當“偷窺”走起
視點
作者：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 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）.