I don’t think the history of the 2016 election will be correctly written until it is clearly stated 'no Facebook, no Trump.'
除非明确标上“没有脸书 就没有特朗普” 否则美国2016年大选的历史就有失史实
Anybody who expected a wonderful happy global community to form on the Internet in which everybody would share cat videos has been gravely disappointed.
任何希望在网络上建造和谐家园 人人分享喵星人视频的人都会感到极度失望
In fact, what’s happened has been an already quite polarized political scene has become even more polarized. Why?
其实 已经发生的极化政治现象变得更加极化了 为什么？
Well, remember rule number one of the networks, birds of a feather flock together, homophily operates.
记住网络的第一条规则 即物以类聚 同质性掌控着一切

So people have naturally gravitated into two rival clusters if you want to put it this way, a liberal cluster, and a conservative cluster.
所以人们自然而然地就被分成了两个阵营 一个是自由主义阵营 另一个是保守派阵营
But what’s fascinating is the way that peculiarities of today’s network platforms exacerbate this problem.
但有趣的是 如今网络平台的一些特性会让这个问题进一步恶化
For example, we now know that a tweet is 20 percent more likely to be read tweeted for every moral or emotional word that it uses.
比如 现在我们知道 推特每使用一个道德或情感上的词 被别人看到的可能性就会多出20%
If you want to get retweeted you, therefore, are incentivized to use strong language.
如果你想让别人转发你的推特 你就会倾向于使用语气很强烈的词语
We can see that the legislators in the House of Representatives and the Senate who have the most Facebook followers are the most ideologically extreme according to their voting patterns.
我们可以看到 根据表决方式 脸书上粉丝最多的参众两院立法者的思想形态最为极端
So I think the Facebook and Twitter have been configured to incentivize the expression and sharing of extreme opinions.
所以我觉得脸书和推特的目的就是催化极端观点的表达和分享
It isn’t just fake news that we have to worry about, but we do have to worry about that, it’s also extreme views.
我们需要担心的不仅仅是虚假新闻 还得担心那些极端的观点
Both are in fact incentivized by the structure of the network platforms as they existed.
这两者都受到了现有网络平台结构的刺激鼓励
And I think looking back on 2016 the correct analysis of that election is not that the Russian network interfered and that’s why Trump won,
回头看看2016年 正确分析那次选举 并不是俄罗斯的干预让特朗普获了胜
I don’t think the Russian contribution was nearly big enough for that statement to be valid.
我不觉得俄罗斯的影响力有那么大
What is true is that without the existence of Facebook and Twitter it would’ve been very hard for an outlier outside a candidate like Donald Trump to win.
事实是 如果没有脸书和推特 那么像唐纳德·特朗普这样的外行候选者想要获胜实在是难如登天
But those network platforms created opportunities for a populist that really had not existed before and his campaign knew how to use them and continues to know how to use them.
但这些网络平台给此前未有的平民主义者创造了机会 而他的竞选团队懂得如何利用这一点 现在也在好好利用这一点
Remember the algorithms are designed to give you more of what you engaged with before.
记住 算法的目的是给你推荐更多和你以前相关的东西
You may not even notice it but as you like thing, as you share them you’re signaling two of the network platforms your preferences
你甚至都没有意识到这一点 但你点赞 分享的时候 就会在这两个网络平台上暴露出自己的喜好
and it’s set up to give you more of that because the more engaged you are the more advertising they can sell.
然后平台就会给你推荐更多相关的东西 因为你越喜欢它们的内容 它们就能销售越多广告
That’s how they make their money.
这样才能挣到钱
So I think it’s time to kind of dial back our addiction, not only for political reasons but also because it’s addictive and addictions are bad for you.
所以是时候控制一下我们的网瘾了 不单是出于政治原因 更是因为它会让人上瘾 这对你百害无一利
The more time you spend, and we all spend crazy amounts of time on our smartphones using these platforms, the less time you have to read Tolstoy or my book.
我们都在手机上花费了大量时间来玩这些网络平台 你花在手机上的时间越多 你就越没有时间拜读托尔斯泰的作品或者我的书
And I think the books are actually much the best way for human beings to get high-level information.
我觉得书籍是人类获得高级信息的最佳方式
I think it’s better for your peace of mind and it will be better for our body politic if we all spend much less time on our smartphones using Facebook and Twitter and much more time reading books.
少花点时间玩脸书和推特 多花时间去阅读 这不仅有利于内心的平静 更有利于整个国家