年輕人在社交媒體上表現更不“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?社交網絡是不真實的。

是的，你以爲每個人都只是在“做自己”，然而，那些超敏感的青少年受夠了推特和Facebook裏滿頁面的瞎扯和索然無味的信息。

這是最新的調查數據得出的結論。該調查稱，812位年齡介乎13至22歲之間的青少年堅信，他們在社交網絡上很少“表示自我”。不知道他們在社交網絡上的身份到底是誰，不會是碧昂斯或Jay-Z吧？

這種虛擬世界的不真實感使他們明顯減少了發佈狀態的頻率。66%的青少年表示很少更新狀態。

然而，男生仍“口無遮攔”。該調查顯示，表示會將關於他們的一切未加修飾地發佈在網上的男生比女生多出70%。

不過，如果抱着“希望朋友在社交網絡上更真實地展現自己”的奇怪想法，有點可憐的理想主義味道。63%的青少年表示，在網上看朋友的“瞎扯”絕非易事。但他們仍然會瀏覽。畢竟，這是社會慣例。

你也許會想青少年隨着年齡的增長，他們對這個世界會看得越透，因此形成了社會化世界。

實際上，大學生就是這樣的。他們比高中生（分別佔56%和47%）更喜歡看朋友在網上的瞎扯，並用拉黑好友來“懲罰”他們。

不過，別以爲年齡與智慧成正比（只要看看那些政客就知道了）。據推測，大學生在無法容忍草率的廢話同時，他們比高中生更傾向於（分別佔31%和23%）發表動態時不假思索。

大學生從來沒有想過用自我意識的入門課程賺錢，太奇怪了！

回到這個調查中來。有人好奇是誰做的調查。這是哈里斯互動公司（Harris Interactive）在韓國 Naver 公司的資助下，於7月31日至8月14日進行的研究。

看到了調查發表後，作者瞭解了其研究的目的——Camp Mobile的母公司 Naver“正研究美國青少年和年輕人的社交網絡觀念和行爲，並希望這些新發現能應用於羣組共享平臺和應用。”另有報道稱，Camp Mobile 相信諸如 Band 的應用是“反映人們線下社交的鏡子”。

這也許是對的。但人們線下社交時，不知怎麼的就變得真實起來，這是多麼奇怪的一件事。

親愛的，多好看的裙子！你在哪兒買的？

我愛哈米什！不！他是我的好朋友！真的！

見到你真好！下週我會聯繫你的！

但事實上多久之後纔會聯繫呢？