TED- 我们完蛋了？社交媒体如何塑造了你的语言？

摘要：这种用法主要出现在非正式场合，但也可能出现在诸如学生关于哈姆雷特思考自我“非活”的论文中，或是在讨论《化身博士》中发生的“非活” 行为的课堂讨论里。而这些并非假设的情景。

How many of you are familiar with the word "unalive" as a synonym of "kill"?

你们中有多少人熟悉“非活”这个词，它作为“杀”的同义词使用？

Show of hands.

举手示意。

OK, like, 80 percent of you.

好的，大概有80%的你们。

Great.

伟大。

Now, follow-up question.

现在，请继续提问。

How many of you have heard the word "unalive" being used in person?

你们当中有多少人曾亲耳听到过“非活”这个词的使用？

OK, I'm getting, like, 40, 50 percent.

好的，我大概能理解四五成。

Great.

伟大。

Those of you that said no clearly aren't middle-school teachers.

那些回答“不是”的人显然不是中学教师。

(Laughter) If you spend enough time around seventh- and eighth-graders, you will hear them using the word.

（笑声）如果你经常和初中生混在一起，你就会听到他们用这个词。

It'll mostly be in informal situations but could show up in contexts like a student's essay on Hamlet's contemplation of unaliving himself, or a classroom discussion on the unaliving that happens in "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde." And these aren't hypothetical situations.

这种用法主要出现在非正式场合，但也可能出现在诸如学生关于哈姆雷特思考自我“非活”的论文中，或是在讨论《化身博士》中发生的“非活” 行为的课堂讨论里。而这些并非假设的情景。

These are actual examples drawn from the 1,000-plus middle-school teachers I've surveyed about this word.

以下是从我调查的1000多名中学教师中提取的关于这个词的真实案例。

It's a weird hobby of mine, I don't know.

这是我的一个怪癖，我也不太清楚。

Clearly, for such a recent word, "unalive" shows up in an impressive range of scenarios, but the main function appears to be euphemistic.

显然，作为一个新近出现的词汇， “非活” 在多种情境中都有出现，但其主要功能似乎是委婉表达。

Many kids use the word when they're uncomfortable talking about topics like death, since "unalive" sounds like a less scary word.

许多孩子在谈论诸如死亡等令人不适的话题时会使用“非活” 这个词，因为“非活” 听起来不像那么可怕。

And in many ways, this is nothing new.

在许多方面，这并非新鲜事。

We've been euphemizing death as long as we've had language.

自语言诞生以来，我们就一直在用委婉语来表达死亡。

The word "decease," for example, comes from Latin "decessus, " which was a euphemism for the previous Latin word for death, "mors." Apparently, even the stoic Romans were as queasy about death as today's middle schoolers.

例如，“decease” （去世）一词源自拉丁语“decessus”，而后者是更早的拉丁语词汇“mors” （死亡）的委婉说法。显然，就连古罗马的斯多葛派学者也对死亡感到不安，就像如今的中学生一样。

But there is a crucial difference between "unalive" and "decease." And that's that we only got the word "unalive" because you can't say "kill" on TikTok.

然而，“非活”与“去世”之间存在一个关键差异。我们之所以有了“非活”这个词，是因为在抖音国际版上不能直接使用“杀”这个字。

They have a mysterious algorithm that removes or suppresses any post that might violate their community guidelines.

这些平台拥有一套神秘的算法，能够自动移除或压制任何可能违反其社区规范的帖子。

So people got around that with the word "unalive." The middle schoolers don't know this.

于是人们用“非活”这个词来绕过限制。中学生们可能并不了解这一点。

They see the word online or hear it from friends and assume it's a word like any other.

他们会在网上看到这个词，或从朋友那里听到，然后就认为它和其他任何词一样。

And fair enough, you probably didn't know where the word "deceased" came from, unless you're some kind of etymology nerd.

说实在的，你大概不知道“deceased” 这个词的来历，除非你是个热衷词源学的书呆子。

(Laughter) But "deceased" didn't happen because it was impossible to carve the word "mors" into an ancient Roman tablet.

（笑声）但“已故”这个词的产生并非因为古人无法将“死亡”（mors）这个词刻在古罗马的石板上。

We are entering an entirely new era of language change, driven by social-media algorithms.

我们正迈入一个全新的语言变革时代，这一变革由社交媒体算法所驱动。

As a linguist and content creator, I've been in a unique position to see this happen from the inside.

作为一名语言学家和内容创作者，我有幸从内部见证了这一现象的发生。

It's almost paralyzing.

这几乎令人瘫痪。

I constantly feel how my own language is being affected, and judging from the 40 percent of you who answered both of my questions, it's beginning to change your language, too.

我不断感受到自己的语言正在受到影响，而从你们中40%的人回答了我的两个问题来看，你们的语言也开始发生变化了。

And it's not just new words to avoid algorithmic censorship.

这不仅仅是创造新词来规避算法审查。

The very structure of social media is changing where words come from, how words get popular and how quickly those words spread.

社交媒体的本质结构正在改变词汇的来源、流行方式以及传播速度。

I believe some of you might be familiar with this song.

我相信你们中的一些人可能熟悉这首歌。

(Clears throat) (Laughter) "Sticking Out Your Gyat for The Rizzler" (Laughter) "You're so skibidi / You're so Fanum tax / I just want to be your sigma / Freaking come here / Give me your Ohio" (Laughter) For those of you out of the loop, these are the lyrics to the Rizzler song, a meme that went massively viral last year.

（清嗓子）（笑声）“为撩神挺身而出” （笑声）“你如此迷人/你这般税感/我只想成为你的西格玛/快过来/把你的俄亥俄给我” （笑声）对于那些不太了解的人，这些是《撩神之歌》的歌词，这首歌是去年风靡一时的网络迷因。

It's full of current middle-school slang words, like "rizz," "gyat" and "skibidi," and was instrumental in popularizing those words to a broader audience.

它充斥着时下中学生的流行俚语，如“魅力” 、“搞啥” 和“蹦迪” ，并在将这些词汇推广至更广泛受众方面发挥了关键作用。

This is because social-media algorithms reward repetition.

这是因为社交媒体算法会奖励重复的内容。

If a song is funny or catchy and people interact with it, the algorithm will then push that song to more people, since it's proven to drive engagement on the app.

如果一首歌既有趣又朗朗上口，并且人们与之互动，算法就会将这首歌推送给更多人，因为这已被证明能提高应用内的用户参与度。

The same is true of memes, or words in general, since trending metadata, like hashtags, will also be pushed to people who had previously shown interest in similar content.

同样，模因或一般词汇也遵循这一规律，因为热门元数据（如标签）会被推送给那些之前对类似内容表现出兴趣的用户。

Creators are very aware of this, and we actively use trending audios or hashtags to make our videos perform better.

创作者们对此心知肚明，我们积极采用热门音频或标签，以提升视频的表现效果。

In the wake of the Rizzler song, for example, we saw an explosion of people making videos with the words "rizz, " "gyat" and "skibidi," because they knew those videos would do well.

例如，在Rizzler歌曲走红后，我们目睹了大量用户制作包含“rizz”、“gyat” 和“skibidi” 等词汇的视频，因为他们深知这类内容会大受欢迎。

And as a result, the words spread.

因此，这些词汇得以广泛传播。

Language has always been a little bit like a virus.

语言一直有点像病毒。

Words are transmitted from one host to another, reproducing and changing as they infect different people along social networks.

词语在社交网络中如同病毒般传播，从一个宿主传递到另一个宿主，在感染不同个体的过程中不断复制并发生变异。

But now, the viral nature of social media is accelerating this process, from start to finish.

然而，如今社交媒体的病毒式传播特性正从始至终加速这一过程。

In the span of just a year, a word like "rizz" can go from complete obscurity to becoming the Oxford English Dictionary word of the year.

仅在短短一年内，一个词汇如“rizz”就能从完全默默无闻跃升为牛津英语词典的年度词汇。

(Laughter) And the algorithm is the culprit, but influencers are the accomplices.

（笑声）而算法是罪魁祸首，但网红们则是帮凶。

We use whatever tricks we can to keep you entertained, because that makes our videos do better, which helps us earn a living.

我们用尽各种招数来娱乐你，因为这能让我们的视频更受欢迎，从而帮助我们谋生。

This means that we often end up creating and spreading words that help the system.

这意味着我们常常最终创造并传播那些有利于系统的词汇。

For example, the suffix "-core" has recently gotten very popular in Gen Z slang to describe specific aesthetics, like cottagecore or goblincore or angelcore.

例如，后缀“-系美学风潮” 近期在Z世代俚语中非常流行，用于描述特定的审美风格，如田园风（cottagecore）、妖精风（goblincore）或天使风（angelcore）。

And on the surface level, these are cute.

而在表面层次上，这些显得颇为可爱。

(Laughter) You watch a cottagecore video, you like it.

（笑声）你观看了一个田园风视频，你喜欢上了它。

Later on, you get more cottagecore content.

随后，你会看到更多田园风的内容。

You might even start to identify with the cottagecore aesthetic.

你甚至可能开始认同田园风的美学风格。

But here's the thing -- it's all fake.

但问题是——这一切都是假的。

The entire reason these aesthetics exist is because the TikTok algorithm has decided that words like cottagecore qualify as trending metadata, so creators respond by making more cottagecore content that propagates the word, and then more people interact with it, which makes the word trendier.

这些美学风格之所以存在，全因抖音国际版的算法认定诸如“田园风” 这样的词汇符合热门元数据标准，于是创作者们纷纷制作更多田园风内容，进一步传播这一词汇，吸引更多人互动，从而使得该词愈发流行。

And this happens because social-media algorithms want to make you identify with hypercompartmentalized labels, since they can then give you extremely specific, commercialized content catering to that identity.

这种现象之所以发生，是因为社交媒体算法旨在促使你认同高度细分的标签，因为这样一来，它们便能向你推送极其精准、商业化的内容，专门迎合你的这种身份认同。

Now that you're a cottagecore person, you feel special every time you get a cottagecore video.

既然你成了田园风爱好者，每次刷到田园风视频都会倍感独特。

You're like, "Cottagecore ... Well, the algorithm really knows me." (Laughter) The algorithm gave you that identity.

你可能会说， “田园风……嗯，算法真是太懂我了。 ” （笑声）是算法赋予了你这种身份。

You might even start buying cottagecore clothing or cottagecore decorations to fit your new lifestyle as a cottagecore person, and that's exactly what they want.

你甚至可能开始购买田园风服饰或装饰品，以契合你作为田园风爱好者的全新生活方式，而这正是他们所期望的。

The craziest part is they're not even trying to hide this.

最疯狂的是，他们甚至都不打算掩饰这一点。

TikTok's business platform openly claims that subcultures are the new demographics, and then gives businesses ideas for how to profit off the cottagecore aesthetic.

抖音国际版的商业平台公然宣称亚文化即是新的人口统计学，进而为企业提供如何从田园风美学中获利的策略。

Essentially, they're driving the mass production of identity-building labels in order to profit off all of us.

本质上，它们正推动大规模生产身份构建标签，以此从我们所有人身上获利。

And while there's nothing wrong with being on cottagecore TikTok, it is a kind of echo chamber that affirms your cottagecore personality.

尽管沉浸在田园风的抖音国际版中并无不妥，但这确实形成了一种回音壁，不断强化着你的田园风个性。

The same is true of any niche community created on social media.

社交媒体上任何小众群体的形成也是如此。

And on one hand, this is great for linguistics, because language change is always driven by groups with shared interests that have a shared need to invent new words.

一方面，这对语言学来说是个好消息，因为语言的演变总是由那些拥有共同兴趣并需要共同创造新词汇的群体推动的。

"Unalive," for example, became a thing because mental health communities on TikTok needed a way to share their stories and spread resources.

例如，“非活”一词之所以流行，是因为抖音国际版上的心理健康社群需要一种方式来分享他们的经历并传播相关资源。

On the other hand, some of the linguistic communities created by the algorithm can be actively harmful.

另一方面，算法所催生的某些语言社群可能具有明显的危害性。

Many younger people have started using the suffix "-pilled" to mean "convinced into a lifestyle." If I recently discovered that I really like eating burritos, for example, I can say I'm so "burrito-pilled." But that word was formed through analogy with black-pilled, a term meaning "convinced into incel ideology." Now incels are a dangerous, misogynistic group.

许多年轻人开始使用后缀“-pilled”来表示“被说服采纳某种生活方式”。例如，如果我最近发现自己真的很喜欢享用墨西哥卷饼，我可以说自己“卷饼入脑式”了。然而，这个词是通过类比“黑入脑式”形成的，后者意指“被说服接受非自愿独身者意识形态”。如今，非自愿独身者是一群危险且厌恶女性的群体。

They've perpetrated multiple terrorist attacks that have killed dozens of people, and yet somehow, their vocabulary is filtering into Gen Z slang, because the algorithm gave these hate groups a space.

他们已经实施了多起导致数十人丧生的恐怖袭击，然而不知何故，这些仇恨团体的词汇正渗透进Z世代的俚语中，因为算法为这些极端群体提供了传播的渠道。

I like to consume videos about urban design, and a few months back, I got a video about how great it is to be a "parking lot-pilled pavement princess." (Laughter) Admittedly, I found the video pretty funny and I liked it, which ended up giving me more urban-design incel-themed meme videos, like one about being fossil fuel-pilled and bad to the bone, and another about being a walk-pilled cardiomaxxer.

我喜欢观看关于城市设计的视频，几个月前，我偶然看到一个视频，内容是关于成为“停车场-入脑式路面公主” 有多棒。（笑声）诚然，我觉得这个视频相当有趣，并且很喜欢它，结果这导致我之后收到了更多与城市设计相关的非自愿独身者主题的梗视频，比如一个是关于“化石燃料-入脑式” 且冷酷到底的，另一个则是关于“步行-入脑式” 的心脏健康支持者。

(Laughter) And a lot of people similarly encounter these words as they spread in ironic or meme contexts.

（笑声）许多人同样是在讽刺或表情包的语境中首次接触到这些词汇。

Let's take another look at the Rizzler song.

让我们再来欣赏一下《Rizzler》这首歌。

The lyric "I just want to be your sigma" refers to the concept of a sigma male, which incels use to describe their desired position outside of the social hierarchy.

歌词“我只想成为你的西格玛” 指的是西格玛男性这一概念，非自愿独身者用它来描述他们渴望在社会等级制度之外的地位。

And again, on the surface level, it's a funny meme.

再次强调，从表面上看，这只是一个有趣的梗。

It's innocent.

这是无辜的。

Many people don't even know where it came from.

许多人甚至不知道它的来源。

But for the few people who might be interested in the underlying idea, it's now more accessible to them because of the way that slang spreads on the internet.

但对于那些对这一底层概念感兴趣的少数人来说，由于俚语在互联网上的传播方式，他们现在更容易接触到这些信息。

It starts in some corner of social media, becomes a viral meme, and along the way, the etymology is lost to a lot of people.

这一切始于社交媒体的某个角落，逐渐演变成病毒式传播的网络迷因，而在这个过程中，其词源对许多人来说已变得模糊不清。

And this doesn't only allow communities to harm us, it allows us to harm communities.

这不仅让某些群体得以伤害我们，也让我们有可能伤害其他群体。

Two of the main demographics that come up with modern slang are the gay and Black communities, since marginalized groups consistently use language as a way to reclaim power.

现代俚语的主要创造者之一是同性恋和黑人群体，因为这些边缘化群体始终将语言作为重获权力的途径。

All of our most popular internet slang words -- "slay, " "serve," "bussin," "queen," "cooked, " "ate," "gyat," many others all come from queer or Black culture.

我们最流行的网络俚语词汇——"slay"（秒杀）、"serve"（惊艳亮相）、"bussin"（美味至极）、"queen"（女王）、"cooked"（搞砸了）、"ate"（吃掉了，意指表现出色）、"gyat"（搞定了），以及其他许多词汇，均源自酷儿文化或黑人文化。

These words originated as a form of creative expression, independent from the straight white norms of the English language.

这些词汇起源于一种创造性的表达方式，独立于英语中传统的白人直男规范。

But when those words began to be used online, they were quickly taken by people who wanted to capitalize on the perceived coolness or comedic value of Black and queer culture.

然而，当这些词汇开始在线上被使用时，它们迅速被一些人采纳，这些人希望利用黑人和酷儿文化所被认为的“酷劲” 或喜剧价值来谋利。

When a word like "gyat" goes from an African-American English pronunciation of "goddamn" to being used as a noun for "butt" in memes like the song, it's ultimately exaggerated in a way that makes a farce of its pronunciation and meaning.

当“gyat” 一词从非裔美国英语方言中“goddamn” 的发音，演变为在诸如歌曲梗图中作为“屁股” 的名词使用时，其发音和意义最终被夸张到荒谬的程度，实则沦为了一场对原语言形式的嘲弄。

Its original importance is diluted as it becomes widespread, and you can be sure that none of the middle schoolers saying "gyat" are aware of its etymology.

随着其广泛传播，其原有的重要性逐渐被稀释，可以肯定的是，那些在中学里说“gyat” 的学生们并不了解它的词源。

Unfortunately, just like the euphemism of "unalive" isn't new, the appropriation of African-American English also isn't new.

遗憾的是，正如“非活” 这一委婉语并不新鲜一样，对非裔美国英语方言的挪用也并非新现象。

We've been whitewashing Black slang since the days of "cool" and "high five, " which, at this point, have become so mainstream they're just seen as regular words.

自"cool"和"high five"时代起，我们就一直在洗白黑人俚语，如今这些词汇已如此主流，以至于被视为普通词语。

But once again, social-media algorithms are a vehicle enabling and accelerating this process from start to finish.

然而，社交媒体算法再次成为这一过程从始至终得以实现并加速的推手。

They create communities that feel like they have a space to use their words, and then open up those communities, just enough to allow those words to spread.

它们构建出社群，让成员感到拥有表达的空间，随后适度开放这些社群，使得这些词汇得以传播。

That's how we got "unalive." That's how we got "cottagecore." That's how we got "sigma, " and that's how we got "gyat." Whenever I post a video talking about one of these topics, I inevitably get the exact same comment.

正是如此，我们有了“非活” 一词。也是这样，我们迎来了“田园风” 潮流。同样地，“西格玛男性” 和“gyat” 也应运而生。每当我在视频中探讨这些话题时，评论区里总会不可避免地出现那句如出一辙的留言。

"We're so cooked" -- (Laughter) meaning "we're so screwed." Ironically, this is also TikTok slang coming from African-American English, but I wanted to address it.

“我们完蛋了” ——（笑声）意思是“我们彻底搞砸了”。讽刺的是，这同样是源自非裔美国英语方言的抖音流行语，但我还是想提一下。

Are we in fact cooked?

我们真的完蛋了吗？

(Laughter) I know I've just painted a very bleak picture of the future of the English language, and there are a lot of concerning trends to unpack.

（笑声）我知道我刚才描绘了一幅英语语言未来相当黯淡的图景，其中有许多令人担忧的趋势值得深入探讨。

But these trends all do follow the same historical patterns that we've seen time and time again.

然而，这些趋势都遵循着我们一再见证的历史模式。

I don't think we're sliding into a dystopian "1984" scenario, because we're always coming up with new ways around media censorship.

我不认为我们会滑向《1984》那样的反乌托邦境地，因为我们总能想出绕过媒体审查的新方法。

If a word gets banned, we'll just come up with another word, like we did with "unalive." I don't think middle schoolers are suffering from brain rot, because younger generations always latch on to new slang as a way to build identity, and their older generations always say, "Ah, you're ruining the language." But just like the people saying "cool" and "high five" back in the day, the middle schoolers saying "rizz" and "gyat" and "skibidi toilet" won't be incapable of writing an essay.

如果一个词被禁了，我们就会再造一个新词，就像我们用“非活” 替代那样。我不认为中学生会因此脑筋生锈，因为年轻一代总是通过新俚语来构建身份认同，而他们的长辈总会说：“啊，你们在糟蹋语言。 ” 但就像当年说“酷” 和“击掌”的人一样，现在说“rizz” 、“gyat” 和“skibidi厕所” 的中学生同样能写出好文章。

I don't think our vocabulary is being corrupted by the commercialization of our language.

我认为我们的词汇并没有因为语言的商业化而受到污染。

We already use brand names like Kleenex and Google in everyday conversations, so "cottagecore" isn't about to turn us into mindless consumer drones.

我们已经习惯在日常对话中使用Kleenex和Google这样的品牌名称，因此， “田园风” 并不会让我们变成无脑的消费机器。

I don't even think we're dangerously normalizing incel rhetoric.

我认为我们并没有在危险地使非自愿独身者的言论正常化。

If anything, our slang is built on a shared mockery of incel ideas.

如果说有什么共同点的话，那就是我们的俚语建立在对非自愿独身者理念的集体嘲讽之上。

When a kid says something like "I'm so burrito-pilled, " they're not saying that because they're black-pilled but because the underlying idea is making fun of how incels talk.

当一个孩子说“我真是被卷饼式洗脑了” ，他们并非因为感到黑色药丸式绝望，而是借用这种说法来调侃非自愿独身者们的说话方式。

In fact, I think each of these words is a beautiful, colorful addition to the English language that reflects the diverse cultural moment we're all in.

事实上，我认为这些词汇都是英语中美丽而多彩的补充，它们反映了我们共同所处的多元文化时刻。

But I do think we should be aware.

但我认为我们应该保持警觉。

We should be aware when the way we're talking may have been conditioned by the algorithm.

我们应当警觉，自己所用的语言方式是否已受到算法的潜移默化影响。

We should be aware when the words we're using may have been engineered to sell us things.

我们应当警觉，那些我们使用的词汇可能经过精心设计，目的是向我们推销商品。

We should be aware when our language regurgitates extremist rhetoric.

我们应警惕语言中重现极端主义言论的现象。

And we should be aware when that language can be used to harm other people.

我们应该警惕，这种语言何时可能被用来伤害他人。

We should be aware of etymology in general, because it helps us better understand who we are today.