【每天一篇经济学人】Online influencers 网红（2023年第60
文章来源：《经济学人》Nov 11th 2023 期 Culture 栏目 Online influencers 网红
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The internet and its cultural impact are most often viewed through the lens of the “tech bro”, the (usually male) geniuses and fraudsters behind the corporations reshaping the world. Biographies, memoirs and salacious tell-alls about these big-tech bosses have shaped readers’ understanding of how the online world changes the offline one. But these books rarely mention the principal figures who have shaped the experience of being online: social-media influencers.
人们一般通过 "技术兄弟 "的视角来看待互联网及其文化影响。“技术兄弟”是指重塑世界的知名企业背后的天才和骗子（通常是男性）。通过科技巨头老板相关的传记、回忆录和桃色故事，读者理解了线上世界如何改变了线下世界。但这些书很少提及影响上网体验的主要人物：社交网红。
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Influencers—the (usually female) people behind the most popular accounts on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube—have large followings, often in the hundreds of thousands or millions. People like Jackie Aina, Matilda Djerf and Molly-Mae Hague earn a living from a combination of sponsored posts (#sponcon), commissions made through affiliate links and by creating their own brands, from fake tan to eyeshadows to loungewear lines. According to Forbes, more than 50m people globally describe themselves as influencers; Goldman Sachs predicts the industry will double to nearly $500bn by 2027.
网红——是指Instagram、TikTok 和 YouTube等平台上最受欢迎账户背后的运营者（通常是女性）——通常拥有数十万或数百万的粉丝。Jackie Aina、Matilda Djerf 和 Molly-Mae Hague 等网红的变现途径有：通过发帖子 (例如#sponcon)拿广告费、通过相关链接带货赚取佣金、创立自己的品牌（有假日晒、眼影、家居服系列等）。据《福布斯》报道，全球有5000多万人自称是 "网络红人"；高盛预测，到 2027 年，这一行业的规模将翻一番，达到近 5000 亿美元。
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Though they shape digital culture, influencers are too often dismissed as fame-hungry pseudo-celebrities, who post about the minutiae of their lives and mindlessly promote branded products for eye-watering sums. But a new crop of books takes the influencer industry more seriously by exploring the way social media’s most popular users are reshaping the global economy and changing what the average person views online.
虽然网红塑造了数字文化，但他们往往被视为沽名钓誉的伪名人，他们发布生活琐事，通过盲目推广品牌产品赚取高额费用。但新出版的一批书籍更认真地探讨了 "网红 "产业，探究了社交媒体上的网红如何重塑全球经济，如何改变普通人上网的浏览内容。
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Taylor Lorenz, a technology writer for the Washington Post, is a leading voice on social-media trends and internet culture. Her book, “Extremely Online”, argues that influencers hold huge power: “Tech founders may control the source code, but users shape the product.” Charting the history of the influencer (once called “e-celebs” or “ceWEBrities”) from the 1990s to today, Ms Lorenz argues influencers rose by making fame and luxury less “sealed off”.
泰勒·洛伦茨是《华盛顿邮报》的科技撰稿人，是社交媒体趋势和互联网文化的意见领袖。她在《网红简史》书里阐明，网红拥有巨大的影响力：“科技创始人能控制源代码，但用户塑造了产品。”洛伦兹追溯了1990年代到今天的网红历史（“网红”曾被称为“电子名人”或“网络名人”），她认为网红的崛起是因为名望和奢华不再“局限于少数群体”。
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Like reality-TV stars, early influencers created a new, niche sort of celebrity, popular enough to draw scrutiny but still unrecognisable to most. Ms Lorenz makes the case that, despite its bad rap, influencing has “given more people the chance to benefit directly from their labour than at any other time in history”, regaling readers with stories about “mommy bloggers” turning the pain of parenthood into six-figure businesses and teens becoming multi-millionaires off short comedy skits.
像电视真人秀明星一样，早期网红是一群新奇的、小众的名人类型，他们的受欢迎程度足以引起人们的关注，但对大多数人来说识别度仍不高。洛伦兹认为，尽管“网红”的名声不好，但这“比历史上任何时候都让更多的人有机会直接从自己的劳动中受益”，她给读者讲述了一些引人入胜的故事，例如“妈妈育儿博主们”将育儿的痛苦变成了6位数的生意，青少年通过短片喜剧成为了千万富翁。
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Influencing has also spilled into politics, with the rise of social-media activism and influencers gaining followers by posting about social issues and news. (This sometimes leads to political candidates courting them in order to sway younger voters.) She also examines influencers’ new role in traditional media, with TV and film studios harvesting stars and storylines from the content on these accounts. Some TikTokers, such as Addison Rae, have starred in films, as well as reality television. Take “The D’Amelio Show”, about teen TikTokers Charli and Dixie D’Amelio, now in its third season on Hulu.
随着社交媒体激进主义的兴起，网红影响力也渗透到了政治领域，他们通过发布社会问题和新闻来吸引粉丝。（这有时会导致政治候选人争取他们的支持，以影响年轻选民。）她还研究了网红在传统媒体中的新角色，电视和电影制片厂从网红发布的内容中挖掘明星和故事情节。一些 TikTok 网红，例如Addison Rae曾出演电影，还参加了真人秀节目。以《达梅里奥秀》为例，该剧讲述了少年 TikTok网红Charli 和 Dixie D'Amelio 的故事，目前该剧已在 Hulu 上播出了第三季。
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Ms Lorenz’s take on influencing is optimistic. She is not alone. “Bad Influence” reflects on a decade of influencing, and also paints a honeyed picture of influencers’ function in culture. “We are photographers, videographers, copywriters, directors, editors, models and marketing team all rolled into one,” Oenone Forbat, an influencer, writes in her memoir, which offers intimate details about the haphazard quality of influencers’ fame. However, despite its Panglossian sheen, the strength of “Bad Influence” is its meditation on the deep-seated paranoia that comes with being constantly exposed to so many people.
洛伦兹对网红的看法是乐观的，且无独有偶。《不良影响》一书描写了10年来网红的影响力，也描绘了网红对文化的正面积极影响。网红奥诺涅·福巴特在她的回忆录中写道：“我们既是摄影师、摄像师、文案师，又是导演、编辑、模特和营销团队，一人承担所有工作。”这本回忆录记录了网红成名之路上的各种私人细节。然而，尽管《不良影响》具有乐观的光彩，这本书的强大之处在于它反思了不断暴露于众人视线下而引发的深层恐惧。
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And there are plenty of reasons to be anxious: for every fan, there is a critic. A vehement one is Symeon Brown, who looks at the industry’s underbelly, full of scammers, surgeries, racism and exploitation, in his entertaining “Get Rich or Lie Trying”. Mr Brown, a journalist, tells gory stories of influencers who took part in scams. Sometimes people who get tricked end up becoming “influencer scammers” themselves. He chronicles the experience of one woman losing tens of thousands to the now-defunct Trump University, which ran real-estate training programmes; she then launched a similar scheme. He argues that this is influencers’ real impact: making exploitation more accessible, widespread and far wilier than it was in its pre-internet days.
网红感到焦虑的原因有很多：每个粉丝都是一个批评者。西蒙·布朗就是一个激烈的批评者，他在《底层网红》一书中以娱乐的方式揭露了网红行业的阴暗面，包括骗子、整容手术、种族主义和剥削。作为一名记者，布朗讲述了一些网红参与诈骗的血淋淋故事。有时，上当受骗的人最终自己也成了 "有影响力的骗子"。他记录了一位女士因投资特朗普大学而被骗数万美元的故事，该大学现已不存在，此大学曾开设了房地产培训课程；随后她又推出了类似的体系。他认为，这才是网红的真正影响力：让坑蒙拐骗变得更容易、更普遍，而且比前网络时代更加肆无忌惮。
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The argument that runs through these very different books is that influencers have changed the rhythm of our culture, as well as who in society holds power. How long influencers will stay top of their game, however, is not something any of the books try to answer.
这些截然不同书籍中共同的论点是，网红改变了我们文化的节奏，以及权力的掌控。然而，没有一本书回答关于 "网红能保持多久领先地位“的问题。
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Some experts estimate as much as 90% of online content could be AI-generated by 2026. As the number of believable posts and photos produced by AI soars, influencers will face significantly more competition for internet users’ attention. No influencer, regardless of how skilled they have proved to be at leveraging the internet into popularity and profits in the past, is guaranteed to retain any kind of influence in the next technological transformation.
一些专家估计，到 2026 年，多达90%的在线内容将由人工智能生成。随着人工智能生成的可信帖子和照片数量激增，网红将面临更多争夺网民注意力的竞争。无论过去网红多么成功地利用互联网杠杆赢得知名度和利润，但没有一个网红能确保他们在下一次技术变革中依然保持影响力。
