年轻人在社交媒体上表现更不“自我”

Social media just isn't real.

Yes, you thought that everyone was just being themselves, but teens, those extrasensory beings, are fed up with all the flimflam and fluff that's all over their Twitters and Facebooks.

I take this information from a new survey. It says 69 percent of the 812 young people aged 13-22 insisted that they're very rarely themselves on social media. It's not clear who they actually are on social media. They can't all be Beyoncé and Jay-Z, can they?

This sense of an inauthentic virtual world has apparently caused them to post less. 66 percent said they had cut back.

Boys, though, will be big-mouths. In this survey, they were 70 percent more likely than girls to claim they posted everything about themselves, unedited.

Still, this quaint clinging to a need for their friends to be more real on social media smacks of a touching idealism. 63 percent said that they found it very tough to read their friends' "fluff" online. But they still presumably read it. It's a social convention, after all.

You might imagine that the older that young people get, the more perspective they have on the world, and therefore the social world.

College students were, indeed. more likely than high schoolers (56 versus 47 percent) to look at their friends' fluffery and punish them with a defriending.

But don't think that age really equals wisdom (just look at any politician). At the same time as supposedly having no tolerance for slapdash nonsense, college students were more likely than high schoolers (31 percent versus 23 percent) to post things online without thinking.

How odd that colleges haven't thought to make money with a Self-Awareness 101 course.

Always with surveys, though, one wonders about their sponsors. This one, conductedby Harris Interactive between July 31 and August 14, was funded by the South Korea-based Naver corporation.

A press release for the survey informs me that the reason for the study is because Camp Mobile parent Naver "is continuing to invest in understanding social-media behaviors and perceptions among US teens and young adults in anticipation these new findings signal growing opportunity for group-based sharing platforms and apps." And according to anotherpress release, on the launch, Camp Mobile believes apps like Band "better mirror how people socialize offline."

That may well be true. How odd, though, to think that when people socialize offline, they are somehow more authentic.

Darling, what a lovely dress! Where DID you get it?

I love Hamish! No, really! He's one of my best friends!

It was WONDERFUL to meet you! I'll call you next week.

And how often does the call come?

社交网络是不真实的。

是的，你以为每个人都只是在“做自己”，然而，那些超敏感的青少年受够了推特和Facebook里满页面的瞎扯和索然无味的信息。

这是最新的调查数据得出的结论。该调查称，812位年龄介乎13至22岁之间的青少年坚信，他们在社交网络上很少“表示自我”。不知道他们在社交网络上的身份到底是谁，不会是碧昂斯或Jay-Z吧？

这种虚拟世界的不真实感使他们明显减少了发布状态的频率。66%的青少年表示很少更新状态。

然而，男生仍“口无遮拦”。该调查显示，表示会将关于他们的一切未加修饰地发布在网上的男生比女生多出70%。

不过，如果抱着“希望朋友在社交网络上更真实地展现自己”的奇怪想法，有点可怜的理想主义味道。63%的青少年表示，在网上看朋友的“瞎扯”绝非易事。但他们仍然会浏览。毕竟，这是社会惯例。

你也许会想青少年随着年龄的增长，他们对这个世界会看得越透，因此形成了社会化世界。

实际上，大学生就是这样的。他们比高中生（分别占56%和47%）更喜欢看朋友在网上的瞎扯，并用拉黑好友来“惩罚”他们。

不过，别以为年龄与智慧成正比（只要看看那些政客就知道了）。据推测，大学生在无法容忍草率的废话同时，他们比高中生更倾向于（分别占31%和23%）发表动态时不假思索。

大学生从来没有想过用自我意识的入门课程赚钱，太奇怪了！

回到这个调查中来。有人好奇是谁做的调查。这是哈里斯互动公司（Harris Interactive）在韩国 Naver 公司的资助下，于7月31日至8月14日进行的研究。

看到了调查发表后，作者了解了其研究的目的——Camp Mobile的母公司 Naver“正研究美国青少年和年轻人的社交网络观念和行为，并希望这些新发现能应用于群组共享平台和应用。”另有报道称，Camp Mobile 相信诸如 Band 的应用是“反映人们线下社交的镜子”。

这也许是对的。但人们线下社交时，不知怎么的就变得真实起来，这是多么奇怪的一件事。

亲爱的，多好看的裙子！你在哪儿买的？

我爱哈米什！不！他是我的好朋友！真的！

见到你真好！下周我会联系你的！

但事实上多久之后才会联系呢？