譯文導讀：
遇見你不只是在轉角，還可能是某某緣相親網站上 。相親約會已迭代為2.0版本——婚戀網絡平臺，如今方興未艾。「飄洋過海來看你」已成歷史，千裡姻緣一網線牽，跨越種族跨越國籍，在婚戀網站上，你大可隨心所欲愛我所愛。再也不必走遍世界苦苦尋覓真愛，倘若門當戶對，算法進行自動匹配，手指輕輕一划，決定是聊還是撩。然而這種高效運作模式不可避免地帶來不公，壟斷，專制之虞。
翻譯：Ailsa
校對：Rellia/Aether
Romance in the digital age
數字時代之浪漫真愛
Online dating
網絡約會
Modern love
新式愛情
The internet has transformed the search for love and partnership
網際網路時代 ，尋覓知心伴侶方式煥然一新
THE internet has transformed the way people work and communicate. It has upended industries, from entertainment to retailing. But its most profound effect may well be on the biggest decision that most people make—choosing a mate.
網際網路時代，人們工作交流方式，變化翻天覆地；諸多行業均遭顛覆，從娛樂業到零售業，不一而足。對於多數人而言，受影響最為深遠的很可能要數人生大事——選擇伴侶。
In the early 1990s the notion of meeting a partner online seemed freakish, and not a little pathetic. Today, in many places, it is normal. Smartphones have put virtual bars in people’s pockets, where singletons can mingle free from the constraints of social or physical geography. Globally, at least 200m people use digital dating services every month. In America more than a third of marriages now start with an online match-up. The internet is the second-most-popular way for Americans to meet people of the opposite sex, and is fast catching up with real-world 「friend of a friend」 introductions.
20世紀90年代早期，網友約會近乎荒唐，極度離譜，如今在許多地方已是數見不鮮。智慧型手機提供觸手可及的虛擬社交平臺，單身人士得以跳脫社交圈，跨越地域空間，進行網絡社交。全球範圍內，婚戀網絡平臺月活用戶人數逾2億。在美國，感情始於婚戀網絡平臺而終成眷屬的情侶逾三分之一。網絡約會風靡美國，正迎頭趕上最受歡迎的傳統相親方式——熟人介紹。
Digital dating is a massive social experiment, conducted on one of humanity’s most intimate and vital processes. Its effects are only just starting to become visible .
網絡約會不啻為規模宏大的社交嘗試，幫助人們構築生命中親密無比、至關重要的關係。其影響力正初露端倪。
When Harry clicked on Sally
當哈利遇到莎莉
Meeting a mate over the internet is fundamentally different from meeting one offline. In the physical world, partners are found in family networks or among circles of friends and colleagues. Meeting a friend of a friend is the norm. People who meet online are overwhelmingly likely to be strangers. As a result, dating digitally offers much greater choice. A bar, choir or office might have a few tens of potential partners for any one person. Online there are tens of thousands.
網絡約會與線下約會大相逕庭。在現實生活中，相親對象無非是家族宗親，好友同事。在線下，交友對象總是沾親帶故。在線上，幾乎彼此素昧平生。網絡約會上可供選擇的伴侶更多更廣。在酒吧，唱詩班或辦公室中，潛在交往對象區區幾十；而網上潛在伴侶卻數以萬計。
This greater choice—plus the fact that digital connections are made only with mutual consent—makes the digital dating market far more efficient than the offline kind. For some, that is bad news. Because of the gulf in pickiness between the sexes, a few straight men are doomed never to get any matches at all. On Tantan, a Chinese app, men express interest in 60% of women they see, but women are interested in just 6% of men; this dynamic means that 5% of men never receive a match. In offline dating, with a much smaller pool of men to fish from, straight women are more likely to couple up with men who would not get a look-in online.
婚戀網絡平臺上，除可供選擇對象眾多之外，平臺牽線搭橋以雙方兩廂情願為前提。毋庸置疑，比起線下約會，網絡約會效率更高。但這對一些人不利。在網絡約會平臺上，男女擇偶標準差異巨大，少數異性戀男士註定找不到對象。一款名為探探的中國APP上，男性一見傾心比例高達60%，而女性的僅為6%；這種互動方式意味著5%的男性找不到女朋友。在線下約會中，可選之人寥寥無幾，異性戀女士更願牽手沒有線上交友機會的男士。
For most people, however, digital dating offers better outcomes. Research has found that marriages in America between people who meet online are likely to last longer; such couples profess to be happier than those who met offline. The whiff of moral panic surrounding dating apps is vastly overblown. Precious little evidence exists to show that opportunities online are encouraging infidelity. In America, divorce rates climbed until just before the advent of the internet, and have fallen since.
即便如此，對於絕大多數人，網絡約會裨益頗多。有研究顯示，在美國，緣起於網際網路的婚姻似乎維持得更長久。相比線下相親成功的人士，網戀人士表示婚姻幸福感更強。約會軟體引發道德問題的言論誇大其詞，弄得人心惶惶。鮮有證據表明，網絡約會引誘人們背叛婚姻（出軌）。在美國，網際網路問世之前，離婚率早已節節攀升，進入網際網路時代，離婚率反倒有所下降。
Online dating is a particular boon for those with very particular requirements. Jdate allows daters to filter out matches who would not consider converting to Judaism, for instance. A vastly bigger market has had dramatic results for same-sex daters in particular. In America, 70% of gay people meet their partners online. This searchable spectrum of sexual diversity is a boon: more people can find the intimacy they seek.
對於苛刻的單身人士而言，網際網路約會不啻為一大福音。比如，Jdate約會平臺可以篩除猶太教的懷疑論者。網絡婚戀市場日益廣闊，對同性戀群體影響尤為巨大。在美國，在網上牽手成功的同性戀佔比高達70%。根據性取向進行檢索有利於更多的人找到如意伴侶。
There are problems with the modern way of love, however. Many users complain of stress when confronted with the brutal realities of the digital meat market, and their place within it. Negative emotions about body image existed before the internet, but they are amplified when strangers can issue snap judgments on attractiveness. Digital dating has been linked to depression. The same problems that afflict other digital platforms recur in this realm, from scams to fake accounts: 10% of all newly created dating profiles do not belong to real people.
然而，網絡婚戀同樣弊端叢生。不少用戶怨聲載道，網絡相親地變為獵奇場，身在其中的境遇窘迫不堪，種種殘酷的現實令人壓力山大。網際網路問世之前，自我形象產生的負面情緒早已有之，如今網際網路時代，陌生人可以輕率地對他人魅力評頭論足，由此負面情緒加劇。網絡約會與抑鬱症有著千絲萬縷聯繫。困擾其他網絡平臺的問題也蔓延至網絡婚戀領域，從詐騙到虛假註冊信息，不勝枚舉：虛假用戶信息佔比竟達10%。
This new world of romance may also have unintended consequences for society. The fact that online daters have so much more choice can break down barriers: evidence suggests that the internet is boosting interracial marriages by bypassing homogenous social groups. But daters are also more able to choose partners like themselves. Assortative mating, the process whereby people with similar education levels and incomes pair up, already shoulders some of the blame for income inequality. Online dating may make the effect more pronounced: education levels are displayed prominently on dating profiles in a way they would never be offline. It is not hard to imagine dating services of the future matching people by preferred traits, as determined by uploaded . Dating firms also suffer from an inherent conflict of interest. Perfect matching would leave them bereft of paying customers.
婚戀網站也可能給社會帶來意外之喜。線上用戶選擇更廣，如此，各種障礙消弭於無形——有證據表明，網絡婚戀能跨越不同社交圈，促進跨種族婚姻。但同時人們也容易尋覓到門當戶對的伴侶。擇偶注重出身門第早已飽受詬病——教育程度相近，個人收入相當的人締結連理，在一定程度上造成收入不均的格局。如此不公現象可能因婚戀網站愈演愈烈。線上約會，個人信息中教育背景至關重要，但在線下相親中，人們從不看重這一點。不難想像在未來，用戶上傳的個人信息主導算法匹配——婚戀網絡平臺根據用戶個人喜好推薦伴侶。在線婚戀公司業務也存在利益衝突，幫助單身人士找到靈魂伴侶，反而導致公司流失大量付費用戶。
The domination of online dating by a handful of firms and their algorithms is another source of worry. Dating apps do not benefit from exactly the same sort of network effects as other tech platforms: a person’s friends do not need to be on a specific dating site, for example. But the feedback loop between large pools of data, generated by ever-growing numbers of users attracted to an ever-improving product, still exists. The entry into the market of Facebook, armed with data from its 2.2bn users, will provide clues as to whether online dating will inexorably consolidate into fewer, larger platforms.
在線婚戀產業由屈指可數的幾家公司主導，這些公司的算法同樣令人擔憂。不同於其他科技網絡公司，社交約會軟體難從網絡效應中獲益：比如，朋友們彼此沒必要用同一個婚戀平臺。但是，產品服務不斷升級，吸引的用戶數量激增，海量資料庫之間的反饋迴路依然發揮作用。坐擁22億用戶數據的商業巨擘臉書收購網絡婚戀軟體平臺，這可能預示在線婚戀產業將不可避免為寥寥幾家巨頭企業把控。
While you were swiping
當你在「滑人」的時候
But even if the market does not become ever more concentrated, the process of coupling (or not) has unquestionably become more centralised. Romance used to be a distributed activity which took place in a profusion of bars, clubs, churches and offices; now enormous numbers of people rely on a few companies to meet their mate. That hands a small number of coders, tweaking the algorithms that determine who sees whom across the virtual bar, tremendous power to engineer mating outcomes. In authoritarian societies especially, the prospect of algorithmically arranged marriages ought to cause some disquiet. Competition offers some protection against such a possibility; so too might greater transparency over the principles used by dating apps to match people up.Yet such concerns should not obscure the good that comes from the modern way of romance. The right partners can elevate and nourish each other. The wrong ones can ruin both their lives. Digital dating offers millions of people a more efficient way to find a good mate. That is something to love.
即使網絡婚戀市場不會為巨頭控制，尋找伴侶的方式也已走向集中（不管結果成功與否），這毋庸置疑。以往，在各種各樣酒吧，俱樂部，教堂乃至辦公室，人們可能邂逅愛情；如今，千千萬萬人僅僅依靠幾家公司尋找伴侶。這就賦予少數程式設計師巨大影響力：一手「導演」這場線上相親大戲，稍稍修改算法就能決定誰與誰跨越無形障礙相見。尤其在專制集權的社會，要是按照算法安排相親，勢必會引起不少焦慮。市場競爭在一定程度上避免了這種可能性，也能令婚戀平臺配對機制更加透明。總體而言，線上約會這種現代化相親方式瑕不掩瑜。遇到對的人，雙方相濡以沫，升華彼此；遇到錯的人無異於走向毀滅。得益於線婚戀平臺，數以百萬計單身人士能更加高效地尋覓伴侶。這種覓得真愛的方式令人嘖嘖稱讚。
譯者註：
【1】
《當哈利遇到莎莉》（英語：When Harry Met Sally…）是一部於1989年上映的愛情喜劇片。比利·克裡斯託和梅格·瑞安分別扮演男、女主角哈利和莎莉。故事圍繞著兩位主角對於男女關係反覆地探討和爭論來展開，提出了一個這樣的問題：「男人和女人真的可以只是朋友嗎？」片中的許多有關雙性關係的看法之後也成為家喻戶曉的話題，如「高維修」女友和「過渡人士」等。
【2】
Body image is a person's perception of the aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of their own body.
自我形體影像是指，人們通過外界對自己體形及性別特徵吸引力的評價而形成的自我感覺。
【3】
While you were swiping
直譯為「滑人」，意味著網絡相親過於草率，看臉看錢看地位看文憑就是不看人品，卻不知伴侶的優良品性才是剛需。例如，探探這樣的約會平臺，根據註冊用個人基本信息，興趣愛好，地理位置等，自動匹配合適人選，用戶只需在手機上輕輕一滑，選擇發展的對象。如果感興趣，往右滑，無感，則往左滑，方式簡單粗暴。基於大數據算法的網絡約會平臺，用戶所做的選擇太草率，太感性，太任性。畢竟，要找的是永恆真愛，而非一段浪漫露水情，單憑上傳的個人信息，照片，瞬間決定是否列入備選之列實在太不明智。
【4】
Network effect
網絡效應也稱網絡外部性或需求方規模經濟、需求方的範圍經濟（與生產方面的規模經濟相對應）, 是指產品價值隨購買這種產品及其兼容產品的消費者的數量增加而增加。在具有網絡效應的產業中，「先下手為強」（first-mover advantage）和「贏家通吃」（winner-takes-all）是市場競爭的重要特徵。
文章結構
譯者介紹：
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