The Year in Social Media 社交媒体年度回顾

The Year in Social Media

社交媒体年度回顾

【听力音频】

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　　By Mario Ritter, Jr

　　28 December 2023

　　This year, social media services gained a lot of attention for their growth methods and for their influence.

　　The Associated Press recently looked back at 2023 to see what developments in social media were most important and what might be ahead.

　　Twitter becomes X

　　In October of 2022, businessman Elon Musk took over Twitter. He promised to make big changes at the social media service. Musk is known for leading the electric vehicle company Tesla and SpaceX, a space transport company. He bought Twitter for $44 billion dollars.

　　Musk dismissed about 75 percent of the company's workforce soon after the deal was completed. He said the dismissals were necessary to make Twitter more effective and to increase profits. He also announced plans to have Twitter users pay eight dollars a month to keep their verified accounts. Verified accounts are identified as belonging to people with a lot of followers.

　　As chief, Musk also lifted some existing restrictions on users, including many well-known people who had been barred by earlier Twitter leadership. Former U.S. President Donald Trump was among the Twitter users whose accounts were reinstated.

　　Musk said those changes were part of a larger effort to protect the free speech of Twitter users. But critics said his plans were likely to increase the amount of harmful content and hate speech on the service.

　　This year, the AP noted that some LGBTQ groups have raised concerns that X is less safe. Some activist groups said they have left the service.

　　Many Twitter users chose to leave the service earlier this year because of Musk's changes. Some advertisers stopped doing business with the company. In October, X said it had over 500 million users and is adding users all the time. The company also said it has improved in combating misleading or false information by using Community Notes. X says it uses over 100,000 people to help confirm information.

　　Musk has said he hopes to change X into an "everything app" like China's WeChat. But it remains unclear if U.S. and Western users like the idea of using one app for nearly all their needs.

　　Social media competition

　　Many users criticized the changes Musk was putting in place at X. Other services aimed to provide competition.

　　Mastodon is a service from a German software developer that lets users share information across several apps. Bluesky is a service that came out of Twitter and has connections to former Twitter chief Jack Dorsey. Bluesky operates by invitation only.

　　Some users who did not like the changes to Twitter went to those services.

　　In July, the parent company of Facebook, Meta, launched another rival to X called Threads. Millions of people joined after the announcement. In December, Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company was testing "interoperability." That is an idea that lets people use their accounts on different services, or platforms. Zuckerberg said the company was performing a "test where posts from Threads accounts will be available on Mastodon and other services that use the Activity Pub protocol."

　　Is social media good for children's mental health?

　　Social media's influence on children's mental health gained a lot of attention this year. The U.S. surgeon general warned in May that there is not enough evidence to show that children and teenagers are safe using the services. Dr. Vivek Murthy called for technology companies and parents to take "immediate action to protect their kids now."

　　Murthy noted how social media is pushing big changes in the way children think of themselves, form friendships and experience the world.

　　In October, about 33 states brought legal action against Meta for harming young people's health. The legal action said the company regularly collects information on children under 13 years of age.

　　And in December, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed major changes to laws controlling the way companies can follow and advertise to children. The agency proposed turning off targeted advertisements to children under 13 and limiting notifications to them.

　　And in 2024...

　　Artificial intelligence powers chatbots that perform writing tasks and create material for users of services like ChatGPT. In the fall, Meta chief Zuckerberg said his company was "building the future of human connection." He said that people will soon communicate with hologram versions of their friends, coworkers and others. The company demonstrated AI bots using the images of famous people such as Snoop Dogg and Paris Hilton. Meta believes many social media users will want to interact with celebrities.

　　Enberg, the social media expert, said AI will be used throughout social media platforms. "Social apps will use AI to drive usage, ad performance and revenues, subscription sign ups," and business activity, she said. Experts say social media services learned from Musk's X that subscriptions are a good way to make money.

　　Important elections will take place in the United States, India and other places in 2024. Some experts are worried about AI's abilities to create materials that can contain misinformation and then spread on social media.

　　A.J. Nash is an official with ZeroFox, an internet security company based in the state of Maryland. Nash said materials spread this way will have a "major" influence on elections.

　　"We're not prepared for this," he said.

　　I'm Anna Matteo. And I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.

　　Barbara Ortutay reported this story for the Associated Press. Mario Ritter, Jr. adapted it for VOA Learning English with additional information from AP and VOA sources.

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　　作者：马里奥·里特尔，Jr

　　2023年12月28日

　　今年，社交媒体服务因其增长方法和影响力引起了大量关注。

　　美联社最近回顾了2023年，看看社交媒体的哪些发展最为重要，以及未来可能会有什么。

　　Twitter变成X

　　2022年10月，商人埃隆·马斯克接管了Twitter。他承诺要对这个社交媒体服务进行大改革。马斯克以领导电动汽车公司特斯拉和太空运输公司SpaceX而闻名。他以440亿美元的价格购买了Twitter。

　　交易完成后不久，马斯克解雇了公司约75%的员工。他说，这些解雇是为了提高Twitter的效率和增加利润。他还宣布计划让Twitter用户每月支付8美元以保持他们的认证账户。认证账户被确认为属于拥有大量关注者的人。

　　作为首席执行官，马斯克还取消了一些对用户的现有限制，包括许多被早期Twitter领导层禁止的知名人士。前美国总统唐纳德·特朗普就是被恢复账户的Twitter用户之一。

　　马斯克表示，这些改变是保护Twitter用户言论自由的一部分大力努力。但是批评者认为他的计划可能会增加服务中有害内容和仇恨言论的数量。

　　今年，美联社指出，一些LGBTQ团体对X的安全性提出了担忧。一些活动团体表示他们已经离开了这个服务。

　　由于马斯克的改变，今年早些时候许多Twitter用户选择离开这个服务。一些广告商停止了与该公司的业务。10月，X表示它拥有超过5亿用户，并且一直在增加用户。该公司还表示，通过使用社区注释，它在对抗误导或虚假信息方面有所改善。X表示，它使用超过10万人来帮助确认信息。

　　马斯克表示，他希望将X改变成一个像中国的微信那样的“全能应用”。但是，美国和西方用户是否喜欢使用一个应用满足他们几乎所有需求的想法仍然不清楚。

　　社交媒体竞争，

　　许多用户批评马斯克在X上进行的改变。其他服务旨在提供竞争。

　　Mastodon是一个来自德国软件开发商的服务，它让用户在几个应用程序中分享信息。Bluesky是一个来自Twitter的服务，与前Twitter首席执行官Jack Dorsey有关。Bluesky只接受邀请操作。

　　一些不喜欢Twitter变化的用户转向了这些服务。

　　7月，Facebook的母公司Meta推出了另一个与X竞争的服务，名为Threads。在宣布后，数百万人加入了。12月，Meta首席执行官马克·扎克伯格宣布，该公司正在测试“互操作性”。这是一种让人们在不同的服务或平台上使用他们的账户的想法。扎克伯格说，该公司正在进行一个“测试，其中Threads账户的帖子将在Mastodon和其他使用Activity Pub协议的服务上可用”。

　　社交媒体对儿童心理健康的影响好吗？

　　今年，社交媒体对儿童心理健康的影响引起了大量关注。美国卫生部长在5月警告说，没有足够的证据表明儿童和青少年使用这些服务是安全的。Vivek Murthy博士呼吁科技公司和父母立即采取行动保护他们的孩子。

　　Murthy指出，社交媒体正在推动儿童自我认知、建立友谊和体验世界方式的大变化。

　　10月，大约33个州对Meta提起法律诉讼，指责其损害年轻人的健康。法律诉讼称，该公司定期收集13岁以下儿童的信息。

　　12月，联邦贸易委员会（FTC）提出了对控制公司如何追踪和向儿童做广告的法律进行重大改革。该机构提议关闭针对13岁以下儿童的定向广告，并限制向他们发送的通知。

　　到了2024年...

　　人工智能驱动的聊天机器人可以执行写作任务，为ChatGPT等服务的用户创建内容。秋季，Meta首席执行官扎克伯格表示，他的公司正在“构建人类连接的未来”。他说，人们很快就会与他们的朋友、同事和其他人的全息图版本进行交流。该公司展示了使用Snoop Dogg和Paris Hilton等著名人物形象的AI机器人。Meta认为，许多社交媒体用户会想要与名人互动。

　　社交媒体专家Enberg表示，AI将在社交媒体平台上得到广泛应用。她说：“社交应用将使用AI来驱动使用量、广告效果和收入、订阅注册，”以及商业活动。专家们表示，社交媒体服务从马斯克的X那里学到，订阅是赚钱的好方法。

　　2024年，美国、印度和其他地方将举行重要的选举。一些专家担心AI的能力，可以创建包含错误信息的材料，然后在社交媒体上传播。

　　A.J. Nash是马里兰州一家名为ZeroFox的互联网安全公司的官员。Nash表示，这种方式传播的材料将对选举产生“重大”影响。

　　他说：“我们对此毫无准备。”

　　我是Anna Matteo。我是Mario Ritter, Jr.

　　Barbara Ortutay为美联社报道了这个故事。Mario Ritter, Jr.根据AP和VOA的额外信息为VOA学英语改编了它。

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　　本文中的词汇

　　竞争对手 - n. 试图比另一个更成功或试图击败其对手的人或团体

　　rival –n. 来自商业、投资或税收的钱

　　revenues–n.（复数）为定期服务交换付款的协议

　　hologram –n. 一个投影图像，看起来像是有深度、宽度和长度，但只是一个图像