WSC Weekly2025世界学者杯the World Scholar's Cup
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2025年度主题：重燃未来
Reigniting the Future
WSC Weekly专栏将精选最新话题内容
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锁定每周WSC Weekly
上期回顾&Quiz答案揭晓
在2025年世界学者杯第20期WSC Weekly栏目中，我们与小学者一起了解了社交隔离的危害。在上期的趣味Quiz中，你是否找到了正确答案？现在就让我们一起来揭晓吧！
孤单不仅伤心，而且伤脑？
How does social isolation damage our brain?
第20期Quiz答案揭晓：
Which of the following CANNOT help reduce the negative impact of confinement on prisoner’s brain ?
以下哪个选项无助于减少监禁对囚犯大脑的负面影响？
A. Keep two prisoners in one cell room 将两名囚犯关在一间牢房里
B. Allow prisoners to keep pet 允许囚犯饲养宠物
C. Assign reading assignments to prisoners 给囚犯布置阅读任务
D. Improve the sound insulation of cell room 改善牢房的隔音效果
E. Encourage prisoners to play basketball 鼓励囚犯打篮球
正确答案：D
Key: D
2025年第21期
Weekly Intro
在疫情隔离期间，“播客”日益成为了众人排解心灵孤独，建立情感关系的重要媒介。这种单向关系的建构即提供了理想化的社交需求，同时规避了现实负担。
本期Weely将揭晓播客是如何重塑现代人的情感联结方式，并带来持久性的陪伴价值!
2025 No.21
为什么越来越多的人沉迷听播客？
How Podcasts Became So Popular?
“播客”：从边缘到主流
在2020年以前，听播客还只是一个小众兴趣。那时，博客收听者主要是通勤族、科技爱好者或犯罪故事迷等特定群体。但近年来，播客已迅速发展成一种文化现象，不仅占据了我们的耳朵，也填补了我们内心那些曾未察觉的空缺。尤其是在新冠疫情期间，人们的社交生活停摆、日常节奏被打乱，播客为人们提供了其他媒体所无法给予的东西：陪伴。
虽然收听博客的人数在疫情初期因通勤时间的消失而略有下滑，但很快就反弹回升。根据 BBC Sounds 的数据，单在2020年，播客收听量就增长了21%。人们不只是“消费”音频内容，更是在与它建立关系。随着面对面交流日渐稀少，许多听众开始觉得他们“认识”了那些常听的播客主持人，有些人甚至觉得这些主持人就是自己的朋友。
Before 2020, podcasts were a niche interest, something consumed by commuters, tech enthusiasts, or true crime fans. But in recent years, podcasts have exploded into a cultural phenomenon, filling not only our ears but also emotional spaces in our lives that we didn’t even know were empty. The COVID-19 pandemic may have accelerated this shift, but the appeal of podcasts—intimate, flexible, and profoundly personal—was already there, waiting to be fully discovered.During lockdown, when social lives collapsed and routines were upended, podcasts offered something most other media could not: companionship.After an initial dip in listenership (largely due to the loss of commuting time), podcast audiences rebounded quickly. According to BBC Sounds, podcast listening increased by 21% in 2020 alone.People weren’t just consuming audio—they were building relationships with it.As in-person contact became rare, many listeners began to feel as if they knew the podcasters they heard regularly. Some even felt like these hosts were their friends.
拟社交：声音的魔力
这种现象有个名字：“拟社交互动”（parasocial interaction），由社会学家唐纳德·霍顿（Donald Horton）和理查德·沃尔（Richard Wohl）于20世纪50年代提出，用来描述人们与媒体人物建立起的一种单向关系。处于拟社交关系的人能够感到自己与某一人物建立了情感联结，即使对方并不会给予任何回应。这类互动虽然并非真实的双向互动，但却让人感觉真实。播客的形式恰好最适合培养这种情感联系：相比其他媒体，博客通常采用一种更加非正式、无脚本、个人化的形式。没有现场观众，没有视觉干扰，只有一个声音在你耳边。每集节目常常长达一小时以上，属于连载系列，使得听众可以长时间地了解主持人的生活。听众逐渐熟悉他们的习惯、恐惧、喜悦，甚至晚餐吃了什么。
This phenomenon has a name: parasocial interaction, a term coined by sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl in the 1950s.It refers to the one-sided relationships people develop with media personalities. In a parasocial relationship, an individual feels a connection to a persona, often a celebrity or fictional character, without any reciprocal acknowledgment from that persona. These relationships feel real, even though they aren’t mutual. Podcasts are uniquely suited to foster this type of bond.The format is often informal, unscripted, and deeply personal.There’s no studio audience or visual distraction, just a disembodied voice in your ears. Episodes often last an hour or more and are part of long-running series, meaning listeners can follow hosts’ lives in great detail over time. Listeners get to know the podcasters’ habits, fears, joys, and even dinner plans.
虚拟下的“真实”情感
对许多在疫情期间感到孤独的人来说，播客成为一种情感联系的渠道，一种在现实友谊难以维持的时期，用来模拟社交关系的方式。由于人们本就开始依赖数字通信与真实的亲友保持联系，播客里的对话和现实对话之间的界限也愈加模糊。手机里的那个声音，既可能是你的朋友，也可能是一个在卧室里录音的喜剧演员或记者。播客的魅力不仅仅来自便利性。许多播客主持人都显得真实、坦率，有时甚至有些混乱。这些特质让他们更像“真实的人”，不像传统名人那样过度包装。对听众来说，这种真实感带来了亲近感和归属感。有些人会找到与自己兴趣或人生阶段相契合的播客节目，比如育儿播客、职场博客、或冷门圈子的深度剖析，从中获得一种“我不是一个人”的情感支持。也有听众只是为了和老朋友见面一样的理由打开播客：想笑、想被安慰、想听到熟悉的声音。
For many during the pandemic, podcasts became a form of emotional connection, a way to simulate friendships in a time when real ones were harder to maintain.Because people were already relying on digital communication to talk with actual friends and family, the line between a podcast conversation and a real-life one became increasingly blurry. The voice on your phone could just as easily belong to a friend as to a comedian or journalist recording from their bedroom. The appeal goes deeper than just convenience. Podcasts often feature hosts who are relatable, honest, and occasionally chaotic. These qualities make them feel like “real people,” unlike the more polished personas of traditional celebrities.For listeners, this creates a sense of accessibility and belonging.Some find podcasts that match their interests or life stages, such as parenting shows, professional chats, or deep-dives into obscure fandoms, and feel less alone in their experiences. Others tune in for the same reason we call an old friend: to laugh, to feel comforted, to hear someone familiar.
“零压力”的亲密关系
听众也喜欢播客所提供的比真实友情更随意的关系模式。不需要安排通话，不需要寒暄。只要你想，就可以“和播客主持人一起待着”。正如一位听众所说，这是一种“懒惰、自私的社交方式”，但在情感效果上并不因此而打折。当然，许多人也知道这种亲密感是某种程度上“人为制造”的。播客主持人可能确实真诚，但毕竟仍在表演。然而，这并不会降低其对听众的价值，尤其是当这些“虚假友谊”带来了笑声、安慰，或一种社区感的时候。实际上，一些播客创作者完全意识到这种情感纽带，并有意设计节目来维系它，他们会直接与听众对话，念出听众的邮件，使用一些只有忠实听众才能理解的“内部梗”，让听众感觉自己是圈内人。
Listeners also appreciate that podcasts offer a form of friendship that is on-demand and effort-free.You can “hang out” with podcasters whenever you like, without needing to schedule a call or ask how they’re doing. As one listener put it, podcast companionship is “a lazy, selfish version of socializing”—but no less real in its emotional effect. Of course, many people are aware that this sense of intimacy is manufactured. Podcasters may be authentic, but they’re still performing. Still, that doesn’t lessen the value for listeners, especially when these fake friendships provide comedy, relief, or a sense of community. In fact, some podcast creators are fully conscious of this bond and design their shows to nurture it. They talk directly to the listener, read fan emails, and build recurring in-jokes, making the audience feel like insiders.
播客陪伴的持久价值
在这个日益充斥着疏离与干扰的世界里，播客为人们提供了一种安静的陪伴。那些陪我们做家务、锻炼、度过失眠夜晚的声音，不仅仅是娱乐内容，更是作为我们孤独时的同伴。疫情或许强化了这种联系，但播客的基本吸引力似乎会持续存在。它的力量在于，它能以惊人真实的节奏模拟人类关系，即使这种关系在本质上是想象出来的。随着疫情后世界逐渐重启，面对面交流回归，许多播客听众会欣然回到现实中的友谊中。但他们也许仍会在心里为那些在孤独岁月中陪伴他们度过每一集节目的熟悉声音保留一个位置。
In a world increasingly filled with disconnection and distraction, podcasts provide a kind of quiet presence—voices that accompany us through chores, workouts, or sleepless nights. They are not just entertainment; they are companions in our solitude. The pandemic may have supercharged this bond, but the underlying appeal of podcasts is likely to endure.Their power lies in how closely they mimic the rhythm of human relationships, even when those relationships are, strictly speaking, imaginary.As the world reopens and in-person interactions resume, many podcast fans will gladly return to their real friendships. But they may also keep a spot open for their favorite audio companions—those friendly voices that got them through isolation, one episode at a time.
Weekly关键词 Key Words
►podcast 播客
parasocial relationship 拟社交关系
所属话题
The Best is Yet to Be, or Not To Be?
相关阅读
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jun/07/tragic-but-true-have-podcasters-replaced-our-real-friends
Weekly FUN Quiz
相信现在你已经知道了“什么是拟社交互动关系”！那就快来参与本期Weekly FUN Quiz👇，告诉老师你的答案吧！
Quiz
Which of the following scenarios can be BEST described as parasocial interaction?
以下哪种情况最适合被描述为拟社交互动？
A. Jerry felt sad when his favorable figure in a novel died 杰瑞为小说中他喜欢的人物的去世感到悲伤
B. Jerry chats with ChatGPT about his troubles and gets emotional comfort 杰瑞与 ChatGPT 聊他的烦恼，并得到情感上的安慰
C. Jerry joined a online debate club to debate with strangers 杰瑞参加了一个在线辩论俱乐部并与陌生人辩论
D. Jerry often buys items on the online store of a famous influencer 杰瑞经常在知名网红的网上商店购买商品
E. Jerry enjoys “talking” with his dog 杰瑞喜欢和他的宠物狗聊天
To WSC Scholars:
本期Weekly Quiz正确答案将在专栏下期推文中揭晓！欢迎小学者们关注服务号，进入“WSC Weekly”专栏，此栏目将会持续陪伴小学者们，分享更多WSC趣味学术知识！
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