经济学人下载:线上约会

Digital dating 

线上约会

Young, single and nearby 

年轻，单身，附近

New ways to satisfy primeval passions

满足原始欲望的新形式

THE older generation never gets it. Anthony Weiner, a candidate for mayor of New York, admitted this week to having sent yet more lewd snaps of himself to a digital acquaintance. As any youngster could have told him, the way to find love is to send photos of your face.

老一辈永远不会懂。竞选纽约市长的候选人Anthony Weiner这周承认自己向一个网友发送了更多的艳照。要是随便哪个年轻人告诉他找寻真爱的方法是发送肖像照就好了。

Consider Will, a 24-year-old up-and-coming film director in California. He meets potential dates via a smartphone app called Tinder. It finds potential matches who are nearby—your phone always knows where you are—and shows him photos from their Facebook profiles. Will can like or reject each photo. If a woman he likes also likes him, both are alerted and can start chatting.

另一个例子是一个24岁的新晋导演Will，他住在加州，通过一个智能手机软件Tinder跟潜在的约会对象见面。这个软件寻找你附近的潜在约会对象，并且将其Facebook资料里的照片展示给你。智能手机总能读取你的位置。Will可以从照片中挑选自己喜欢的。如果他喜欢的一个女士恰好也对他有意，软件就会响起，他们就能聊天了。

Tinder is quick (you can scroll through dozens of photos in minutes) and spares your blushes (you never know if someone rejects you). Will has already had three romantic encounters and hundreds of matches, he says. Justin Mateen, a co-founder of Tinder, says it has made 100m matches since its launch in September, and led to 50 marriage proposals. He adds: “The app has only really been going for nine months. There could be a baby popping out soon.”

Tinder非常迅速，你可以在分分钟内浏览几打照片。它也不会让你感到尴尬，如果有人拒绝你，你也不会知道。Will说他已经有过三次浪漫的邂逅，还有数百次的配对。Justin Mateen是Tinder的开发者之一，他说这个软件自从九月发行以来已经帮助完成了1亿次配对，其中五十对已经发展到求婚了。他还说，这个软件真正运行有九个月了，很快就会有婴儿出生了吧。

Americans are marrying later than ever before. So they are dating longer, which creates opportunities for matchmakers. Some are quite direct.

美国人现在结婚越来越晚。所以他们约会时间更长，这对配对软件是个机会。有些软件非常直接呢。

Bang with Friends (BWF), another app, allows users to specify which of their Facebook friends they would like to bed. If both parties feel the same way, BWF notifies them. If not, no one is any the wiser. BWF was booted from Apple’s app store, but that hasn’t stopped it from creating 200,000 pairings since its January launch. Colin Hodge, BWF’s boss, admits he came up with the concept while “a bit tipsy”.

另一个软件，朋嘣，允许用户标出他们Facebook好友中想上床的好友。如果两个人都把对方标记了，软件就会通知他们。如果没有，那么也没什么。朋嘣从苹果的软件商店下架了，但是从一月上架开始，到现在也有20万人成功上床了。朋嘣的老板Colin Hodge承认他产生这个想法的时候有点微醉。

Such apps make it easier to find potential partners, but don’t seem to have turned America into a nation of bed-hoppers. According to the Centres for Disease Control, young women (aged 15-44) claim to have had a median of 3.6 male lovers, while young men claim to have had 6.1 female ones. These figures may be inaccurate—men may exaggerate; women may undercount—but they have not changed much in years.

这类软件让寻找潜在伴侣更简单，但是也没有让美国人沦为床奴。根据美国疾控中心的数据，年龄在15到44岁之间的女性平均有过3.6个男性伴侣，而年轻男人则称他们平均有过6.1个女性伴侣。这些数据可能不太准确，鉴于男人们可能夸大了事实，而女人们可能少数了几个，但是这些年来数据也没多大变化。

Parents fret that staring at screens all day has made youngsters socially inept face-to-face. A survey by Christian Mingle and J-Date, two niche dating sites, found that 36-38% of Americans aged 21-34 ask for dates by text message. But when they meet, they must still make their moves in person. Witty banter and a well-placed wink still have their uses.

年轻人整天盯着屏幕看来看去已经让他们人与人之间的社交活动变得很生疏，父母们对此很担忧。一份来自两个盈利性约会网站Christian Mingle和J-Date的调查发现，21岁到34岁之间的美国人，有36%到38%的是通过短信约会。但是当他们见面的时候，他们仍然必须亲历亲为。诙谐幽默和眉来眼去仍然有用武之地。