Life before social media 社交媒体出现前的生活

31 Jan, 2026

While I was laying down to take a nap today (yes I take a nap every afternoon) I started thinking about what a fucking shit show social media is and how in my opinion it is destroying society.
今天下午躺下睡午觉时(是的,我每天下午都午睡),我开始思考社交媒体现在是多么一团糟,以及在我看来,它是如何摧毁社会的。

Social media as we know it today started in 2003 with MySpace and was then overtaken by Facebook and has progressed to what we have today. I was born in 1945, which means I lived the first 58 years of my life without social media. At 81 now, I've had a front-row seat to watch what it's done to society over the past two decades. My introduction to personal computers was in the mid-1980's. I had a Compaq portable that was my work computer and a Commodore 64 that I bought and used at home. I've always been fascinated with computers and considered tinkering with them a hobby that I still enjoy to this day.
我们今天所熟知的社交媒体始于 2003 年的 MySpace,随后被 Facebook 取代,并演变成今天的样子。我出生于 1945 年,这意味着我生命中的前 58 年是在没有社交媒体的情况下度过的。现在我 81 岁了,在过去的二十年里,我近距离观察了它对社会造成的影响。我是在 20 世纪 80 年代中期开始接触个人电脑的。当时我有一台 Compaq 便携式电脑作为工作机,还买了一台 Commodore 64 在家里使用。我一直对电脑很着迷,并把钻研电脑当作一种爱好,至今仍乐在其中。

People born after 2003 have never known life without social media, which is a shame. Life was so different then, and honestly, simpler in ways that matter.
2003 年以后出生的人从未体验过没有社交媒体的生活,这真是一种遗憾。那时的生活截然不同,而且坦率地说,在一些重要的方面更加简单。

What We Had Before我们曾经拥有的生活

Back then, we actually experienced boredom - and that wasn't a bad thing. Waiting in line at the grocery store or sitting in a doctor's office meant your mind wandered. You thought about things, came up with ideas, daydreamed. Now everyone just reflexively grabs their phone the second there's a quiet moment.
那时候,我们真的会感到无聊——而这并不是件坏事。在杂货店排队或坐在医生办公室里,意味着你的思绪会游离。你会思考问题、产生灵感、想入非非。而现在,每个人只要一有空闲,就会下意识地抓起手机。

If you had a disagreement with someone, you had to work it out face-to-face or over the phone. You couldn't hide behind a screen or fire off a nasty comment and walk away. This meant actual conversations, real conflict resolution, and learning how to regulate your emotions when talking to people.
如果你和某人产生了分歧,你必须当面或通过电话解决。你无法躲在屏幕后面,也无法在发完一条恶毒的评论后就扬长而去。这意味着真正的对话、真正的冲突解决,以及学习在与人交谈时如何调节自己的情绪。

Your social world was the people physically around you - neighbors, coworkers, friends from local organizations. You invested in your immediate community because those were the relationships that mattered in your daily life. There were no parasocial relationships with strangers halfway across the world.
你的社交圈就是你身边真实存在的人——邻居、同事、当地社团的朋友。你会把精力投入到眼前的社区中,因为这些才是对你日常生活至关重要的关系。那时不存在与半个地球外的陌生人产生那种“准社交关系”。

News came at specific times - the morning paper, the evening broadcast. You could stay informed without being perpetually anxious about every crisis happening everywhere all at once. And here's a big one: privacy was the default. Embarrassing moments, youthful mistakes, stupid things you said - they weren't permanently archived and searchable. People could reinvent themselves, move on from their past, grow without dragging everything behind them forever.
新闻只在特定时间出现——晨报或晚间广播。你可以保持信息灵通,而不必时刻为世界各地同时发生的每一场危机感到焦虑。还有很重要的一点:隐私是默认状态。尴尬的时刻、年少时的错误、说过的蠢话——这些都不会被永久存档并可供搜索。人们可以重塑自我,告别过去,在成长过程中不必永远背负着往事。

My Commodore 64 and Compaq portable were tools that enhanced what I could do without demanding constant attention or messing with my head. They didn't buzz at me all day or make me feel bad about myself.
我的 Commodore 64 和康柏便携式电脑只是增强我能力的工具,它们不会索求我的持续关注,也不会扰乱我的心智。它们不会整天对我嗡嗡作响,也不会让我产生自我否定。

The Damage We're Seeing我们正目睹的损害

The mental health crisis, especially among young people, is staggering. Depression and anxiety rates have spiked dramatically since social media became widespread. Constant comparison, cyberbullying, fear of missing out, seeking validation through likes - it's created a generation struggling with basic self-worth.
心理健康危机,尤其是在年轻人中间,正呈现出惊人的态势。自社交媒体普及以来,抑郁和焦虑的比例急剧飙升。无休止的攀比、网络欺凌、错失恐惧症、通过点赞寻求认可——这一切造就了在基本自我价值感中挣扎的一代人。

Truth itself has become slippery. When the business model is engagement over accuracy, misinformation spreads faster than anyone can fact-check it. People end up living in completely separate realities based on whatever their algorithm feeds them.
真相本身已变得难以捉摸。当商业模式将“参与度”置于“准确性”之上时,虚假信息的传播速度远超任何事实核查。人们最终生活在完全隔绝的现实中,而这些现实仅仅取决于算法推送给他们的内容。

And let's be honest about what these platforms really are - they're engineered by some of the brightest minds in tech to be addictive. Infinite scroll, variable reward schedules, notification systems - all deliberately designed to hijack our dopamine systems and keep us scrolling. It's not an accident that you can't put your phone down; it's the intended outcome.
坦白说,这些平台的本质是由科技界最顶尖的人才精心设计的成瘾工具。无限滚动、变比率强化程序、通知系统——所有这些都是为了劫持我们的多巴胺系统并让我们持续刷屏而刻意设计的。你无法放下手机并非偶然,这正是预设的结果。

The algorithms promote whatever triggers strong emotions because outrage drives engagement. This pushes people toward extreme positions. Nuance and thoughtful discussion die because they're boring, and boring doesn't keep people on the platform.
算法会推广任何能引发强烈情绪的内容,因为愤怒能驱动参与度。这正将人们推向极端立场。细微的差别和深度的讨论逐渐消亡,因为它们枯燥乏味,而乏味的内容无法将用户留在平台上。

We've also surrendered an unprecedented amount of privacy. The data harvesting and behavioral manipulation happening behind the scenes is staggering. We've become products being packaged and sold to advertisers.
我们还放弃了前所未有的隐私权。幕后发生的数据采集和行为操纵令人触目惊心。我们已经变成了被包装并出售给广告商的商品。

And now we're seeing particularly disturbing developments like the Grok AI issues on X, where the technology is being used to create non-consensual intimate imagery - including of children and women. This isn't just another social media problem; it's a tool being weaponized for sexual exploitation and harassment. The fact that this technology exists on a platform claiming to champion free speech while enabling the sexual exploitation of children shows just how morally bankrupt things have become.
而现在,我们正看到一些尤为令人不安的事态发展,比如 X 平台上的 Grok AI 问题,这项技术正被用于制作非自愿的亲密图像——其中甚至包括儿童和女性。这不仅仅是又一个社交媒体问题;它已成为一种被武器化的工具,用于性剥削和骚扰。这项技术竟然存在于一个声称捍卫言论自由、却纵容儿童性剥削的平台上,这一事实表明,现状在道德上已经沦丧到了何种地步。

I'm not saying we need to go back to the Commodore 64 era - technology has brought amazing things too. But social media as it exists today? It's not making us happier, smarter, or more connected. It's doing the opposite, and I think more people are starting to realize it.
我并不是说我们需要回到 Commodore 64 时代——技术也带来了许多美好的事物。但就目前存在的社交媒体而言?它并没有让我们变得更快乐、更聪明或联系更紧密。它正在适得其反,而且我认为越来越多的人开始意识到这一点了。