounts private. One turned out to have used a racial epithet⁵ to jovially⁶ address a (white) friend in 2009.

想要追求这些特质的人们却往往会偏离正轨，这也是推特充斥着草率、博关注且不着调的幽默段子的原因之一。然而，尽管推文可能被评价为与口语对话类似，但它们却要像书面语一样受到谴责。推文看似会淹没于层出不穷的新推文河流中，但除非被删除，否则它们将无限期地存在。相较于大多数人，公众人物欠妥的推文要更容易被其他人截屏，所以即使删除也无济于事（还可能昭示博主心里有鬼）。在麦卡蒙德悔恨地删除推文后的几天里，她在《美国青少年时尚》工作的几位批评者将自己的推特账户设为私密。其中一人在2009年曾用种族侮辱性称号打趣一位（白人）朋友。

How will society adjust to this new speech-text hybrid⁷? One theory is that only the most conformist or risk-averse will succeed in a sort of woke dystopia; the rest will be vulnerable to the discovery of an embarrassing tweet in an ever-growing back catalogue. A second possible outcome is safety in numbers. So many people (including path-breaking members of minority groups) will be deemed to have transgressed⁸ that skeletons in closets come to be regarded as inevitable⁹. In this scenario¹⁰, society accepts that more or less everyone has said regrettable things, and that, at least in some cases, tweeting them was merely a dangerous category mistake.

社会将如何适应这种新的口语和书面语的混合形式？一种理论认为，只有最墨守成规或规避风险的人才会在充斥网暴的社交媒体中游刃有余；其他人则会在被翻阅日积月累的过往推文时，被尴尬的推文轻易击垮。第二个可能的结果是人多保险。如果有太多人的行为被视为越轨（包括少数群体的领先成员），那么人们也会觉得这样的隐情丑事是不可避免的。在这种情况下，社会可以接受，每个人或多或少都曾说过令人遗憾的话，至少在某些情况下，发推文只是一种危险的范畴错误。

Alas¹¹, that consensus¹² seems a long way off. Hence the third possibility: that people will learn to keep their risky¹³ jokes offline, understanding that even if they feel like colloquial¹⁴ remarks, offensive comments written in black and white can be recalled and judged that way. This would make Twitter a lot duller. Spontaneity is its appeal. But the more careers that are derailed, the more parents will urge children to mind their language online, just as they have long warned them to be careful with strangers.

唉，达成共识似乎还有很长的路要走。因此，第三种可能性是：人们将学会不在网上发表有危险的笑话。他们须得理解即使自己只发了类似口语的文字，但这样白纸黑字的冒犯性书面语还是会被人想起、遭到评判。这会让推特变得更沉闷无聊。率性是它的感染力。但越多的职业生涯因推文而断送，父母就越会敦促孩子注意网络用语，就像他们长期以来一直提醒孩子要小心陌生人一样。

Human speech has been around for at least tens of thousands of years, writing for about five millennia¹⁵. Twitter had its 15th birthday on March 21st. It may be wisest to err¹⁶ on the side of boring until norms settle down.

人类的口头语至少已经存在了几万年，书面语也已经有五千年了。推特在3月21日迎来了它的15岁生日。在规范稳定下来之前，最明智的做法是宁可无聊，也别冒险。

1 appraised   

v.估价( appraise的过去式和过去分词 )；估计；估量；评价

参考例句：

• The teacher appraised the pupil's drawing. 老师评价了那个学生的画。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He appraised the necklace at ￡1000. 据他估计，项链价值1000英镑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 contrite   

adj.悔悟了的，后悔的，痛悔的

参考例句：

• She was contrite the morning after her angry outburst.她发了一顿脾气之后一早上追悔莫及。
• She assumed a contrite expression.她装出一副后悔的表情。

3 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

4 Vogue   

n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的

参考例句：

• Flowery carpets became the vogue.花卉地毯变成了时髦货。
• Short hair came back into vogue about ten years ago.大约十年前短发又开始流行起来了。

5 epithet   

n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语

参考例句：

• In "Alfred the Great","the Great"is an epithet.“阿尔弗雷德大帝”中的“大帝”是个称号。
• It is an epithet that sums up my feelings.这是一个简洁地表达了我思想感情的形容词。

6 jovially   

adv.愉快地，高兴地

参考例句：

• "Hello, Wilson, old man,'said Tom, slapping him jovially on the shoulder. "How's business?" “哈罗，威尔逊，你这家伙，”汤姆说，一面嘻嘻哈哈地拍拍他的肩膀，“生意怎么样？” 来自英汉文学 - 盖茨比
• Hall greeted him jovially enough, but Gorman and Walson scowled as they grunted curt "Good Mornings." 霍尔兴致十足地向他打招呼，戈曼和沃森却满脸不豫之色，敷衍地咕哝句“早安”。 来自辞典例句

7 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。

8 transgressed   

v.超越( transgress的过去式和过去分词 )；越过；违反；违背

参考例句：

• You transgressed against the law. 你犯法了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• His behavior transgressed the unwritten rules of social conduct. 他的行为违反了不成文的社交规范。 来自辞典例句

9 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

10 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

11 alas   

int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等)

参考例句：

• Alas!The window is broken!哎呀！窗子破了！
• Alas,the truth is less romantic.然而，真理很少带有浪漫色彩。

12 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

13 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

14 colloquial   

adj.口语的，会话的

参考例句：

• It's hard to understand the colloquial idioms of a foreign language.外语里的口头习语很难懂。
• They have little acquaintance with colloquial English. 他们对英语会话几乎一窍不通。

15 millennia   

n.一千年，千禧年

参考例句：

• For two millennia, exogamy was a major transgression for Jews. 两千年来，异族通婚一直是犹太人的一大禁忌。
• In the course of millennia, the dinosaurs died out. 在几千年的时间里，恐龙逐渐死绝了。

16 err   

vi.犯错误，出差错

参考例句：

• He did not err by a hair's breadth in his calculation.他的计算结果一丝不差。
• The arrows err not from their aim.箭无虚发。