Mixed Messages——The Rise of Microblogging(b)

Whether it's for making friends, sharing your thoughts, spreading news, or just playing games, microblogging has had massive pull with the Taiwanese. When you're posting things on microblogging websites, whether it's just something that happened to you that day, or a juicy bit of office gossip, all of your online friends have the chance to read and respond.

In addition to the social aspect, microblogging has had a big impact on another part of the Internet—blogging. Unlike traditional blogging services, which are expected to be filled with images and long screeds, Twitter and Plurk posts are restricted to 140 characters in English and 70 in Chinese, making them more like community bulletin boards. For people today that are always pressed for time, this is a much more sustainable blogging style.

So just how will the positive and negative impacts of microblogging on traditional blogging pan out? That remains to be seen, but there is another aspect of microblogging that has many observers of the Internet concerned. Could these new platforms in fact be too fast and too convenient, leading users to expose a little too much about their private lives inadvertently?

Take Facebook for example. Not only does Facebook encourage users to enter their full names, but it also offers the ability to pull your contact list from your email. While Plurk and Twitter don't require real names, they can nonetheless build up similar maps and figure out exactly who a given user is by looking at how they post and whom they talk to.

As the amount of information and the scope and interconnection of people's networks continue to grow, perhaps we should stop and ask ourselves if there really is that much that warrants sharing, if there is really that much that is so urgent it has to be posted right this second, and if there are really that many friendships that deserve constant maintenance.

(Lin Hsin-ching/translated by Geof Aberhart)

　　不管使用者是为了结交朋友、分享心情、传递讯息，或仅仅只是为了玩游戏而接触微网志，它确实已在台湾各地奠定影响力。当你在微网志上碎碎念，分享生活琐事或有趣的办公室八卦时，所有在线『好友』在该平台上和你互动的机会一律均等。

　　除了改变社交层面外，微网志带来的另一项冲击则是――部落格。有别于传统部落格文章被期待要图文并茂、长篇大论的呈现，英文字母数限定 140 字、中文则为 70 字的 Twitter和噗浪等微网志，型式上比较像是『里民布告栏』，对时间有限的现代人来说，其实是较能『持之以恒』的书写方式。

　　微网志对部落格带来的正、负面效应究竟孰轻孰重？或许还有待观察，但它另一个让众多网络观察家担忧的议题，反而是──由于这种新兴平台的讯息传递太过便捷，用户会不会在不知不觉中揭露过多隐私却不自知？

　　像人气最旺的 Facebook，不但鼓励网友以真名注册，还能使他们提供自己 email 通讯簿上『所有的』朋友清单。而如噗浪、Twitter 虽不要求用真名注册，但也很容易透过使用者的发言、与好友的互动，轻易探查出『他到底是谁？』

　　在这个信息爆炸、人际关系也爆炸的时代，或许我们也该回头想想──我们真有这么多值得说的事情要分享，有这么多紧急的讯息要传递，又有这么多值得交往的朋友要维系吗？

For Your Information

台湾传播学者一再提醒，网友必须小心在网络上自我揭露的界限。而就算自己在网络上的使用行为已经够谨言慎行，也难保围绕在你身边的众多朋友，会不会在无意间成为扯后腿的『报马仔』损友。

曾经有一则案例，美国有家航空公司聘雇的女空服员，宣称在工作期间脊椎受伤，因此向雇主要求留职停薪及职业伤害赔偿；原本公司已打算支付她长达 18 个月的残障补助金，但后来却因她在 Facebook 上的一张滑雪照而破局──照片里的她活蹦乱跳，完全不像有什么脊椎神经残疾。而这张照片并非该名女空服员上传，而是和她一起出游的朋友贴在 Facebook 上的，这种亲朋好友在有意无意间曝露出自己最不想为人所知的隐私，也是微网志及社群网站流行后，不得不提防的负面影响。（数据源：光华杂志）