网恋的弊端英语（网恋比传统恋爱方式更好）

小君 2022-12-14 22:29:06 684

网恋的弊端英语（网恋比传统恋爱方式更好）Meeting a mate over the internet is fundamentally different from meeting one offline. In the physical world partners are found in family networks or among circles of friends and colleagues. Meeting a friend of a friend is the norm. People who meet online are overwhelmingly likely to be strangers. As a result dating digitally offers much greater choice. A bar choir or office might have a few ten

网恋的弊端英语（网恋比传统恋爱方式更好）(1)

THE internet has transformed the way people work and communicate. It has upended industries from entertainment to retailing. But its most profound effect may well be on the biggest decision that most people make—choosing a mate.

互联网改变了人们工作和交流的方式，颠覆了娱乐业和零售业等行业，不过，影响最为深远的有可能是大多数人选择伴侣方式，也是最重要的决定方式。

In the early 1990s the notion of meeting a partner online seemed freakish and not a little pathetic. Today in many places it is normal. Smartphones have put virtual bars in people’s pockets where singletons can mingle free from the constraints of social or physical geography. Globally at least 200m people use digital dating services every month. In America more than a third of marriages now start with an online match-up. The internet is the second-most-popular way for Americans to meet people of the opposite sex and is fast catching up with real-world “friend of a friend” introductions.

上世纪90年代初，在网上结识伴侣的想法似乎有点异想天开，一点也不值得同情，而如今在许多地方司空见惯。智能手机在人们的口袋里装进了一个虚拟酒吧，单身人士摆脱社会或地理束缚相互交往。全世界每月至少有2亿人使用在线约会应用。在美国有超过三分之一的夫妻都始于网恋。互联网也成为了美国人结识异性的第二大方式，正快速追上现实世界中“朋友的朋友”的介绍方式。

Digital dating is a massive social experiment conducted on one of humanity’s most intimate and vital processes. Its effects are only just starting to become visible (see Briefing).

网恋是一种大规模的社会实验，以人类最亲密，也最活跃的一种方式进行，影响才刚刚开始显现。

When Harry clicked on Sally

当哈里遇到萨莉

Meeting a mate over the internet is fundamentally different from meeting one offline. In the physical world partners are found in family networks or among circles of friends and colleagues. Meeting a friend of a friend is the norm. People who meet online are overwhelmingly likely to be strangers. As a result dating digitally offers much greater choice. A bar choir or office might have a few tens of potential partners for any one person. Online there are tens of thousands.

网恋和线上的约会全然不同。在现实生活中，情侣双方通常来自家庭关系或朋友和同事圈子。与朋友的朋友见面很正常。不过，在网上认识的人绝大多数都是陌生人。因此，网恋提供了更多的选择。一个酒吧、唱诗班或办公室可能会有几十个潜在伴侣，而网上有成千上万。

This greater choice—plus the fact that digital connections are made only with mutual consent—makes the digital dating market far more efficient than the offline kind. For some that is bad news. Because of the gulf in pickiness between the sexes a few straight men are doomed never to get any matches at all. On Tantan a Chinese app men express interest in 60% of women they see but women are interested in just 6% of men; this dynamic means that 5% of men never receive a match. In offline dating with a much smaller pool of men to fish from straight women are more likely to couple up with men who would not get a look-in online.

这样的选择更多，加上网上联系只有在相互同意的情况下才能进行，使得网恋市场的效率远远高于线下。对有些人来说，这是个坏消息。由于两性之间挑三拣四，一些直男注定永远不会找到另一半。在中国应用“探探”上，男性对看到的60%的女性感兴趣，但女性只对6%的男性感兴趣；这种动态差异意味着有5%的男性从未被人挑中过。在线下约会中，由于可以钓到的男性要少得多，异性恋女性更有可能与那些在网上看不到自己的男性配对。

For most people however digital dating offers better outcomes. Research has found that marriages in America between people who meet online are likely to last longer; such couples profess to be happier than those who met offline. The whiff of moral panic surrounding dating apps is vastly overblown. Precious little evidence exists to show that opportunities online are encouraging infidelity. In America divorce rates climbed until just before the advent of the internet and have fallen since.

然而，网恋给大多数人带来结果更好。有研究发现，在美国，通过网恋结识的夫妻，婚姻持续时间更久，他们认为比线下认识的夫妻更幸福。关于约会应用的道德恐慌被过分夸大。几乎没什么重要的证据表明网上的机会正催生不忠行为。在美国，离婚率直到互联网出现之前一直在攀升，此后出现下降。

Online dating is a particular boon for those with very particular requirements. Jdate allows daters to filter out matches who would not consider converting to Judaism for instance. A vastly bigger market has had dramatic results for same-sex daters in particular. In America 70% of gay people meet their partners online. This searchable spectrum of sexual diversity is a boon: more people can find the intimacy they seek.

对于那些有特殊需求的人来说，网恋是一个特别的福利。比如，网恋可以过滤那些不考虑改信犹太教的人。一个大得多的市场对同性约会者的影响尤其显著。在美国，有70%的同性恋者是在网上结识伴侣的。对于性多样性的搜索是一个福利，更多的人可以找到他们所寻求的亲密关系。

There are problems with the modern way of love however. Many users complain of stress when confronted with the brutal realities of the digital meat market and their place within it. Negative emotions about body image existed before the internet but they are amplified when strangers can issue snap judgments on attractiveness. Digital dating has been linked to depression. The same problems that afflict other digital platforms recur in this realm from scams to fake accounts: 10% of all newly created dating profiles do not belong to real people.

然而，现代的恋情方式存在一些问题。许多用户抱怨在面对网恋网站的残酷现实以及他们在其中所处的地位时倍感压力。对身体的负面情绪在互联网出现之前就存在了，但当陌生人对外表的吸引力做出快速判断时，这种情绪就会被放大。网恋会导致抑郁。同样的问题也困扰着其他网恋平台，包括诈骗以及虚假账户：新创建的约会资料中有10%的内容不真实。

This new world of romance may also have unintended consequences for society. The fact that online daters have so much more choice can break down barriers: evidence suggests that the internet is boosting interracial marriages by bypassing homogenous social groups. But daters are also more able to choose partners like themselves. Assortative mating the process whereby people with similar education levels and incomes pair up already shoulders some of the blame for income inequality. Online dating may make the effect more pronounced: education levels are displayed prominently on dating profiles in a way they would never be offline. It is not hard to imagine dating services of the future matching people by preferred traits as determined by uploaded genomes. Dating firms also suffer from an inherent conflict of interest. Perfect matching would leave them bereft of paying customers.

这种谈恋情的新领域也可能对社会产生意想不到的后果。事实上，网恋有更多的选择，能打破一些障碍：有证据表明，互联网绕过同族社会群体，促进异族婚姻。但是，人们也更能选择和自己相像的伴侣。门当户对的婚姻，即教育水平和收入水平相近的人结成伴侣，承担着收入不平等的部分责任。网恋可能会使这种影响更加明显：教育水平在约会资料中以一种永远不会离线的方式显著标识。不难想象，未来的相亲服务会根据人们的偏好特征来配对，这是由上传到网络的资料决定的。相亲机构也存在固有的利益冲突，完美的匹配会让他们为付费客户谋利。

The domination of online dating by a handful of firms and their algorithms is another source of worry. Dating apps do not benefit from exactly the same sort of network effects as other tech platforms: a person’s friends do not need to be on a specific dating site for example. But the feedback loop between large pools of data generated by ever-growing numbers of users attracted to an ever-improving product still exists. The entry into the market of Facebook armed with data from its 2.2bn users will provide clues as to whether online dating will inexorably consolidate into fewer larger platforms.

少数几家企业统治着网恋市场，而它们的算法也出类拔萃，这种情况让人感觉不安。约会应用并不像其他科技平台的网络效应中获益：例如，一个人的朋友不需要在特定的网恋网站上。但是，由于越来越多的用户为不断改进的产品所吸引，大数据之间的反馈循环仍然存在。凭借着22亿用户的数据，Facebook进入了在线约会市场，这将为在线约会是否会不可避免地整合为数量更小、规模更大的平台提供线索。

While you were swiping

如果你持批评态度

But even if the market does not become ever more concentrated the process of coupling (or not) has unquestionably become more centralised. Romance used to be a distributed activity which took place in a profusion of bars clubs churches and offices; now enormous numbers of people rely on a few companies to meet their mate. That hands a small number of coders tweaking the algorithms that determine who sees whom across the virtual bar tremendous power to engineer mating outcomes. In authoritarian societies especially the prospect of algorithmically arranged marriages ought to cause some disquiet. Competition offers some protection against such a possibility; so too might greater transparency over the principles used by dating apps to match people up.

但即使网恋市场并没有更加集中，配对(或不配对)的过程无疑变得更加中心化。恋爱以往是一种分散的活动，发生在酒吧、俱乐部、教堂或办公室里；现在，大量的人依靠一些机构来结识他们的伴侣。这就需要一些编码人员来调整算法，以决定谁能在虚拟酒吧中遇到谁，这对于设计配对结果有着巨大的影响。特别是在威权社会，根据算法安排婚姻的前景可能会引起一些不安。竞争为防止这种可能性提供了一些保护，约会应用配对的原则也可能变得更加透明。

Yet such concerns should not obscure the good that comes from the modern way of romance. The right partners can elevate and nourish each other. The wrong ones can ruin both their lives. Digital dating offers millions of people a more efficient way to find a good mate. That is something to love.

然而，这种担忧不应掩盖这种现代恋爱方式的好处。合适的伴侣可以提升和滋养彼此，相反则会毁了各自的生活。网恋为数以百万的人寻找伴侣提供了更有效的方法。我们应当看到这一好处。

编译：贾毅荣

编辑：翻吧君

来源：经济学人（2018.08.18）

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