ARTICLE · 1020982
金融时报 | 约会软件有什么毛病?——承诺太多,兑现太少!
📍 本文逻辑路标：
作者通过交友软件市场疲软，引出算法约会这一议题。从实际体验上看，算法约会并没有起到作用，一是人们根本不知道自己潜意识中最想要什么；二是人在编写个人资料时会撒谎；三是人们花费大量时间刷屏，而没有时间去享受交往乐趣。除此之外，更深层次的担忧是：交友软件是有害的吗？作者介绍了研究者的论文，其得出的结论令人惊讶——尽管交友软件会让人们更加分化，但用户却因算法更容易遇到与自己完全不同的人，并步入婚姻。讽刺的是，作者认为，算法确实带来机遇，但深度的关系往往无法为公司带来利润。
Algorithmic dating, like online dating in general, has overpromised and underdelivered. Yes, that is the uninformed opinion of a centrist dad who has never tried online dating — but it is not merely the uninformed opinion of a centrist dad who has never tried online dating. The market has reached the same conclusion: despite a background of frothy valuations for all things tech, share prices of the dating companies Bumble and Match Group (the owner of Tinder) have fallen precipitously in the past few years. User numbers are flagging too.
Translation:
算法约会，和一般的在线约会一样，承诺过多，兑现太少。是的，这是一个从未尝试过在线交友的“中间派老爸”的无知观点——但这不仅仅是。市场也得出了同样的结论：尽管所有科技公司都享受着高估值，但交友软件公司Bumble和Match Group的股价在过去几年里却大幅下跌。用户数量也在下滑。
Takeaway:
uninformed adj. not having enough knowledge or information 无知的；不了解情况的
centrist n. having political beliefs that are not extreme 〔政治上的〕中间派的，温和派的
frothy adj. a frothy book, film etc is enjoyable but not serious or important 〔书、电影等〕有趣但浅薄的，不严肃的
flag v. becoming tired or losing strength 疲倦的；逐渐衰弱的，萎靡的
This reckoning has been brewing for a very long time. Scientific matchmaking dates back at least to the 1920s, when Science and Invention magazine explained the use of pulsometers (“electrical sphygmographs”) and a body odour test (put the object of your affection in a glass capsule to which a hosepipe is attached, and sniff away). One test even had a researcher suddenly fire a pistol into the air to see how the loving couple reacted to stressful situations — if both of them showed signs of panic, this was alleged to be a bad omen for the chances of marital harmony. But a more direct precursor of today’s dating apps is Operation Match, a 1960s effort by enterprising Harvard students who were scrounging some time on a punch-card computer.
Translation:
这种“清算”已经酝酿了很长时间。科学婚配至少可以追溯到20世纪20年代，当时《科学与发明》杂志介绍了脉搏计和体味测试的应用（把你心仪的对象放在一个连接着软管的玻璃胶囊里，然后闻一闻）。有一项测试甚至让研究人员突然朝空中开一枪，看看这对情侣如何应对压力情境——如果两人都表现出恐慌的迹象，据称这对婚姻和谐的前景来说是个坏兆头。但当今交友软件更直接的先驱是“配对行动”——20世纪60年代，一群进取的哈佛学生在一台穿孔卡片计算机上挤时间搞出来的项目。
Takeaway:
hosepipe n. a long hose 长软管，长胶管，水龙带
pistol n. a small gun you can use with one hand 手枪
omen n. a sign of what will happen in the future 前兆，预兆，兆头
precursor n. something that happened or existed before something else and influenced its development 〔事物的〕前身，先驱
Operation Match claimed to rely on a 75-point questionnaire to make the perfect pairings, but the truth was simpler. “The first thing we did was to make sure they were in the same area,” co-founder Jeff Tarr later told a documentary-maker. “Mostly girls wanted to go out with boys who were the same age or older, their height or taller, the same religion. So after we had these cuts, then we just kind of randomly matched them.”
Translation:
“配对行动”声称依靠一份75道题的问卷来做出完美配对，但事实要简单得多。“我们做的第一件事是确保他们在同一个区域，”联合创始人杰夫·塔尔后来告诉一位纪录片制作人。“大多数女孩想和同龄或更年长的、身高相当或更高的、同一宗教的男孩约会。所以在做了这些筛选之后，我们就随机匹配了。”
Takeaway:
pairing n. two people who are standing or doing something together, or who have some type of connection with each other 〔一起做某事或相互关联的〕两个（人），一对
So much for scientific matchmaking, but there are worse ways to find love. While Grindr and Tinder are slicker and more immediate, they seem to work in much the same way, eschewing an algorithmic match in favour of what so many web ads describe as “hot singles in your area now”. (If I am the only one seeing these ads, please never tell me this.)
Translation:
所谓科学婚配也不过如此，不过还有更糟的找对象方式。虽然Grindr和Tinder更流畅、更即时，但它们的工作方式似乎也大同小异——避开算法匹配，转而青睐那些网络广告中常说的“你附近的火热单身人士”。（如果只有我看到这些广告，请永远不要告诉我这一点。）
Takeaway:
slick adj. if something is slick, it is done in a skilful and attractive way and seems expensive, but it often contains no important or interesting ideas 徒有其表的，华而不实的
eschew v. to deliberately avoid doing or using something 〔有意地〕回避，避开
Perhaps that is sensible. There is obvious appeal in the idea that from a sphygmograph to a deep-learning system, “science” will find your perfect match, but it is not hard to see the shallowness in the promise of an algorithmic pairing. Mathematician Hannah Fry — author of The Mathematics of Love — put her finger on the problem: “You don’t really know what you want.”
Translation:
也许这是明智的。“科学”（从脉搏计到深度学习系统）会帮你找到完美伴侣的想法显然很有吸引力，但算法配对的承诺有多肤浅，也不难看穿。数学家汉娜·弗赖——著有《爱情数学》——指出了问题所在：“你并不真正知道自己想要什么。”
We can write down the list of qualities we might want in a partner, but some of them are circular (“I would be attracted to someone attractive”), some of them seem important but may not be (such as a shared taste in books or music) and some defy description. A list of categories in a computer database might feel scientific, but we should hardly be surprised if our affections are governed by a very different subconscious checklist.
Translation:
我们可以列出我们可能希望伴侣具备的品质清单，但其中一些是循环论证（“我会被有吸引力的人吸引”），一些看起来重要但可能并非如此（比如对书籍或音乐的共同品味），还有一些难以描述。电脑数据库中的分类列表可能看起来很“科学”，但如果我们的感情是由一个非常不同的潜意识清单所支配的，我们也不应该感到惊讶。
Takeaway:
subconcious adj. subconscious feelings, desires etc are hidden in your mind and affect your behaviour, but you do not know that you have them 〔感觉、欲望等〕下意识的，潜意识的
Also, people lie. Researchers have discovered that the typical user of online dating websites is richer, slimmer, blonder and sexier than the rest of the population — at least, according to their own profiles. Lake Wobegon is real, and accessible on a dating app near you.
Translation:
而且，人们会撒谎。研究人员发现，在线交友网站的典型用户比一般人更有钱、更苗条、更金发、更性感——至少根据他们自己的个人资料是这样。“沃比根湖”是真实存在的，在离你不远的交友软件上就能找到。
A further complaint is simply that dating apps induce people to spend a lot of time anxiously scrolling and not nearly enough time going out and having fun. This is 21st-century life anyway, but the gap between what the app promises and what the app delivers is particularly stark when the app is offering to help you find love — or, at the very least, some kind of intimacy with another human.
Translation:
还有一个抱怨是，交友软件诱导人们花大量时间焦虑地刷屏，却几乎没有足够的时间出去享受乐趣。这无论如何都是21世纪的生活，但当软件承诺帮你找到爱情——或者至少是与他人的某种亲密关系时，承诺与兑现之间的差距尤其明显。
Looming over all this is a broader social question: are dating apps bad for society? The worry here is not prudish but more of a parallel with social media. We worry about Twitter, YouTube and TikTok not only because they distract and distress us but because they may be contributing to a polarised society in which everyone lives in their own information bubble.
Translation:
笼罩在这一切之上的，是一个更广泛的社会问题：交友软件对社会有害吗？这里的担忧不是“古板”，而是与社交媒体的问题类似。我们担心Twitter、YouTube和TikTok，不仅因为它们让我们分心和痛苦，还因为它们可能正在助长一个两极分化的社会——每个人都活在自己的信息泡沫中。
Takeaway:
prudish adj. very easily shocked by things relating to sex – used to show disapproval 〔在性方面〕大惊小怪的〔含贬义〕
polarize v. to divide into clearly separate groups with opposite beliefs, ideas, or opinions, or to make people do this （使）两极分化
A recent working paper written by three economists, Yujung Hwang, Aureo de Paula and Fanzhu Yang, tries to shed light on the question of whether dating apps polarise us. As with social media there are forces pushing in both directions: some dating apps allow people to filter who they see by categories including race, religion and education. These filters might contribute to greater polarisation, where people date only people of the same race and education level. On the other hand, dating apps make it easier to skim through a large number of possible matches, just as a social media account presents a vast range of different hot takes. So perhaps dating apps encourage more mixing across ethnic or educational lines?
Translation:
三位经济学家黄裕晶、奥雷奥·德·保拉和杨凡珠最近撰写的一篇工作论文，试图阐明交友软件是否会导致两极分化的问题。与社交媒体一样，存在着正反两方面的力量：一些交友软件允许用户按种族、宗教和教育程度等类别筛选他们看到的人。这些筛选功能可能加剧两极分化——人们只与同种族、同教育水平的人约会。另一方面，交友软件让浏览大量可能的匹配对象变得更容易，就像社交媒体账号呈现各种各样的“热评”一样。所以也许交友软件鼓励了跨种族或跨教育程度的更多融合？
Takeaway:
shed light on: to provide new information that makes a difficult subject or problem easier to understand 〔提供新资料〕使某事物更容易理解
My bet was on increased polarisation. Faced with a broader choice of people to connect with, we often use that choice to seek out people just like us. Consider a study of college friendships conducted by three psychologists, Angela Bahns, Kate Pickett and Christian Crandall. They compared the friendships that students formed at small college campuses with those at the much-larger University of Kansas. The smaller campuses offered less diversity overall, yet students at small colleges were more likely to have a diverse group of friends — diversity here referring to all sorts of differences in opinion, background and behaviour. Given more choice, people sought out their ideological twins.
Translation:
我押注的是“加剧两极分化”。面对更广泛的选择对象时，我们常常利用这种选择来寻找像我们一样的人。想想三位心理学家——安吉拉·巴恩斯、凯特·皮克特和克里斯蒂安·克兰德尔——对大学友谊进行的一项研究。他们比较了学生在小型学院校园和规模大得多的堪萨斯大学形成的友谊。小型校园总体上提供的多样性更少，但小型学院的学生却更有可能拥有多样化的朋友圈——这里的“多样性”指的是观点、背景和行为上的各种差异。在更多选择面前，人们寻找的是思想上的同类。
Takeaway:
ideological adj. based on strong beliefs or ideas, especially political or economic ideas 思想上的；思想体系的；意识形态的〔尤指政治或经济思想〕
Despite this, Hwang and colleagues found that the impact of online dating was — to my surprise — to enable people to date and eventually to marry people of a different ethnic background. Why? The answer is simple: Tinder, the most popular app, does not offer filters beyond basics such as location and sexual orientation. Instead, users are thrown into an undifferentiated pool of dating prospects and have to figure it out.
Translation:
尽管如此，黄和她的同事们发现，在线交友的影响——令我惊讶的是——是让人们能够与不同种族背景的人约会，并最终结婚。为什么？答案很简单：最受欢迎的交友软件Tinder不提供超出地理位置和性取向等基本筛选之外的功能。相反，用户被扔进一个无差别的潜在约会对象池中，得靠自己来判断。
Takeaway:
undifferentiated adj. something which is undifferentiated is not split into parts, or has different parts but you cannot tell the difference between them 分不开的；一体的；无法区分的
There is a strange parallel to social media here: although social media are filtered and highly polarised, they are also chaotic and scattershot. Filter bubble notwithstanding, you are more likely to encounter opposing viewpoints on Twitter than reading your favourite tabloid newspaper.
Translation:
这与社交媒体有一个奇怪的相似之处：虽然社交媒体是被过滤过的、高度两极化的，但它们也是混乱和随意的。尽管存在“过滤气泡”，但在Twitter上遇到对立观点的可能性，比你阅读你最喜欢的小报要大。
Takeaway:
scattershot adj. A scattershot approach or method involves doing something to a lot of things or people in disorganized way, rather than focusing on particular things or people. 无针对性的;随便的;任意的;漫无目的的
notwithstanding prep. in spite of something 尽管
Chaotic and scattershot doesn’t sound like a recipe for dating success any more than it sounds like a healthy news diet. But in both situations, there is a case to be made for casting the net widely and in strange waters — as long as we can occasionally move past the shallows into something deeper.
Translation:
“混乱和随意”听起来不像是交友成功的方法，也不像是健康的“信息食谱”。但在两种情况下，都有理由在广泛的范围和陌生水域撒网——只要我们能偶尔越过浅滩，进入更深的水域。
That deeper experience might be a good book, a serious hobby or a long-term romance. The only problem: there’s no revenue in any of that.
Translation:
那种更深的体验可能是一本好书、一个认真的爱好，或一段长期的恋情。唯一的问题是：这些都不赚钱。
❓ 讨论时间：本文介绍了交友软件的讽刺和不中用。大家有使用过交友软件吗？大家的体验感如何呢？不同的群体面向真的会带来完全不同的体验吗？
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