New online tools promise to take the “work” out of “social work”

　　线上新工具让社交活动不费力

　　Back in 1967, social psychologist Stanley Milgram had an idea. Everybody knows at least a few other people, he reasoned, and those people know other people. Therefore, just going through the people you know, you should be able to contact any person on earth.

　　在1967年，社会心理学家斯坦利·米尔格兰姆想出一个点子。他推论道，每个人至少都认识几个人，而那些人又认识其他人，所以只要通过你认识的人，你就应该和地球上所有的人取得联系。

　　Milgram conducted experiments by sending letters to random acquaintances, asking them to pass the letter on through their friends to an unknown person. His experiments, confirmed later with email tests, showed that we’re all connected by no more than “six degrees of separation.” That is, you can reach any person in the world through a chain of six people.

　　米尔格兰姆做了个实验，他寄信给随机选出来的熟人，请他们通过他们的朋友再将信传给一个不认识的人。他的实验后来通过电子邮件测试确认，显示我们所有人之间的联系，都不超过“六度分隔”。那就是说，你可以通过一连串的六个人联系到世界上的任何一个人。

　　It might be comforting to know that your friend’s friend’s friend’s friend’s friend knows Bill Gates or Jennifer Lopez, but it’s not really that useful. Tracing the chain is time-consuming and inconvenient.

　　知道你朋友的朋友的朋友的朋友的朋友认识比尔·盖茨或珍妮弗·洛佩兹可能会让人觉得安慰，但这实在没多大用处。追踪这一连串的人要花很多时间而且不方便。

　　But that’s changing now, thanks to the development of online databases. While many people use their PCs to keep track of their contacts and address books, new services like Friendster and Spoke combine those address books together. This way you’re not only in touch with your own friends, but with their friends and their friends’ friends. Looking for someone who works in marketing at Sony Music in Tokyo? Going to Paris for the weekend and looking for someone to have dinner with? Just check the Friendster files – there’s sure to be a friend of a friend of a friend in there.

　　但是由于线上数据库的发展，现在的情形不一样了。当很多人还在利用他们的个人计算机记录联络人和地址簿时，新的服务像Friendster和Spoke已经将那些地址簿全部整合在一起。如此一来你不仅能和自己的朋友联系，也可以和他们的朋友以及他们的朋友的朋友取得联系。想找个在东京索尼音乐营销部工作的人吗？到巴黎度周末想找个人共进晚餐吗？只要查阅Friendster的文件夹，一定可以找到某个朋友的朋友的朋友在那里工作。

　　So what’s the catch? If you want to use Friendster or similar services, you need to build a profile including your real name, where you work, your job, where you went to school and who your friends are. This lack of anonymity might seem likely to scare users off, but apparently people are hungry for contact with real people: in less than nine months, Friendster has already signed up over four million users.

　　那么其中的蹊跷在哪里呢？如果你想用Friendster或类似的服务，你必须建立一个个人简介，包括你的真实姓名、工作地点、职业、学校和朋友。不能隐姓埋名看起来也许会把使用者吓跑，但显然大家都很想和真实的人联系：不到9个月之内，Friendster已经有超过400万人报名加入了。