当“偷窥”走起

A few years ago， I was researching the term “camgirl”， used to refer to a girl or young woman who broadcasts live pictures of herself over the Web. I certainly strive to be a 1）disinterested 2）chronicler of new words， but sometimes I just have to shake my head. Why would someone turn her life into a digital peep show？ I was tempted to dismiss this as a bizarre hobby for a few teenage 3）exhibitionists caught up in new technology. But then I read that there were thousands of camgirls out there. And yes， there were plenty of“camboys”， too. Clearly there were larger forces at work.

According to Susan Hopkins， the author of the book Girl Heroes： The New Force in Popular Culture， for some kids the constant 4）surveillance of webcams affirms their identities―because they’re like， you know， sorta kinda on TV， and only celebrities and important people appear on TV. It’s the same 5）impulse that provides a never-ending cast of unembarrassed reality show participants. It’s why TV crews never seem to have trouble finding a grief-stricken person to interview after a disaster. The camgirls themselves talk about “artistic expression” and “empowerment，” and surely that’s true for some. But for most of them the 6）omnipresent eye of the webcam serves only to validate their existence： I cam， therefore I am.

Over the past few years， broadcasting the intimate details of one’s life has become mainstream. Many of us are now blogging， Twittering， Facebooking， Flickring， and YouTubing at least some details of our lives. In his book The Peep Diaries： How We’re Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors， Hal Niedzviecki calls this “peep culture”. Peep culture is a play on“pop culture”， a phrase that entered the language around 1959 （although the longer form “popular culture” is surprisingly older， with a first 7）citation from 1854， according to the Oxford English Dictionary）.

One form is the “lifestream”， an online record of a person’s daily activities， either via direct video feed or via 8）aggregating the lifestreamer’s online content， such as blog posts， social-network updates， and online photos. If this lifestreaming is video only， especially if the person is using some form of portable camera to broadcast his or her activities over the Internet 24 hours a day （à la the camgirls）， then it’s called“lifecasting”， and the stream itself is a lifecast.

The 9）highbrow version of lifestreaming uses no video and is called “mindcasting”， the practice of posting messages that reflect one’s current thoughts， ideas， passions， observations， reading， and other intellectual interests. Mindcasters are also called informers because they post information， as opposed to“meformers”， who post updates that deal mostly with their own activities and feelings.

Other examples of “-casting”include “egocasting”， reading， watching， and listening only to media that reflects one’s own tastes or opinions； “Godcasting”，

posting an audio feed with a religious message； “slivercasting”， delivering video programming aimed at an extremely small audience； “screencasting”， showing a video feed that consists of a sequence of actions on a computer screen； and， of course， the familiar term “podcasting”.

We may be well on our way to becoming addicted to being watched， but who’s doing the watching？ If we’re all broadcasters now， it’s entirely possible that we’re beaming our streams， tweets， photos， and status updates to hundreds of “friends”and thousands of “followers” who are too busy broadcasting their own lives to tune in. Peep culture may be the new pop culture， but is this really a two-way mass phenomenon？ Maybe most of us have an audience of one： ourselves.

几年前，我在研究“视频女”一词，它所指的是在网络上实况直播自己生活行为的少女或者年轻女子。我当然力求成为一个不偏不倚的新词汇收录者，但有时候，我不得不摇头叹息。为什么会有人喜欢把自己的生活变成一场数码化的窥视秀呢？我倾向于认为这是某些喜欢出风头的青少年在新科技影响下产生的离奇嗜好。但后来我得知视频女的数量有成千上万之多，而且，不错，还有大量的视频男存在。显然，这背后的因由不容小觑。

据《女孩英雄：流行文化的新力量》一书的作者苏珊・霍普金斯所述，对某些孩子而言，网络摄像头的持续窥探肯定了他们的身份――因为他们这样就像，你知道，类似于上电视，而只有名人和重要人物才会出现在电视上。正是由于同一种助力的推动，那些真人秀节目才会源源不绝地充斥着毫不尴尬的参与者。这就是为什么电视台工作人员在发生灾难后进行报道时，总是不难找到极度悲伤的群众进行采访。视频女们会自称那是“艺术表现”，是“增强自信”的方式，当然这对于一些人来说是确有其事。但是对于他们中的大多数人，无所不在的网络摄像头只是为了证实他们的存在：我视频，故我在。

过去几年里，广播自己生活隐私的细节已然成为主流。我们当中的许多人如今都在写博客，发微博，在脸谱网上消息，在网络相册上发照片，在视频网站上放一些我们生活细节的视频片段。在《偷窥日记：我们是怎样变得爱上窥视自己和邻居的》一书中，哈尔・尼兹维奇称这种现象为“窥视文化”。“窥视文化”是对“流行文化”这个短语的一种戏称，“pop culture”大约是在1959年出现的词汇（虽然完整形式“popular culture”更古老，据《牛津英语词典》所载，其最初于1854年被引用）。

其中一种形式是“生活日志”，指的是一个人在线记录自己的日常活动，通常是直接通过视频，又或是通过汇总日志记录者的网络内容，诸如博客帖子、社交网络的更新和网络相册等。如果生活日志只有视频形式，特别是如果这个人使用的是某种便携式摄像机，在互联网上24小时播放其一天的活动（即“视频女”），这就叫做“生活播放”，而这种日志本身就是一种生活播放。

生活日志的阳春白雪版并不使用视频，被称为“心思播放”，指的是反映某人当前的思想、观念、情感、观察、读物和其他思维兴趣的信息。心思播放者同时也被称为信息通报者，因为他们信息，与“自我信息者”相反，自我信息者更新的信息大多只与自己的活动和感受有关。

其他形式的播放包括“自我播放”――只阅读、观看和聆听体现个人品味和观点的传播媒介；“宗教播放”――发表带有宗教信息的音频；“小众细播”，针对极小范围的人群的视频节目；“屏幕播放”，在电脑屏幕上播放一段包括一系列动作的视频；还有，当然，这个熟悉的术语――“播客”。

在被窥视的道路上，我们或许都多少有点上瘾，但是谁在看呢？如果现在我们都是广播者，那么完全有可能的是此刻我们正将自己的日志、微博、相片和状态更新向数以百计的“好友”和成千上万的“粉丝”播报，但这些人也都在过分地忙碌于播报自己的生活，并不能收听、收看我们的广播。窥视文化或许是新的流行文化，但这是否真是一种双向的大众现象呢？或许我们中的大多数人都有一个观众：我们自己。