Let me tell you a story. It's about a woman called Justine Sacco.
这里给各位说个故事。一位名叫贾丝婷·萨科的女士的故事。
She was a PR woman from New York with 170 Twitter followers,
她住纽约,从事公关工作,有170 位推特粉丝,
and she'd Tweet little acerbic jokes to them, like this one on a plane from New York to London:
不时会发些尖酸刻薄的笑话,比如这个,是她从纽约去伦敦途中在飞机上发的:
So Justine chuckled to herself, and pressed send, and got no replies,
之后贾丝婷对自己笑了笑,按了发送键,没得到任何回应,
and felt that sad feeling that we all feel when the Internet doesn't congratulate us for being funny.
顿感一阵悲哀,我们也一样,在网上说了个笑话,没人搭理,我们也悲哀。
Black silence when the Internet doesn't talk back.
网上无人回应,简直是人间悲剧。
And then she got to Heathrow, and she had a little time to spare before her final leg,
抵达希思罗机场后,她还有点空闲时间要打发,离下班飞机起飞还有段时间,
so she thought up another funny little acerbic joke:
她又编了一尖酸小段子:
And she chuckled to herself, pressed send, got on the plane, got no replies,
她又自己笑了笑,按了发送键,上了飞机,也没得到回应,
turned off her phone, fell asleep, woke up 11 hours later,
关上手机,睡觉去了,11个小时后醒来,
turned on her phone while the plane was taxiing on the runway,
打开手机,飞机还在跑道上滑行,
and straightaway there was a message from somebody that she hadn't spoken to since high school,
旋即,她收到一条短信,来自一个她中学毕业后就没见过的人的,
that said, "I am so sorry to see what's happening to you."
短信说:“对于你经历的这一切,我真替你难过。”
And then another message from a best friend,
还有一个短信来自她最要好的朋友:
"You need to call me right now. You are the worldwide number one trending topic on Twitter."
“马上给我打电话。你成了推特全球第一的热门话题。”