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短信革命已经来临

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For anyone who doubts that the texting revolution is upon us, consider this: The average 13- to 17-year-old sends and receives 3,339 texts a month -- more than 100 per day, according to the Nielsen Co., the media research firm. Adults are catching up. People from ages 45 to 54 sent and received 323 texts a month in the second quarter of 2010, up 75% from a year ago, Nielsen says.


怀疑短信革命已经来临的人，请看以下数据：媒体研究公司尼尔森(Nielsen Co.)发现，13至17岁的年轻人平均每月发送和接收3,339条短信──每天超过100条。成年人也不甘示弱，尼尔森公司表示，45至54岁的人在2010年第二季度每人每月平均发送和接收的短信数为323条，较一年前增加了75%。



Behind the texting explosion is a fundamental shift in how we view our mobile devices. That they are phones is increasingly beside the point.


在短信爆炸的背后是我们对手机看法的根本性转变，手机作为通话工具的作用越发变得无关紧要。



Nielsen, at the request of The Wall Street Journal, analyzed cellphone bills of 60,000 mobile subscribers and found adults made and received an average of 188 mobile phone calls a month in the 2010 period, down 25% from the same period three years earlier. Average monthly 'talk minutes' fell 5% for the period compared with 2009; among 18- to 24-year-olds, the decline was 17%.


应《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)的要求，尼尔森公司对6万名手机用户的账单进行了分析，发现成年人在2010年度每月平均拨打和接听188个电话，较三年前同比下降了25%。每月平均通话时间比2009年缩短了5%；18至24岁年轻人的通话时间则缩短了17%。



Text messages -- also known as SMS (Short Message Service) -- take up less bandwidth than phone calls and cost less. A text message's content is so condensed that it routinely fails, even more than email, to convey the writer's tone and affect. The more we text, the greater the opportunity for misunderstanding.


短信──也称为SMS（短消息服务）──比手机通话占用的带宽少，而且花费也比较低。短信的内容非常简短，因此经常比电子邮件更难传递发信人的语气和情感。我们发送的短信越多，造成误解的可能性就越大。



A recent survey of 2,000 college students asked about their attitudes toward phone calls and text-messaging and found the students' predominant goal was to pass along information in as little time, with as little small talk, as possible. 'What they like most about their mobile devices is that they can reach other people,' says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University in Washington, D.C., who conducted the survey. 'What they like least is that other people can reach them.'


最近，一项对2,000名在校大学生进行的调查问到他们对手机通话和发送短信的态度，结果发现学生们最主要的目的是尽量花最少的时间，用最短的闲聊来传递信息。 这项调查的发起人、位于华盛顿的美利坚大学(American University)的语言学教授巴伦(Naomi Baron)表示，手机最让他们喜爱的地方在于，他们可以通过手机与他人联系；他们最不喜欢的，就是别人可以通过手机联系到他们。



Part of what's driving the texting surge among adults is the popularity of social media. Sites like Twitter, with postings of no more than 140 characters, are creating and reinforcing the habit of communicating in micro-bursts. And these sites also are pumping up sheer volume. Many Twitter and Facebook devotees create settings that alert them, via text message, every time a tweet or message is earmarked for them. In October 2009, 400 million texts alerted social-media users to such new messages across AT&T's wireless network, says Mark Collins, AT&T senior vice president for data and voice products; by September 2010, the number had more than doubled to one billion. (Twitter reports more than two billion tweets are sent each month.)


成年人短信使用频率大大增加的部分原因在于社交媒体的流行。规定每次发帖字数不超过140字的推特(Twitter)等网站正在培养并强化人们通过简短文字进行沟通的习惯。而且，这些网站也在加大其容量。很多推特和Facebook的忠实用户设置了短信提醒的功能，每次有新消息发布都会收到提醒短信。AT&T公司负责数据和语音产品的高级副总裁柯林斯表示，2009年10月，有4亿条此类短信通过AT&T公司的无线网络向社交媒体用户发出了提醒；到了2010年9月，这一数字翻了一倍多，达到了10亿条（推特称，用户每月发布的推特信息超过20亿条。）



Economics has much to do with texting's popularity. Text messages cost carriers less than traditional mobile voice transmissions, and so they cost users less. Sprint Nextel has reconceived its Virgin Mobile brand to cater to heavy texters in a difficult economy. For $25 per month, users get unlimited texting, email, social networking and 300 talk minutes; for another $15, they get an additional 900 talk minutes. The name of the brand's new wireless plan: 'Beyond Talk.'


经济学与短信的日益流行也大有关系。对运营商而言，短信比传统的移动通话传输花费要低，因此用户使用起来也要更经济。Sprint Nextel公司已经对旗下的维珍移动(Virgin Mobile)品牌进行了重新定位，以在经济困难时期迎合大量使用短信的用户的需求。每月缴纳25美元，用户就可以无限制地发送短信和邮件，登录社交网络，还拥有300分钟的通话时间；再缴纳15美元，还可以得到额外900分钟的通话时间。新推出的这款无线套餐的名字是：超越通话(Beyond Talk)。



According to Nielsen, African-Americans and Hispanics send and receive an average of 780 and 767 texts a month respectively, compared with 566 for whites. The difference reflects economic disparity, says Ken Eisner, managing director at nonprofit One Economy, which connects low-income communities to technology. 'If you don't have broadband availability at home, if you don't have ubiquitous 24/7 access to the web over a laptop or PC, you'll find other ways to communicate,' Mr. Eisner says.


尼尔森公司发现，白人每月平均发送和接收566条短信，非洲裔和西班牙裔美国人发送和接收的短信数量则分别为780和767条。非赢利性机构One Economy常务董事埃斯纳尔(Ken Eisner)表示，这一差别反映出了他们经济上的差距。该机构为低收入者社区提供技术支持。埃斯纳尔表示，如果你的家中没有安装宽带，没有笔记本计算机或台式机的全天候网络连接，你就要寻找其它的沟通方式。



Texting's rise over conversation is changing the way we interact, social scientists and researchers say. We default to text to relay difficult information. We stare at our phone when we want to avoid eye contact. Rather than make plans in advance, we engage in what Rich Ling, a researcher for the European telecom company Telenor and a professor at IT University in Copenhagen who studies teens and technology, has named 'micro-coordination' -- 'I'll txt u in 10mins when I know wh/ restrnt.'


社会学家和研究人员们表示，短信的应用超过对话正在改变着我们的交际方式。我们依靠短信来传递较难处理的信息。我们在想要避免眼神接触时会紧盯手机。我们用林恩(Rich Ling)教授所说的"微协调"方式进行沟通，而不是事先制订计划──比如，"我10分钟后给你发短信，告诉你去哪家餐厅。"林恩是欧洲电信公司Telenor的研究人员，也是哥本哈根信息技术大学(IT University in Copenhagen)专门研究青少年和电子技术的教授。



Texting saves us time, but it steals from quiet reflection. 'When people have a mobile device and have even the smallest increment of extra time, they will communicate with someone in their life,' says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.


发短信可以为我们节省时间，但却占用了我们用于安静思考的时间。皮尤互联网与美国生活项目(Pew Internet and American Life Project)的主管瑞妮(Lee Rainie)表示，当人们有了移动通话装置以后，即使是有一丁点儿空余的时间，他们也会与别人联系。



Anne McAndrews, a 21-year-old marketing major at Emerson College in Boston, says she and her friends almost never talk on the phone. 'If I were to call someone, it would have to be urgent,' she says. 'Otherwise, it's sort of rude and invasive.' She takes a social-media marketing class to which Sprint has donated 10 of its newest mobile phones, the Evo and the Epic. The devices are connected to the Sprint network, and students get unlimitedcalling, texting and Internet access at no cost to them. 'They've taken photos and posted them to our blog and they've tweeted. But I don't think a single student has a made a single call from one of these phones,' says David Gerzof, the class's professor.


21岁的麦克安德鲁斯(Anne McAndrews)是波士顿埃默森学院(Emerson College in Boston)市场营销专业的学生。她说她和朋友几乎从来不打电话。她说，如果我给别人打电话，那一定是情况紧急，不然的话，打电话会显得冒失无礼。她选修了一门关于社交媒体营销的课程，Sprint公司向这门课程捐赠了10部最新的Evo和Epic智能手机。这些手机都连入了Sprint的网络，学生们可以不受限制地免费打电话、发短信、上网。讲授这门课程的葛尔左夫教授(David Gerzof)表示，他们用手机拍照并且发送到我们的博客上，还有人在推特上发布消息，但是我想，没有一个学生用它们打过电话。



The U.S. once lagged behind Asia and Europe in adopting the texting habit. But as U.S. telecom companies noticed a leveling-off in their customers' use of talk minutes, they introduced more texting options and spent more on marketing them. In 2003, AT&T signed on to sponsor 'American Idol,' where viewers vote by texting to designated numbers. 'American Idol put texting on the map,' says AT&T's Mr. Collins.


美国在发短信方面一度落后于亚洲和欧洲。但是，美国的电信公司发现用户的通话时间进入平稳期后，便推出了更多的短信套餐，并且投入了更多的资金推广短信服务。2003年，AT&T公司签约赞助了"美国偶像"(American Idol)，该节目的观众通过向指定号码发送短信的方式来投票。AT&T公司的柯林斯表示，"美国偶像"节目推动了短信的流行。



Parents of teenagers have figured out how to text so they can stay in touch with their kids. The ubiquitous Blackberry and other hand-held devices helped familiarize older users with thumb-typing on tiny keyboards. And they introduced the allure of constantcommunication, much of it done furtively under a boardroom or dining room table.


家长们已经学会了发送短信，以便和孩子们保持联系。无处不在的黑莓(BlackBerry)手机和其它便携式装置帮助年纪较大的用户熟练地在微键盘上用拇指输入信息。而且，这些装置还让人们体验到了随时沟通的魅力，这种沟通在很多时候都是在会议桌或餐桌下秘密进行的。



Of course, the phone conversation will never be completely obsolete. Deal makers and other professionals still spend much of the day on the phone. Researchers say people are more likely to use text-based communications at the preliminary stages of projects. The phone comes into play when there are multiple options to consider or binding decisions to be made.


当然，打电话永远不会完全地成为过去式。生意人和其他的专业人士依旧把一天的大部分时间用来进行电话沟通。研究人员说，人们更有可能在项目初期使用以短信息为主的沟通方式。当有多种选项需要考虑或者需要做出有约束力的决定时，打电话就派上用场了。



Textophiles think voice mail is a waste of time. Yet talkers like to talk. Mobile devices with recent versions of Google's Android operating system have 'voice input' capability. Users tap on email or text-message fields and speak into the mobile's microphone. Words appear as text on-screen. 'It's still a problem for people to become quick and efficient typers on a mobile phone,' says Bill Byrne, a Google voice-interface engineer.


短信息爱好者认为语音留言就是在浪费时间。然而，健谈的人就喜欢多讲话。安装了谷歌Android操作系统最新版本的手机拥有语音输入功能。用户可以进入邮件或短信界面，然后对着手机的麦克风说话，屏幕上就会自动显示出短信内容。谷歌语音界面工程师拜恩(Bill Byrne)说，让人们在手机上快速有效地输入信息还是存在困难。



In 2005, an entrepreneur tried bringing texters and talkers together. James Siminoff founded PhoneTag, a service that transcribes voice-mail messages into text messages. Mr. Siminoff says his research indicates a five-hour lag between the time a voice mail is left and listened to. Retrieving and listening to a 30-second voice mail takes a minute, he says, but 'scanning' the text of a 30-second message takes about five seconds. 'Voice mail is an old way of thinking in a digital lifestyle,' he says.


2005年，一位名叫西米诺夫(James Siminoff)的企业家尝试把短信和语音结合起来。他创建了PhoneTag服务，可以把语音留言转变为文字信息。西米诺夫说，他的研究发现，语音留言从录下来到收听有5个小时的延迟。他说，找到并收听一段30秒的留言需要花费1分钟，但是"浏览"一段30秒的语音留言只用大约5秒钟就可以了。他说，在数字生活时代，语音留言已经是一种过时的思维方式了。



Katherine Rosman


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