Friendster、MySpace和Facebook等社交网站五年前突然冒出来之前，交友还没有被用作动词。
Friending wasn’t used as a verb until about five years ago, when social networks such as Friendster, MySpace and Facebook burst onto the scene.
突然之间，我们的朋友就升级成了听众。如果说写博客感觉像是对着虚无吼叫，那么在社交网站上发言感觉更像是在酒吧和一群朋友亲密交谈。
Suddenly, our friends were something even better - an audience. If blogging felt like shouting into the void, posting updates on a social network felt more like an intimate conversation among friends at a pub.
不可避免地，随着我们的好友列表扩大到熟人、朋友的朋友以及七年级时坐在我们后面的那个女生，网络友谊就开始贬值了。
Inevitably, as our list of friends grew to encompass acquaintances, friends of friends and the girl who sat behind us in seventh-grade home room, online friendships became devalued.
骤然间，我们对点头之交的生活的了解程度已经与密友无异──他们晚饭吃了什么、他们怎么看待老虎伍兹等等。
Suddenly, we knew as much about the lives of our distant acquaintances as we did about the lives of our intimates - what they’d had for dinner, how they felt about Tiger Woods and so on.
Twitter的出现带来了一个解决方案：没有朋友，只有关注者。这种单向关系更容易管理──不必烦心地决定是否让前男友看到自己的相册，不必为谁可能看到你的工作和联络信息而焦虑。
Enter Twitter with a solution: no friends, just followers. These one-way relationships were easier to manage - no more annoying decisions about whether to give your ex-boyfriend access to your photos, no more fussing over who could see your employment and contact information.
此外，Twitter的发言很容易通过网络进行搜索，这迫使用户对发言内容三思。亲密的交谈变成了才艺展示，成为在不超过140字符内证明自己智力才能的挑战。
Twitter’s updates were also easily searchable on the Web, forcing users to be some what thoughtful about their posts. The intimate conversation became a talent show, a challenge to prove your intellectual prowess in 140 characters or less.
这个秋天，Twitter将其人气转化成了收入，与谷歌和微软签署了利润丰厚的协议，允许谷歌和微软必应搜索引擎搜索他们的用户发言。
This fall, Twitter turned its popularity into dollars, inking lucrative deals to allow its users’ tweets to be broadcast via search algorithms on Google and Bing.
很快地，Facebook也效仿签署了类似协议，向谷歌和必应透露部分即时数据。（这令我们想到，虽然是全球第五大最受欢迎网站，但Facebook几乎没有盈利。）Facebook发言人施尼特说，这些协议不包括金钱交易，但可能存在价值交换。
Soon, Facebook followed suit with deals to distribute certain real-time data to Google and Bing. (Recall that despite being the fifth most popular Web site in the world, Facebook is barely profitable.) Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt says no money changed hands in the deals but says there was ’probably an exchange of value.’
需要注意一点：Facebook只是将不存在的东西交换给了谷歌和微软。
Just one catch: Facebook had just ’exchanged’ to Google and Microsoft something that didn’t exist.
绝大多数Facebook用户都只允许好友看到自己的更新内容，他们不想让这些内容出现在公开搜索结果中。（实际上，很多人根本不让他们的Facebook资料出现在搜索结果中。）
The vast majority of Facebook users restrict updates to their friends, and do not expect those updates to appear in public search results. (In fact, many people restrict their Facebook profile from appearing at all in search results).
因此，Facebook没有多少内容可以出现在谷歌和必应的即时搜索结果中。本月早些时候谷歌推出即时信息搜索时，搜索结果基本上都是Twitter上的发言。
So Facebook had little content to provide to Google’s and Bing’s real-time search results. When Google’s real-time search launched earlier this month, its results were primarily filled with Twitter updates.
碰巧的是，Facebook上周向其3.5亿用户推出了新的默认隐私设置。对大多数人来说，新的建议设置意味着他们的Facebook发言和信息将向整个世界公开。施尼特说，新的隐私设置是承认了我们所认为的世界运行方式。
Coincidentally, Facebook presented its 350 million members with a new default privacy setting last week. For most people, the new suggested settings would open their Facebook updates and information to the entire world. Mr. Schnitt says the new privacy suggestions are an acknowledgement of ’the way we think the world is going.’
Facebook首席执行长扎克伯格以身作则，开放了他此前不公开的资料，其中包括他本人抱着一只泰迪熊的搞笑照片。
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg led by example, opening up his previously closed profile, including goofy photos of himself curled up with a teddy bear.
Facebook还公开了头像照片、性别、当前城市以及好友名单等此前私密的信息。（施尼特建议说，为了保护隐私，用户可以不写真实的家乡信息，或是撤下他们的头像；由于受到用户投诉，现在Facebook好友名单可以被限制为只有好友可见。）
Facebook also made public formerly private info such as profile pictures, gender, current city and the friends list. (Mr. Schnitt suggests that users are free to lie about their hometown or take down their profile picture to protect their privacy; in response to users’ complaints, the friends list can now be restricted to be viewed only by friends).
当然，很多人会拒绝Facebook的默认隐私设置，继续只和Facebook上的好友聊天。（施尼特说，根据最近统计，超过半数的用户都拒绝了默认设置。）
Of course, many people will reject the default settings on Facebook and keep on chatting with only their Facebook friends. (Mr. Schnitt said more than 50% of its users had rejected the defaults at last tally).
但如果用户想在Facebook上拥有私人体验，他们就必须更加小心谨慎：如果你在一个好友的个人资料页面上不小心发表评论，而该页面是向公众开放的话，那么你的评论也会被公开。
But those who want a private experience on Facebook will have to work harder at it: if you inadvertently post a comment on a friend’s profile page that has been opened to the public, your comment will be public too.
正如Facebook将朋友变成了一个社区，该网站同样也搜集了我们的个人数据──我们的发言、我们的婴儿照、我们无止境的生日祝福──他们打算将这些信息打包出售。
Just as Facebook turned friends into a commodity, it has likewise gathered our personal data - our updates, our baby photos, our endless chirping birthday notes- and readied it to be bundled and sold.
因此我放弃了。我不打算耗费极大的力气保持我Facebook资料的隐私，我计划将这些资料公开──但我会删除涉及隐私和友谊的内容。
So I give up. Rather than fighting to keep my Facebook profile private, I plan to open it up to the public - removing the fiction of intimacy and friendship.
但我还将从Facebook上移除自己个人生活的痕迹，确保自己不会将任何不想父母、雇主、对门邻居或是未来雇主看到的内容写到网上。你要是聪明的话，也该这么做。
But I will also remove the vestiges of my private life from Facebook and make sure I never post anything that I wouldn’t want my parents, employer, next-door neighbor or future employer to see. You’d be smart to do the same.
我们需要像对待Twitter一样，同样冷静地应对这个日益公开化的Facebook：把它当作一个传播信息的地方，但不能在上面暴露弱点。在Facebook上，我们要始终谨慎校正、净化和删改我们对每个可能听众所说的每个词。这里不是一个与朋友亲密交流的地方。
We’ll need to treat this increasingly public version of Facebook with the same hard-headedness that we treat Twitter: as a place to broadcast, but not a place for vulnerability. A place to carefully calibrate, sanitize and bowdlerize our words for every possible audience, now and forever. Not a place for intimacy with friends.
责任编辑：sealion1986
