作為一款國(guó)民級(jí)應(yīng)用，微信體量龐大。

紐約時(shí)報(bào)科技專欄作家Li Yuan在談到她的工作狀態(tài)時(shí)撰文稱：

It’s not an exaggeration to say I live in and work on WeChat, the messaging app that’s the equivalent of WhatsApp plus Facebook plus PayPal plus Uber plus many other things.

說我工作和生活都在微信上，一點(diǎn)也不為過。這款應(yīng)用等同于WhatsApp加上Facebook加上Paypal再加上Uber，還有很多其他功能。

As my iPhone battery use record shows, I spend about one-third of my daily nine-hour phone time on WeChat. That doesn’t include the two to three hours I use WeChat’s web version.

從我手機(jī)電池的用量數(shù)據(jù)來看，每天使用手機(jī)的9小時(shí)里，有三分之一花在微信上。這還不包括我用微信網(wǎng)頁(yè)版的2-3個(gè)小時(shí)。

And I’m not alone in my heavy WeChat use. There are 829 million internet users in China, but over one billion WeChat accounts. Just about every Chinese online has at least one account, and some more than one.

而且我這種重度用戶還不少。中國(guó)有8.29億網(wǎng)民，但微信注冊(cè)賬號(hào)有10多億。幾乎每個(gè)中國(guó)人都有至少一個(gè)賬號(hào)，有些人還不止一個(gè)。

Over one-third of them spend four hours or more on the app each day. The prevalence has made WeChat an indispensable part of many people’s lives and work. Two years ago, I met two people who refused to use WeChat, and I thought about writing a story about how people like them navigated work and life. Before I got around to it, both became my WeChat friends.

他們當(dāng)中有三分之一的人每天使用微信超過4個(gè)小時(shí)。微信的流行程度已經(jīng)讓它成為許多人生活和工作不可或缺的一部分。兩年前，我認(rèn)識(shí)了兩個(gè)拒絕用微信的人，然后我就想圍繞他們寫篇文章，看看他們沒有微信是怎么生活和工作的。但我還沒開始寫，他們倆就加了我微信。

工作重心在社交軟件上的人通常都有超越常人的聯(lián)系人數(shù)量，包括但不限于媒體從業(yè)者、公共關(guān)系、市場(chǎng)、銷售、乃至微商以及被很多家長(zhǎng)加了微信的班主任們。

微信好友上千，朋友圈數(shù)十個(gè)分組（雖然很多基本不用）都漸漸成為常態(tài)。

有人不僅會(huì)發(fā)問：

Obviously, it's not important and isn't really an accurate representation of either popularity or an outgoing personality, but seriously how do people reach these crazy levels? Do they simply add everyone they meet (or people who they've never met)? Do they travel a lot? How are they going to manage the bulk?

很明顯，單純用人緣好或者性格外向來解釋微信好友多，既不準(zhǔn)確也不重要。不過我就想問這么多好友是怎么加起來的？這些人就隨便見到一個(gè)加一個(gè)嗎（或者干脆沒見過面的也加）？他們經(jīng)常旅游嗎？他們?cè)趺垂芾磉@么多人呢？

While we may be able to count 5,000 friends on the online social networking site, scientists have shown that human brains are capable of managing a maximum of just 150 friendships.

或許我們?cè)诰€上社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)中可以有5000個(gè)好友，但是科學(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)，人類大腦最多只能夠管理150個(gè)朋友。

Oxford University Professor Robin Dunbar has conducted a study of social groupings throughout the centuries, from neo-lithic villages to modern office environments.

牛津大學(xué)教授羅賓·鄧巴針對(duì)若干個(gè)世紀(jì)以來的社會(huì)群組進(jìn)行了研究，研究對(duì)象從新石器時(shí)代的村落一直延伸到現(xiàn)代辦公室。

His findings, based on his theory 'Dunbar's number', developed in the 1990s, asserts that size of the part of the brain used for conscious thought and language, the neocortex, limits us to managing 150 friends, no matter how sociable we are. And he defined 'maintained' friends as those you care about and contact at least once a year.

他的研究結(jié)果基于他1990年代的理論“鄧巴數(shù)字”。該理論認(rèn)為，大腦內(nèi)負(fù)責(zé)有意識(shí)思想與語言的區(qū)域——新皮質(zhì)（大腦皮層的背面）的大小限制了我們，就算我們?cè)賽凵缃唬仓荒芄芾?50個(gè)朋友。他將“能維持住的”朋友定義為那些你給予關(guān)心而且每年至少聯(lián)系一次的朋友。

距離牛津大學(xué)羅賓·鄧巴教授的研究結(jié)果問世已經(jīng)過去了二十多年，有人懷疑，社交媒體的涌現(xiàn)，可能會(huì)改變Dunbar教授聲稱的“150人”上限。

For the past few years, there's been a lively conversation about whether the rise of Facebook, Twitter and other social networks is making staying in touch so easy that the Dunbar number ought to be recalibrated. In a world where gregarious people routinely have 1,000 or more friends on Facebook, shouldn't the Dunbar number climb accordingly?

過去幾年里，有一類討論很活躍，說Facebook，Twitter以及其他社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)的興起是否讓社交變得很簡(jiǎn)單，以至于“鄧巴數(shù)字”需要修改一下了?，F(xiàn)在社交達(dá)人們通常都有超過1000個(gè)好友，這么看來，“鄧巴數(shù)字”難道不應(yīng)該相應(yīng)提升一下嗎？

Facebook's own data scientists stirred the pot when they analyzed how many friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend connections it takes to link any two random members of the social network. The old aphorism about six degrees of separation may not apply any more, Facebook researcher Lars Backstrom reported.

Facebook的數(shù)據(jù)科學(xué)家們也參與了進(jìn)來。他們對(duì)任意兩個(gè)人之間需要多少個(gè)“朋友的朋友的朋友”才能夠聯(lián)結(jié)上進(jìn)行了分析。過往大家篤信的理論是“六度區(qū)隔”（你和任意一個(gè)陌生人之間只需要6步，也就是5個(gè)人就能聯(lián)系上），但Facebook研究員Lars Backstrom表示這個(gè)理論可能不再適用了。

Start with two random members from the same country, Backstrom reported, and they are just an average of three hops from knowing each other, Backstrom found. Let the sampling be global -- so that one might be trying to link people in Australia and Norway -- and all that's required is an average of 4.74 hops.

Backstrom表示，他們先是從同一國(guó)家任意的兩個(gè)人著手研究，結(jié)果顯示兩人之間平均只需要跳3步就能聯(lián)系上對(duì)方。跳出國(guó)界——比方說從澳大利亞和挪威隨機(jī)選兩人——結(jié)果顯示平均也只需要跳4.74步（不到4個(gè)人）。

Professor Dunbar, however, isn't budging. In a deliciously blunt interview with Technology Review this month, he declares that all those extra "friends" don't really count as true friends. "Facebook has muddied the waters by calling them all friends, but really they are not," Dunbar declares.

然而，鄧巴教授卻并未改變觀點(diǎn)。在《科技評(píng)論》的一個(gè)采訪中他直言，那些“好友”都不能真正算作“朋友”。他表示：“Facebook把這些人都稱作‘朋友’，模糊了界限，但事實(shí)上，這些人不能算數(shù)”。

Instead, he says, when we claim more than 150 contacts, we're padding our list with people who fit into patchier levels of social contact. The first is people with whom we have a nodding social acquaintance, and the second is nothing more than faces we recognize. By his tally, most of us have 500 of the first and 1,500 of the second.

鄧巴教授稱，我們說自己有超過150個(gè)聯(lián)系人的時(shí)候，我們其實(shí)是把一些雜七雜八的社會(huì)交往也算進(jìn)去了。其中有一種就是點(diǎn)頭之交，另一種就是只是能認(rèn)出臉的交情。按照鄧巴教授的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)來算，我們大多數(shù)人有著500個(gè)左右的點(diǎn)頭之交，1500個(gè)左右的“認(rèn)臉之交”。

Academic efforts to document Dunbar numbers in the age of social media are limited, although two Twitter studies suggest that 150 may still be a plausible estimate. One of the most entertaining tests was conducted by Wired writer Rick Lax, who contacted 1,000 of his Facebook friends to see how many of them he could engage with in a meaningful way.

社交媒體時(shí)代，記錄“鄧巴數(shù)字”的學(xué)術(shù)研究并不多。但是有兩個(gè)Twitter上的研究顯示，150這個(gè)數(shù)字可能仍然是一個(gè)可信的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。有一個(gè)挺搞笑的測(cè)試是《連線》雜志作者Rick Lax做的，他聯(lián)系了自己的1000個(gè)Facebook好友，看看有多少人能夠和他進(jìn)行有意義的交流。

As Lax ruefully recounted, many of his supposed friends either said they had no idea who he was, or had undergone major changes in their lives that he was left with the realization that he didn't really know them well at all. "In trying to disprove Dunbar’s number," Lax wrote, "I actually proved it."

Lax后來苦笑著說，很多他所謂的好友要么說根本不知道他是誰，要不就是這些好友變化太大，以至于Lax自己都不知道他們是誰了。Lax寫道：“本來我是想證偽鄧巴數(shù)字的理論，哪知道最后證明了它?！?/p>

打開微信聯(lián)系人列表，拉到底，估計(jì)你的數(shù)字也超過了鄧巴教授的研究結(jié)論。

那么，擁有動(dòng)輒數(shù)千個(gè)聯(lián)系人的感受是什么樣的呢？

I had 2000+ "friends" on Facebook when I was a student because I was a part of a lot of student organizations (one in my field of study, one in my university, a position in a national student organization as well). Those "friends" built up over time, with student I've met all around my country.

我還是學(xué)生的時(shí)候有2000+ Facebook好友，因?yàn)槲覅⒓恿撕芏鄬W(xué)生組織（有一個(gè)我本專業(yè)的，一個(gè)校內(nèi)的，還有一個(gè)國(guó)家級(jí)學(xué)生組織）。全國(guó)各地這樣的學(xué)生接觸多了，這種“朋友”就慢慢多起來了。

I could have met them in a serious way with student formation etc... or in a fun way by partying all over. I was really using Facebook as a network tool containing students from all the universities in my country. They were able to reach me for help or advice, and the same was true for me too.

這些朋友有時(shí)候是通過正式的學(xué)生組織集會(huì)認(rèn)識(shí)的，有時(shí)候是一起玩，到處開派對(duì)的時(shí)候認(rèn)識(shí)的。我真的是把Facebook當(dāng)作交際工具在用，里面有我們國(guó)家所有大學(xué)的學(xué)生。他們會(huì)找我?guī)兔o建議什么的，當(dāng)然我也會(huì)找他們。

But I was out of this 5 years ago, and since then I've been doing yearly review of my friends list, deleting a lot of contacts each year. Now I have less than 300 "friends", and this number will decrease again in the next review.

不過我已經(jīng)退圈5年了，從那以后，我每年都會(huì)審一遍我的聯(lián)系人列表，每年都會(huì)刪掉很多人?，F(xiàn)在我的好友數(shù)只有300不到，而且這個(gè)數(shù)字下次審的時(shí)候應(yīng)該還會(huì)下降。

——MoredhelEUW

I have 2100 or so as of now. I think I only chat 100 of them.

我現(xiàn)在有2100個(gè)左右的好友，我覺得我只跟里面的100個(gè)人聊天。

In high school I was in like 5 different clubs. Played golf, so between fundraisers & events & games I hung out with most of the other 45 sports teams, lots of members of which I later became Facebook friends with. Then I added in friends of those friends from parties and bars, and I was at 2000 before I knew it.

高中的時(shí)候，我加入了5個(gè)社團(tuán)。我還打高爾夫，所以參加資金籌集會(huì)或者比賽的時(shí)候，我就會(huì)和其他45支隊(duì)伍一起，里面很多人后來都加了我Facebook.接著我又在酒吧或者派對(duì)上加了這些朋友的朋友，不知不覺我就有2000好友了。

——TheHeintzel

Notes

equivalent  /??kw?v?l?nt/ n相等的東西

prevalence /’prev?l?ns/ n流行：盛行的狀況

indispensable /?nd??spens?bl/ adj不可或缺的；必不可少的

bulk /b?lk/ n大（體積）；大（量）

neo-lithic /ni???l?θ?k/ adj新石器時(shí)代的

calibrate /?k?l?bre?t/ v標(biāo)定；校準(zhǔn)

budge /b?d?/ v（使）改變主意，改變觀點(diǎn)

muddy /?m?di/ v使混亂；迷惑

pad /p?d/ v填充；覆蓋

主播：拉面

編輯：李雪晴

Source: DailyMail, New York Times, Reddit, Forbes