@所有人：喷子，推特是你们的了

2019-05-30ByElizabethWilliams

英语学习 2019年4期

By Elizabeth Williams

Its been an awful year on social media. Filtering didnt help. I left Twitter a week ago and havent looked back.

這是在社交媒体上过得很糟糕的一年。过滤也没用。一周前我放弃了推特，再也没有回头。

Cant decide yet who won—the trolls or me. Its still too soon to tell. All I know is that its been a week so far since I bailed on Twitter and I feel fine.

I love social media. I hate social media. You too？ Over the years， Ive been perpetually readjusting my relationship with it， working hard to avoid the creep of saturation2. Im not on Snapchat or LinkedIn either.3 You couldnt drag me into a comments section.

And then theres Twitter.

When you work at home， Twitter makes for an excellent water cooler4. I have for years skated by on the illusion that the bright， witty， passionately engaged people I follow there are somehow my colleagues， the friends I can make daily conversation with about politics and television and health.

I have even been lucky enough to make a few offline friends and work contacts through it， one of whom Im going out for beers with tonight， in fact. If you come to Twitter because you like smart people who can also make you laugh， you will not be disappointed. And its free！ The only cost is a steady stream of crap from the worst dregs5 of humanity.

I got on Twitter in the spring of 2008. I dont recall how soon afterward I was first called an ugly bitch， but to my recollection it took a while. Sure， every now and then thered be an unpleasant mention in my feed or aggressively unsolicited feedback from an opinionated egg avatar.6 But I never seriously reconsidered my presence until a few years later， when I wrote a magazine story that negatively referenced a well-known media misogynist7.

Within moments I was getting death threats—as in， Ill come to your house and murder you. I had been in the thick of a crowd at a concert at the time the responses started pouring in， and I remember being overwhelmed with a feeling of paranoid8 dread. Suddenly， it felt as if anyone in that throng could be someone who actively wanted to hurt me. And not just me， I hasten to mention. When you look through a trolls timeline， you rarely see a single focused target. Nope， trolls often spew in all directions like lawns sprinkler of vomit. Usually cloaked in their anonymity （although sometimes emboldened to keep it real），9 Twitters dedicated trolls yell at strangers all day like its their job. Even when I got into a perfectly civilized disagreement with a male public figure， a swarm of his supporters swiftly smelled a fight and descended to tell me to die.

Over the years Ive been monitoring Twitters troll problem， because Twitters troll problem hasnt improved. Ive watched other people—most frequently female—face harrowing10 threats to their safety. Ive followed the crap that Feminist Frequencys Anita Sarkeesian has endured for openly talking about sexism in the gaming world. I watched when tech editor Holly Brockwell had to temporarily disable her account “due to the number of creepy， abusive threats she got， mainly from men” after she wrote a story about not wanting to have children.

Ive also allowed my hopes to rise when it seemed like Twitter might be taking serious strides toward rectifying its abuse issues and removing the worst offenders，11 and when public officials have recognized that threatening someone online is still known， in legal circles as， threatening someone.

But this has been a year to drain12 a persons optimism. Lately actress Leslie Jones went through such an outrageously ugly torrent of disgusting racist abuse that she briefly left Twitter—right at the height of an otherwise peak moment in her career. At least she got to turn her whole fiasco—which included a hacking of her site—into an Emmy joke， telling the representatives from Ernst & Young，13 “Since youre good at keeping things safe， I got a job for you： My Twitter account. Put that in the vault， please.”

Like others， including Arthur Chu， whos written eloquently of his Twitter ambivalence，14 Ive taken my share of mental health breaks. Last year I went on a social-media fast that helped me gain balance and serenity in my online life.15 And last month I went on a weeklong vacation and barely looked online at all the whole time.

But this time when I returned， I didnt feel as eager to see the familiar faces who enlighten and entertain. I just dreaded the inevitable nastiness. I didnt have to wait long to get it. And when another female writer posted that if Twitter didnt take more dramatic action to curtail16 abuse， she doubted that shed still be active on it a year from now. I thought： What am I waiting for？

Then last week， I woke up one morning to some not especially egregious17 but definitely hostile overnight reactions to something Id written and decided Id had enough. Always late to the quitting Twitter trend， thats me.

I am strict in my online curation18 and I am grateful for the filter option that does somewhat effectively screen out what Twitter calls “lower-quality content.” Im not interested in getting in fights with the haters， and I dont care to follow people who do. I block robustly. But the ugliness of this year， the pure， gloves-off19 hatred on constant display—and not just on Twitter—is not healthy for anybody to voluntarily put up with unchecked.

In July， author Jessica Valenti announced on Twitter，“This morning I woke up to a death threat directed at my five-year-old daughter. That this is part of my work life is unacceptable… Law enforcement needs to get their shit together on online threats.” She continued： “In the meantime， Im taking a break from social media. I dont know how long. I just know that I cant live like this. Its too much.”

I am genuinely concerned about what happens when reasonably normal， non-screaming people abandon a conversation. I think a lot about the potential consequences of social media being overrun with bullies. After having spent 20 years in online communities， I also understand that keeping the trolls at bay20 is a hard job and that this one ladys absence isnt a movement. But Ive spent my adult life trying， in my own small way， to be more signal than noise. And being persistently subjected to threats and abuse and just plain idiot drool21 is not what one would call a “user-friendly” experience， nor is it， by the way， what the founding fathers had in mind with the freedom of speech thing.

I wouldnt keep going to a restaurant that often has great food but also regularly serves up plates of garbage. And when a business fails its customers， the customers leave.

很难说谁赢了——喷子还是我。现在判断还为时尚早。我只知道我已经停止使用推特一周了，而且我感觉并没有什么不适应的。

我爱社交媒体。我恨社交媒體。你也是这样吗？多年来，我一直在不断调整与它的关系，努力避免饱和的蔓延。我既不用色拉布也不用领英。你没法把我拖进评论区。

然后就是推特了。

如果你在家办公，那么推特就是绝佳的闲聊工具。多年来，我一直靠这样的幻觉混日子：我所关注的那些聪明、机智、全情投入的人从某种程度上来说是我的同事、朋友，我每天都可以与他们就政治、电视与健康进行对话。

我甚至很幸运能够通过推特认识了几个线下的朋友和工作上的联系人。事实上，其中一个今晚要和我一起去喝啤酒。如果你使用推特是因为你喜欢聪明且可以逗你大笑的人，你不会失望的。而且它是免费的！唯一的代价就是会被最差劲的人渣持续不断地“喷”。

我从2008年春天开始用推特。我不记得究竟过了多久，我第一次被称作丑陋的婊子，但我记得是过了一段时间才出现这种情况的。当然，时不时我的消息中会有让人不悦的评论，或者某位固执己见的、还用着推特默认的蛋蛋头像的用户会不请自来地向我发送言辞激烈的回复。但是我从未认真重新考虑过是否应该停用推特，直到几年后，我为某杂志写了一篇文章，在谈及一位著名的憎恶女性的媒体人时给出了一些负面的评价。

不一会儿，我就收到了死亡威胁——比如，我会去你家杀了你。当这些回复开始涌入时，我正置身于音乐会上的一大群人之中，我记得自己被一种妄想症患者般的恐惧感所淹没。突然间，我感觉人群中的任何一个都可能是想袭击我的人。

抓紧补充一句，这不仅仅是针对我。如果你去看看某个喷子的时间轴，你很少看到喷子只盯着一个目标喷。

不，喷子经常到处乱喷，就像草坪的洒水喷头一样。推特上那些“兢兢业业”的喷子通常以匿名的方式隐藏起来（虽然有时候也有胆子大的喷子以真实身份示人），整天对着陌生人大喊大叫，仿佛这是他们的工作。甚至当我与一名男性公众人物以十分文明的方式发生争论时，他的一群支持者迅速嗅到了一场争斗，然后跑到我这儿让我去死。

多年以来我一直在关注推特的喷子问题，因为这一问题一直都没有得到改善。我见到其他人——最常见的是女性——遭受了危及自身安全的恐怖威胁。我看到视频播客“女权频率”的安妮塔·萨克依茜安因公开谈论游戏世界中的性别歧视而被“喷”。我见到科技编辑霍莉·布罗克韦尔在写了一篇关于不想要孩子的文章之后，“由于遭到大量（主要来自男性的）可怕的辱骂与威胁”不得不暂时停用她的账户。

当推特似乎在认真解决其网络暴力问题并将最恶劣的喷子封号时，当公共官员已经认识到在网上威胁他人被法律界认定为等同于威胁他人时，我还怀有希望。

但这一年将人的乐观情绪消磨殆尽。最近，女演员莱斯莉·琼斯在遭受了极其丑恶的种族主义辱骂后决定暂时离开推特——就在她职业生涯的另一个高峰时刻。至少她把她的惨败——包括她的网站被黑了——编成了一个艾美奖笑话，告诉安永的代表：“因为你们擅长保管东西，所以我有个差事给你：保管好我的推特账户。请把它放到金库里。”

像其他人一样（包括阿瑟·朱，他雄辩地描写了他对推特的矛盾心理），我已经为了自己的精神健康时不时给自己放假了。去年我停用了社交媒体，这帮助我获得了网络生活的平衡与宁静。上个月，我休了一周的假，并且在此期间几乎没有上网看过一眼。

但是这次我回归推特时，我并没有十分渴望见到那些曾予我启迪、让我愉快的熟悉面孔。我只是害怕不可避免的不快。不用等多久我就会遭遇不快。当另一位女作家发帖表示如果推特没有采取更大的行动来遏制网络暴力，她不认为一年后自己仍会是活跃用户。我想：我还在等什么呢？

于是在上周，一天早上我醒来的时候读到了一些头天晚上网友对我写的东西并不算特别恶毒但绝对充满敌意的回复，我决定我已经受够了。总是很晚才加入戒掉推特的潮流，这就是我。

我对自己网上的内容管理很严格，我很感激过滤选项可以在一定程度上有效地过滤掉推特所谓的“低质量内容”。我没有兴趣与喷子对喷，我也不愿关注那些会和喷子对喷的人。我经常坚决地屏蔽。但是，今年的丑陋，那些纯粹的、毫不留情的憎恨不断上演——而且不仅仅是在推特上——这对于任何放任不管、自愿忍受这些的人而言都是不健康的。

7月时，作家杰茜卡·瓦伦蒂在推特上宣布：“今天早上，我醒来时发现了一条针对我5岁女儿的死亡威胁。我无法接受这是我工作生活的一部分……执法部门需要加强对网络威胁的治理。”她继续道：“与此同时，我正在停止使用社交媒体。我不知道会持续多久。我只知道我不能像这样生活。如此过分我不能忍受。”

我真的担忧当头脑基本正常、不会大喊大叫的人们放弃对话时会发生什么。我对社交媒体被恶霸侵占的潜在后果思考了很多。在网络社区度过了20年之后，我也明白遏制喷子是一件难事，而且一位女士的退场算不上一场运动。但是，我通过自己的成年生活试图以自己微不足道的方式发出信号而非噪声。然而持续暴露在威胁、辱骂以及愚蠢至极的胡说八道之中绝不是人们所说的“用户友好”的体验，也不是，顺便说一句，开国元勋当年所说的言论自由。

我不会继续光顾一家虽然经常提供美食，但也不断把垃圾端上餐桌的餐厅。当企业让顾客失望，顾客就会离开。

1. troll：网络喷子。

2. saturation：饱和（状态）。

3. Snapchat：色拉布，是由斯坦福大学两位学生开发的一款“阅后即焚”照片分享应用；LinkedIn：领英，一个知名的职场社交平台。

4. water cooler：饮水机，多用来指办公场所供休息闲聊的地方。

5. dregs：（常用复数）渣滓。

6. unsolicited：主动提供的，未经请求的；opinionated：固执己见的，武断的；avatar：（因特网上聊天者的）化身图标，虚拟头像。

7. misogynist：憎恶女性的人。

8. paranoid：偏执狂，妄想症患者。

9. cloak：遮掩，隐匿；anonymity：匿名；embolden：使有胆量。

10. harrowing：让人恐惧的，令人痛苦的。

11. stride：大步，阔步；rectify：纠正，改正。