網絡社交的年代 數字時代的愛情

Have you got a date for Valentine’s Day? If the answer is no, you may want to consider turning to dating apps for help. It’s super easy: All you need to do is upload an attractive photo of yourself and add a short but interesting self-introduction.

情人節你有約了嗎？如果沒有，那麼你可以考慮向交友軟件求助。而整個流程簡單極了：你所需要做的只是上傳一張個人靚照，加上一段有趣的個人簡介。

Dating apps are changing the courtship landscape, even if you have only a small circle of friends. Have a crush on someone? Just give them a “thumb-up” on their profile. If it’s not reciprocated, no big deal. You don’t really know each other, so you don’t need to feel embarrassed. Besides, there are plenty of fish in the sea.

即便你的朋友圈很小也沒關係，交友軟件也可以擴大你的交友範圍。如果對某人一見鍾情？就給他/她點個贊吧！如果對方沒有迴應，也沒什麼大不了的。事實上你們素不相識，所以也不用覺得尷尬。更何況，天涯何處無芳草。

You probably won’t meet “the one” through dating apps, but at least getting yourself out this way will open opportunities to meet new people.

儘管在交友軟件上，你可能無法找到真愛，但至少這種方式可以讓你結交到新朋友。

Some critics, however, say dating apps kill romance. Because they can match people based on their location, many people use dating apps as hook-up tools. They’re not interested in a serious relationship, but rather are looking for a short fling or even just a one-night-stand.

然而，有人指責交友軟件扼殺了浪漫。由於這些軟件可以根據地理位置定位自動匹配用戶，所以在很多人手中，它們變成了“釣人”工具。他們無意尋找一段認真的感情，而是希望及時行樂，甚至只是爲了“一夜情”。

Dan Slater, writing for The Atlantic, says dating apps are superficial and lazy. Dating apps make people believe there is always someone better out there and therefore they find it hard to commit to a relationship. What’s more, browsing through user profiles is not unlike browsing through commodities at a store. If you find a certain commodity unsatisfactory, you can simply replace it with another.

丹?斯萊特在《大西洋月刊》上寫道：交友軟件是種膚淺的偷懶行爲。它令人們相信總有更好的人選等着自己，以致於難以投入一段戀情。而且，查看用戶資料與在商場中瀏覽商品並無不同。如果你對某件商品不夠滿意，你只需要“換貨”就好了。

In contrast, Jeffrey Kluger, writing for Time magazine’s website, says that although looking for romance on dating apps may seem like consuming products, our fundamental attitude toward love hasn’t changed that much.

而傑弗裏?克魯傑在《時代》雜誌網站上表示，儘管在交友軟件上尋找戀情看上去很像選購商品，但我們對於愛情的基本態度並未有太多改變。

The way people pursue romance is always changing, Kluger says, from generation to generation and even year to year. Western countries have seen many transformations in the last century alone. “There was feminism (women’s liberation) in the 1970s. There was the pill (contraception) in the 1960s and the back seat of the Chevy (casual sex) in the 1950s,” Kluger says.

克魯傑表示，世世代代，年復一年，人們求愛的方式一直在改變。僅僅上個世紀，西方社會的求愛法則就發生了許多轉變。“從上世紀70年代的女權解放運動，到上世紀60年代的口服避孕藥，再到上世紀50年代的‘隨意性行爲’”。

Technology changes rapidly, but human beings do not. Admittedly, Kluger writes, some dating apps turn the whole dating experience into a kind of game. But gamification has always been a big part of the mating mix. Kluger writes: “Arm wrestling in a bar gamifies which man’s fitness display will best catch the eye of a woman.”

儘管科技與日俱新，但人類自身卻少有改變。克魯傑寫道，不可否認，一些交友軟件將約會變成戀愛遊戲。但一直以來遊戲都是求偶的重頭戲。克魯傑表示：“酒吧中男士通過扳手腕展現體魄，以吸引女性的目光。”

Shana Lebowitz, as a dating app user, has a more intuitive view on dating apps. Writing for US-based media website , Lebowitz points out that the impact of dating apps depends on the specific person using it. But for many people, they provide “a sense of hope and confidence that doesn’t come from going through old photos of you and your ex”.

作爲一名交友軟件的使用者，莎娜?萊波維茲對這類軟件有着更爲直觀的看法。在爲美國網站撰寫的文章中，萊波維茲指出，交友軟件所帶來的影響因人而異。但對很多人來說，它們令你心中“充滿希望和自信，而這是翻閱你和前任的舊照所辦不到的。”