By Lee Humphreys

Narcissism is defined as excessive self-love or self-centredness. In Greek mythology， Narcissus1 fell in love when he saw his reflection in water： He gazed so long， and he eventually died. Today， the quintessential2 image is not someone staring at his reflection but into his mobile phone. While we pine away for that perfect Snapchat filter or track our likes on Instagram， the mobile phone has become a vortex of social media that sucks us in and feeds our narcissistic tendencies.3 Or so it would seem.

But people have long used media to see reflections of themselves. Long before mobile phones or even photography， diaries were kept as a way to understand oneself and the world one inhabits. In the 18th and 19th centuries， as secular4 diaries became more popular，middle-class New Englanders， particularly white women， wrote about their everyday lives and the world around them. These diaries were not a place into which they poured their innermost thoughts and desires， but rather a place to chronicle the social world around them—whats going on around the house， what they did today， who came to visit， who was born or who died. The diaries captured the everyday routines of mid-19thcentury life， with women diarists in particular focused not on themselves but on their families and their communities.

在手機(jī)的社交媒體上分享生活點(diǎn)滴，或許是近幾年才出現(xiàn)的新生事物。但在智能手機(jī)出現(xiàn)以前，人們便已熱衷于此。那個(gè)時(shí)代的人會(huì)寫(xiě)日記、拍照片，還會(huì)把這些東西拿出來(lái)與朋友分享，一切都那么相似。唯一不同的是，今天，我們的每一條動(dòng)態(tài)，都成了平臺(tái)提供者的大數(shù)據(jù)之一。在看似免費(fèi)的服務(wù)背后，卻有著一條價(jià)值上億的利益鏈。

Diaries today are， for the most part， private. These New England diaries， in contrast， were commonly shared. Young women who were married would send their diaries home to their parents as a way of maintaining kin relations. When family or friends came to visit， it was not uncommon to sit down and go through ones journal together. Late 19th-century Victorian parents would often read aloud their childrens diaries at the end of the day. These were not journals with locks on them， meant only for the eyes of the diarist， but a means of sharing experiences with others.

Diaries are not the only media that people have used to document lives and share them with others. Scrapbooks5， photo albums， baby books and even slide shows are all ways in which we have done this in the past， to various audiences. Together， they suggest that we have long used media as a means of creating traces of our lives. We do this to understand ourselves， to see trends in our behaviour that we cant in lived experiences. We create traces as part of our identity work and as part of our memory work. Sharing mundane6 and everyday life events can reinforce social connection and intimacy. For example， you take a picture of your childs first birthday. It is not only a developmental milestone： The photo also reinforces the identity of the family unit itself. The act of taking the photo and proudly sharing it further reaffirms one as a good and attentive parent. In other words， the media traces of others figure in our own identities.

By comparing old technologies with new technologies that enable us to document ourselves and the world around us， we can begin to identify what is really different about the contemporary networked environment. Building on a 20th-century broadcast model of media， todays social media platforms are， by and large7， free to use， unlike historical diaries， scrapbooks and photo albums， which people had to buy. Today， advertising subsidises8 our use of networked platforms. Therefore these platforms are incentivised9 to encourage use of their networks to build larger audiences and to better target them. Our pictures， our posts and our likes are commodified10—that is， they are used to create value through increasingly targeted advertising.

I dont want to suggest that， historically， using media to create traces of ourselves occurred outside of a commercial system. We have long used commercial products to document our lives and to share them with others. Sometimes even the content was commercialised. Early 19th-century scrapbooks were full of commercial material that people would use to document their lives and the world around them. Its easy to think that once you buy a journal or scrapbook， you own it. But，of course， the examples of sending diaries back and forth， or of Victorian parents reading their childrens diaries aloud， complicate notions of singular ownership.

Commercial access to our media traces is also historically complex. For example， people used to buy their cameras and film from Kodak， and then send film back to Kodak to be developed. In these cases， Kodak had access to all of the traces， or memories， of its customers but the company didnt commodify these traces in the ways that social media platforms do today. Kodak sold customers its technology and its service. The company didnt give it away in exchange for mining their customers traces to sell ads targeted at them in the way that social media platforms use our traces to target us today.11

Instead of social media merely connecting us， it has become a cult12 of notifications， continually trying to draw us in with the promise of social connectivity—its someones birthday， someone liked your picture， etc. Im not arguing that such social connectivity isnt meaningful or real， but I believe its unfair to presume that people are increasingly narcissistic for using these platforms. Theres a multibillion-dollar industry pulling us into our smartphones， relying on a longstanding human need for communication. We share our everyday experiences because it helps us to feel connected to others， and it always has. The urge to be present on social media is much more complex than simply narcissism. Social media of all kinds not only enable people to see their reflections， but to feel their connections as well.

自戀意即過(guò)分自愛(ài)或者以自我為中心。在希臘神話中，那喀索斯愛(ài)上了他在水中的倒影，長(zhǎng)久地凝視，最終死去。而在今天，這個(gè)典型的形象不再是凝視著自己的倒影，而是盯著自己的手機(jī)。當(dāng)我們?yōu)榱嗽谏忌蠈ふ彝昝赖臑V鏡而費(fèi)盡心思，或者不停地在照片墻上查看誰(shuí)給我們點(diǎn)了贊時(shí)，手機(jī)上的社交軟件就像旋渦一樣把我們吸入，滋養(yǎng)著我們的自戀之情。起碼，看上去是這么回事。

其實(shí)，人們通過(guò)媒介來(lái)反觀自己的行為早已有之。早在智能手機(jī)甚至攝影術(shù)發(fā)明之前，人們就通過(guò)日記來(lái)了解自己和周?chē)倪@個(gè)世界了。在18和19世紀(jì)，隨著普通大眾寫(xiě)日記日益流行，新英格蘭的中產(chǎn)階級(jí)，尤其是白人女性，也把她們的日常生活和周?chē)氖露家灰粚?xiě)了下來(lái)。她們并沒(méi)有在日記中傾訴自己內(nèi)心深處的想法和欲求，而是單純地記錄下自己的社交生活——家里發(fā)生什么啦，今天干什么啦，誰(shuí)來(lái)做客啦，有沒(méi)有人出生或者死亡啦，等等。這些日記捕捉了19世紀(jì)中期的生活日常。尤其是女性的日記，因?yàn)樗齻兊年P(guān)注點(diǎn)不在自己，而在家庭和社會(huì)。

現(xiàn)在的日記大多是私人性質(zhì)的，而那個(gè)時(shí)候的日記恰恰相反，是相互翻看的。年輕女性結(jié)婚之后，會(huì)把日記寄給父母，以保持親密的關(guān)系。親人或朋友來(lái)訪時(shí)，一起坐下來(lái)翻看日記也是常見(jiàn)的場(chǎng)景。19世紀(jì)末維多利亞時(shí)代的父母常在睡前朗讀孩子的日記。這些日記沒(méi)有鎖，代表不是只有寫(xiě)的人才能看，而是用來(lái)和他人分享的。

要記錄和分享生活，日記并不是唯一的媒介。剪貼簿、相冊(cè)、寶寶成長(zhǎng)手冊(cè)，甚至幻燈片，都是過(guò)去我們向不同觀眾展示生活經(jīng)歷的方式。這些足以證明，我們?cè)缇蜁?huì)用各種媒介來(lái)記錄生活的軌跡了。我們借此來(lái)了解自己；當(dāng)時(shí)未必能看清的人生走向，也能在回溯中獲得一些啟發(fā)。在創(chuàng)造人生軌跡的過(guò)程中，我們構(gòu)建了自己的身份，也留下了一段記憶。而分享平淡的生活瑣事，則可以加強(qiáng)與他人的聯(lián)系和親密感。比如，當(dāng)你給孩子的周歲生日拍下一張照片時(shí)，這張照片不僅象征著孩子成長(zhǎng)的里程碑，也強(qiáng)化了整個(gè)家庭身份的聯(lián)系。而拍照并驕傲地向他人展示這張照片的行為，則進(jìn)一步確認(rèn)了你無(wú)微不至的好家長(zhǎng)形象。換句話說(shuō)，雖然記錄的是別人的事情，可我們構(gòu)建的卻是自己的身份。

通過(guò)比較我們現(xiàn)在和過(guò)去在記錄自己和周?chē)澜鐣r(shí)所用的新舊技術(shù)，我們就能明白現(xiàn)在的網(wǎng)絡(luò)環(huán)境究竟有何不同。今天的社交媒體平臺(tái)，是基于20世紀(jì)的廣播模式，因此一般來(lái)說(shuō)是免費(fèi)的，不像過(guò)去的日記、剪貼簿或者相冊(cè)，要買(mǎi)來(lái)才能用。使用社交平臺(tái)帶來(lái)的成本由廣告收入來(lái)補(bǔ)貼。這激勵(lì)了這些平臺(tái)通過(guò)鼓勵(lì)人們使用其網(wǎng)絡(luò)來(lái)擴(kuò)大用戶群，找準(zhǔn)廣告投放對(duì)象。我們的照片、發(fā)言和點(diǎn)贊都被商品化了——也就是說(shuō)，通過(guò)不斷將廣告最精準(zhǔn)地匹配給用戶，我們發(fā)布的信息都創(chuàng)造了價(jià)值。

這么說(shuō)并不意味著過(guò)去我們對(duì)生活軌跡的記錄就可以排除在商業(yè)圈范圍外。一直以來(lái)，我們?cè)谟涗浐头窒砩顣r(shí)，都在使用商業(yè)產(chǎn)品。有時(shí)甚至連記錄的內(nèi)容也被商業(yè)化了。19世紀(jì)早期的剪貼簿上也有很多商業(yè)性質(zhì)的內(nèi)容，人們會(huì)以此來(lái)記錄生活和周?chē)氖澜?。人們通常覺(jué)得，既然你買(mǎi)了這本日記或者這個(gè)剪貼簿，那么它就屬于你了。但是，來(lái)回傳遞日記，或者像維多利亞時(shí)期的父母那樣朗讀孩子日記的這些行為，無(wú)疑使得單一的所有權(quán)變得復(fù)雜了。

回溯歷史，我們?cè)谑褂妹浇榈倪^(guò)程中商業(yè)的進(jìn)入也是一件復(fù)雜的事。比如，以前人們會(huì)從柯達(dá)公司買(mǎi)相機(jī)和膠卷，然后再把膠卷送還給柯達(dá)公司去沖印。在這些情況下，柯達(dá)公司擁有用戶的所有生活軌跡和記憶，但是他們卻沒(méi)有像現(xiàn)在的社交媒體平臺(tái)那樣將這些東西商品化?？逻_(dá)賣(mài)給用戶的是技術(shù)和服務(wù)，而不是像如今的社交媒體平臺(tái)那樣，靠免費(fèi)贈(zèng)送來(lái)?yè)Q取用戶的信息，再把精準(zhǔn)投放給他們的廣告賣(mài)出去。

社交媒體不僅讓我們彼此聯(lián)系，也讓我們狂熱地惦記著各種通知，并不斷試圖通過(guò)承諾增強(qiáng)社會(huì)聯(lián)系將我們牢牢吸引住——到某人的生日啦，有人贊了你的照片啦，等等。我不是說(shuō)這種社會(huì)聯(lián)系是毫無(wú)意義的或者虛幻的，但是我認(rèn)為使用這些平臺(tái)并不能說(shuō)明人們變得越來(lái)越自戀了。吸引我們拿起手機(jī)、依賴一種長(zhǎng)期存在的人類(lèi)交流需求的，是一個(gè)幾十億美金的產(chǎn)業(yè)。我們分享自己的日常經(jīng)歷，因?yàn)檫@樣可以讓我們感覺(jué)到和他人的聯(lián)系，過(guò)去如此，現(xiàn)在也是如此。想要在社交平臺(tái)上保持在線，并不僅僅是自戀就能說(shuō)通的。各種各樣的社交平臺(tái)不僅僅讓人們看到自己，更能讓我們感覺(jué)到與旁人的聯(lián)系。

1. Narcissus： 那喀索斯，希臘神話人物。他美貌出眾，因拒絕回聲女神的求愛(ài)而受到懲罰，愛(ài)上了自己在水中的倒影，最后憔悴而死。

2. quintessential： 典型的。

3. pine： 衰弱，憔悴；Snapchat： 色拉布，美國(guó)的一款“閱后即焚”的圖片分享軟件；filter： 濾鏡；Instagram：照片墻，也是一款圖片分享軟件；vortex： 旋渦，渦流。

4. secular： 世俗的，非宗教的。

5. scrapbook： 剪貼簿，是一本空白的冊(cè)子，可以把喜歡的報(bào)紙文章或圖片剪下來(lái)貼上去。

6. mundane： 單調(diào)的，平凡的。

7. by and large： 總體上，一般來(lái)講。

8. subsidise： 給……津貼，補(bǔ)助。

9. incentivise： 刺激，激勵(lì)。

10. commodify： 商品化。

11. give away： 贈(zèng)送，免費(fèi)分發(fā)；mine： 開(kāi)采，此處用比喻義。

12. cult： 狂熱崇拜的對(duì)象。