by Paul McFedries

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 theyre like， you know， sorta kinda on TV， and only celebrities and important people appear on TV. Its the same 5）impulse that provides a never-ending cast of unembarrassed reality show participants. Its 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 thats 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 ones 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 Were 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 “l(fā)ifestream”， an online record of a persons daily activities， either via direct video feed or via 8）aggregating the lifestreamers 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 its called“l(fā)ifecasting”， 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 ones 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 ones 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 whos doing the watching？ If were all broadcasters now， its entirely possible that were 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.

幾年前，我在研究“視頻女”一詞，它所指的是在網(wǎng)絡(luò)上實(shí)況直播自己生活行為的少女或者年輕女子。我當(dāng)然力求成為一個(gè)不偏不倚的新詞匯收錄者，但有時(shí)候，我不得不搖頭嘆息。為什么會(huì)有人喜歡把自己的生活變成一場(chǎng)數(shù)碼化的窺視秀呢？我傾向于認(rèn)為這是某些喜歡出風(fēng)頭的青少年在新科技影響下產(chǎn)生的離奇嗜好。但后來我得知視頻女的數(shù)量有成千上萬之多，而且，不錯(cuò)，還有大量的視頻男存在。顯然，這背后的因由不容小覷。

據(jù)《女孩英雄：流行文化的新力量》一書的作者蘇珊·霍普金斯所述，對(duì)某些孩子而言，網(wǎng)絡(luò)攝像頭的持續(xù)窺探肯定了他們的身份——因?yàn)樗麄冞@樣就像，你知道，類似于上電視，而只有名人和重要人物才會(huì)出現(xiàn)在電視上。正是由于同一種助力的推動(dòng)，那些真人秀節(jié)目才會(huì)源源不絕地充斥著毫不尷尬的參與者。這就是為什么電視臺(tái)工作人員在發(fā)生災(zāi)難后進(jìn)行報(bào)道時(shí)，總是不難找到極度悲傷的群眾進(jìn)行采訪。視頻女們會(huì)自稱那是“藝術(shù)表現(xiàn)”，是“增強(qiáng)自信”的方式，當(dāng)然這對(duì)于一些人來說是確有其事。但是對(duì)于他們中的大多數(shù)人，無所不在的網(wǎng)絡(luò)攝像頭只是為了證實(shí)他們的存在：我視頻，故我在。

過去幾年里，廣播自己生活隱私的細(xì)節(jié)已然成為主流。我們當(dāng)中的許多人如今都在寫博客，發(fā)微博，在臉譜網(wǎng)上發(fā)布消息，在網(wǎng)絡(luò)相冊(cè)上發(fā)照片，在視頻網(wǎng)站上放一些我們生活細(xì)節(jié)的視頻片段。在《偷窺日記：我們是怎樣變得愛上窺視自己和鄰居的》一書中，哈爾·尼茲維奇稱這種現(xiàn)象為“窺視文化”。“窺視文化”是對(duì)“流行文化”這個(gè)短語的一種戲稱，“pop culture”大約是在1959年出現(xiàn)的詞匯（雖然完整形式“popular culture”更古老，據(jù)《牛津英語詞典》所載，其最初于1854年被引用）。

其中一種形式是“生活日志”，指的是一個(gè)人在線記錄自己的日?；顒?dòng)，通常是直接通過視頻，又或是通過匯總?cè)罩居涗浾甙l(fā)布的網(wǎng)絡(luò)內(nèi)容，諸如博客帖子、社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)的更新和網(wǎng)絡(luò)相冊(cè)等。如果生活日志只有視頻形式，特別是如果這個(gè)人使用的是某種便攜式攝像機(jī)，在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上24小時(shí)播放其一天的活動(dòng)（即“視頻女”），這就叫做“生活播放”，而這種日志本身就是一種生活播放。

生活日志的陽春白雪版并不使用視頻，被稱為“心思播放”，指的是發(fā)布反映某人當(dāng)前的思想、觀念、情感、觀察、讀物和其他思維興趣的信息。心思播放者同時(shí)也被稱為信息通報(bào)者，因?yàn)樗麄儼l(fā)布信息，與“自我信息發(fā)布者”相反，自我信息發(fā)布者更新的信息大多只與自己的活動(dòng)和感受有關(guān)。

其他形式的播放包括“自我播放”——只閱讀、觀看和聆聽體現(xiàn)個(gè)人品味和觀點(diǎn)的傳播媒介；“宗教播放”——發(fā)表帶有宗教信息的音頻；“小眾細(xì)播”，針對(duì)極小范圍的人群的視頻節(jié)目；“屏幕播放”，在電腦屏幕上播放一段包括一系列動(dòng)作的視頻；還有，當(dāng)然，這個(gè)熟悉的術(shù)語——“播客”。

在被窺視的道路上，我們或許都多少有點(diǎn)上癮，但是誰在看呢？如果現(xiàn)在我們都是廣播者，那么完全有可能的是此刻我們正將自己的日志、微博、相片和狀態(tài)更新向數(shù)以百計(jì)的“好友”和成千上萬的“粉絲”播報(bào)，但這些人也都在過分地忙碌于播報(bào)自己的生活，并不能收聽、收看我們的廣播。窺視文化或許是新的流行文化，但這是否真是一種雙向的大眾現(xiàn)象呢？或許我們中的大多數(shù)人都有一個(gè)觀眾：我們自己。