現代人越來越愛吹牛?

Friends, family and co-workers: I think you're fabulous - just not quite as fabulous as you think you are.
朋友、家人和同事們：我覺得你們很棒──只不過沒有你們自認爲的那麼棒而已。

Consider your Facebook status updates:
看看你們的Facebook狀態更新：

Best gift ever from the best husband ever.
來自史上最好老公的史上最好的禮物。

Swam 30 minutes at a very fast time despite the large amount of Chardonnay served to me on the plane last night.
以很快的速度遊了30分鐘，儘管昨天晚上在飛機上喝了不少霞多麗酒（Chardonnay）。

Got my first royalty check for my book!
拿到了我那本書的第一張版稅支票！

Sunset sail. Turned into a moonlight sail. Shooting stars everywhere…Perfect.
日落航行，結果變成了月色航行。到處都是流星……太完美了。

A benign reading would be that these are just typical daily updates. But folks, this is bragging, whether you recognize it or not. And it's out of control. How did this happen?
善意的解讀是，這些只不過是普通的日常狀態更新。但各位，這其實是吹牛，無論你承認與否。而且這還是不由自主的。怎麼會這樣呢？

Clearly, the Internet has given us a global audience for our bombast, and social media sites encourage it. We're all expected to be perfect all the time. The result is more people carefully stage-managing their online image.
很顯然，互聯網爲我們吹牛提供了全球受衆，社交媒體網站起到推波助瀾的作用。我們都希望自己時刻保持完美，結果就是，越來越多的人開始精心打造自己的網絡形象。

Boasting isn't just a problem on the Internet. In a society of unrelenting competition - where reality-show contestants duke it out for the approval of aging celebrities and pastors have publicists - is it any wonder we market ourselves relentlessly?
吹牛不光是在互聯網上的問題。在這個競爭異常激烈的社會，真人秀選手們爲贏得老一代明星的認可而鬥智鬥勇，牧師都有自己的公關。在這樣一個社會，我們不擇手段地營銷自己難道還奇怪嗎？

In part, you can blame the economy. In the most competitive job market in memory, the lesson is clear: You must demonstrate - on multiple platforms - that you excel above all others.
你可以認爲經濟是一個原因。在如今這個人們記憶中競爭最激烈的就業市場，教訓是很清楚的：你必須在多個平臺上展示自己比其他所有人都優秀。

Changes in parenting style also play a role. Nowadays, every moment - first day of school, exhausted nap in the back seat of the car - is documented. The problem is that these shared moments can easily come off as crowing about how great Mom and Dad are to have raised such an adorable kid.
對子女教育方式的轉變也起到了一定作用。現如今，每個時刻都會被記錄下來，比如上學第一天，還有在車後座累到打盹的時候。問題在於，這些分享的時刻很容易表現爲炫耀父母如何成功地養了這樣一個可愛的孩子。

We've become so accustomed to boasting that we don't even realize what we're doing. And it's harmful to our relationships because it turns people off.
我們太習慣於自誇了，甚至都沒意識到我們到底在做什麼。而這對我們的人際關係是有害的，因爲它讓人討厭。

So why keep it up?
那爲什麼還要繼續吹呢？

'We brag because we can,' says Julie Hanks, a licensed clinical social worker who has a therapy clinic in Salt Lake City. 'And a lot more people are listening.'
在鹽湖城開有一家理療診所的執業臨牀社工朱莉•漢克斯（Julie Hanks）說，我們炫耀是因爲我們可以，而且有很多人在聽。

People brag for all sorts of reasons, she says: to appear worthy of attention or love or to try and cover up our deepest insecurities. To prove to ourselves that we're OK, that people from our past who said we wouldn't measure up were wrong. Or simply because we're excited when good things happen to us.
她說，人們出於各種各樣的理由炫耀：爲了顯得值得注意或被愛，或試圖掩蓋我們心靈最深處的不安全感；爲了向自己證明我們過得很好，證明說我們趕不上他們的上一輩人是錯的；或者只是因爲有好事發生的時候我們會興奮。

And talking about ourselves feels good. According to the results of a series of experiments conducted by Harvard University neuroscientists and published in May in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the reward areas of our brain - the same areas that respond to 'primary rewards' such as food and sex - are activated when we talk about ourselves. We devote between 30% and 40% of our conversation time to doing just that, according to the study, which didn't focus on boasting specifically, but on self-disclosure.
而且談論自己感覺很好。哈佛大學（Harvard University）神經系統科學家所做的一系列實驗顯示，我們大腦的“獎勵區”──也就是對食物和性等“主要獎勵”做出反應的區域──在我們談論自己的時候會被激活。這項研究演示，我們30%到40%的談話時間都花在談論自己上。該研究的重點並不是炫耀而是自我表露，研究報告已於5月份發表在《美國國家科學院院刊》(Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences)上。

In one experiment, the researchers offered people small amounts of money to answer questions about themselves or others. They generally were willing to forgo earnings in order to talk about themselves.
在其中一項實驗中，研究人員給人們提供少量的錢，讓他們回答有關自己或別人的問題。他們一般都願意爲了談論自己而放棄錢。

Unfortunately, some people can't seem to tell the difference between sharing positive information that others might actually want to know and flat-out crowing. Let me help: Bragging involves comparison, whether stated or implied. 'It's being overbearing and showing excessive pride,' says Ms. Hanks.
遺憾的是，有些人似乎分不清分享其他人真正想知道的正面信息和不顧一切炫耀的區別。我來幫忙區分吧：炫耀裏面有對比，有的是直接對比，有的是暗示。漢克斯說，炫耀時態度傲慢，會表現出過度的自豪感。

Often, bragging is in the eye of the beholder, as Faith McKinney found out at a church picnic one recent Sunday. The Indianapolis postal-service worker, 45, was telling an older member of her congregation about the interviews she does with celebrities for her freelance gig at a local online entertainment magazine, when her cousin - the one she donated a kidney to a few years ago - suddenly piped up: 'There she goes again, dropping names.'
對於炫耀的感覺通常也是因人而異的，費斯•麥金尼（Faith McKinney）在最近一個週日的教堂野餐會上就發現了這一點。麥金尼現年45歲，是印第安納波利斯的一名郵政服務人員。她正在跟教會中一名年紀較長的會員聊天，談論自己在當地一家在線娛樂雜誌做兼職時對名人的採訪，這時她的表妹──幾年前她捐過一個腎臟給這個表妹──突然插話說：她又來了，又開始羅列名字了。

'You could have knocked me over with a feather,' says Ms. McKinney, who admits she mentions the famous people she's met at every opportunity because she feels this makes her more interesting.
麥金尼說，這讓我大吃一驚。她承認自己會利用一切機會提自己見過的名人，因爲她覺得這會讓自己顯得更有意思。She continued her story - and even dropped a few more names, on purpose. But she felt humiliated, especially when she remembered that another relative had recently asked her why her 'big head' was always in the photos of work she posted online. 'If these are people who love me saying this, what am I to expect from strangers?'
她繼續講自己的故事，甚至又故意羅列了幾個名字。但她覺得受到了侮辱，特別是當她記起另一個親戚最近問她，爲什麼她的“大頭”總是出現在她上傳到網上的那些工作照裏。她說，如果我愛的這些人都這麼說，陌生人又會怎麼樣呢？

According to yet-to-be-published research at Columbia University, browsing Facebook or another social media site increases our levels of narcissism as well as our self-esteem.
一份即將發表的哥倫比亞大學（Columbia University）的研究報告顯示，瀏覽Facebook或其他社交媒體網站會提高我們的自戀以及自尊水平。

And while we're more likely to be modest with our friends and family in person, these are the people we most want to see our enhanced updates online, says Keith Wilcox, assistant professor of marketing at Columbia Business School, who conducted the study.
進行這項研究的哥倫比亞大學商學院（Columbia Business School）市場營銷學助理教授凱斯•威爾克斯（Keith Wilcox）說，雖然我們在和朋友家人面對面時可能更謙遜，但我們卻最想讓這些人看到我們在網上經過了美化的狀態更新。

'Their opinions matter more,' he says, adding that online, the usual social norms of modesty don't necessarily hold.
他說，這些人的看法更有分量。他說在網上，常規的謙遜社會準則並不一定適用。

'It's become a phenomenon where if someone posts a status update and 500 people see it and no one objects, it must be true,' says Jennifer Mirsky, 45, a digital content strategist in New York.
現年45歲、在紐約做數字內容策略師的詹妮弗•米爾斯基（Jennifer Mirsky）說，如果有人更新了一條狀態，500個人看過而且沒有一個人提出異議，那它就應該是真的，這已經成爲了一種普遍現象。

'But could it really be that everyone else has a husband as thoughtful as the heroes of romance novels, children who combine the brilliance of Einstein with the winning charms of Shirley Temple, and jobs packed with wall-to-wall glamorous events?'
她說，但是，每個人都真的會有一個如愛情小說中主人公那麼體貼的丈夫，兼具愛因斯坦的聰明才智和秀蘭•鄧波兒（Shirley Temple）般迷人魅力的孩子，還有各種多次多彩的活動參加不過來的工作嗎？

Ms. Mirsky says her strategy is to simply hit the 'like' button and move on. 'You input one keystroke of indeterminate meaning to say 'hooray for you!' ' she says.
米爾斯基說，她的策略是點一下“贊”按鈕，然後就不管它了。她說，點一下就模糊地傳達出“真有你的！”的意思。

So how should you deal with a braggart?
那麼應該怎麼對待一個吹牛的人呢？

'Feel sorry for them, because they're doing this impulsive, destructive thing that won't help them in the long run,' says Simine Vazire, a research psychologist and associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Research on self-enhancement shows that people who brag make a good first impression, but that it diminishes over time.
華盛頓大學聖路易斯分校（Washington University in St. Louis）研究心理學家及副教授斯明•瓦茲（Simine Vazire）說，爲他們感到惋惜，因爲從長遠來看，他們這種衝動有害的做法不會有好處。對自我提升的研究表明，吹噓的人給人的第一印象不錯，但隨着時間推移，這種好印象會逐漸消失。

When Ian McKenzie, 30, a schoolteacher in Lincoln, U.K., goes out to dinner with his wife and their friends, he says, everyone soon gets around to bragging - about the gadgets and cars they own, their kids, their vacations. 'I have my fill of it and start to act up,' he says.
30歲的伊恩•麥肯齊（Ian McKenzie）是英國林肯市（Lincoln）的一名教師。他說，在和妻子以及朋友出去吃晚餐時，大家很快都開始吹牛，內容包括自己的電子產品和車、孩子還有度假。他說，我受夠了，也開始吹。

He mentions how he went to school with Prince William. (He attended St. Andrew's in Scotland at the same time but never knew the prince.) Or he tells of the time he saw supermodel Kate Moss. (She got out of a car near where he was walking; he had no idea who she was until his wife clued him in.)
他提到自己和威廉王子（Prince William）一起上學的事情（他也是在同一個時期在蘇格蘭上的聖安德魯斯大學（St. Andrew's），但並不認識威廉王子），還說自己見到過超模凱特•摩絲（Kate Moss，他在街上走的時候看到她從旁邊的一輛車下車，直到妻子告訴他，他才知道這個人是誰）。

The reaction? 'Stunned silence,' he says. 'Hopefully, it will bring the pudding course on quicker and there will be a rush for the door.'
衆人作何反應？他說，“尷尬的沉默。但願這會加快大家吃甜點的速度，然後快點離開餐廳。”