Simple app says it all in style 為什么一款簡單的應(yīng)用“Yo”火了？
An app that does nothing but send a simple notification of “Yo” to recipients is the most popular app right now in the US.
最近，一款只能向他人發(fā)送一個字“Yo”的手機應(yīng)用風(fēng)靡美國。
The app, named Yo, reached No 1 in the Apple App Store in the US last week, after The Financial Times broke the story on June 18 that the app has received $1 million (6.23 million yuan) in investment funding.
《金融時報》6月18日的報道中稱，這款名為 “Yo”的應(yīng)用已獲得100萬美元(約合6230萬人民幣)的融資。而上周，Yo已升至美國蘋果手機應(yīng)用商店排行榜的首位。
Created in just eight hours by Or Arbel, a 32-year-old app developer from Tel Aviv, Israel, Yo claims to be the “simplest and most efficient communication tool in the world”. With a single tap, users can send the word “Yo” to one another in a voice notification — and nothing else.
這款應(yīng)用僅用8小時就開發(fā)而成，而它的開發(fā)人——來自以色列特拉維夫的32歲研發(fā)員奧爾•阿拜爾——說：“Yo是目前全世界最簡單、最高效的通訊工具”。因為只需一個簡單的按鈕，用戶就可以把“Yo”這個單詞以語音提醒的方式發(fā)給別人，而這也是Yo的唯一功能。
Arbel enthused about his app in an interview with The New Yorker: “It’s a whole new way for communication. A hundred and forty characters is way too much these days… It’s lightweight, easy, you don’t have to open a message — the notification itself is everything you need.”
在《紐約客》的采訪中，奧爾對他的應(yīng)用熱情滿滿：“這是一種全新的溝通方式。在當今時代，發(fā)送140個字母實在太長了……Yo簡短輕便，你甚至不必打開每條消息，因為你只需要提醒本身就行了。”
When Yo was launched on April Fools’ Day this year, the Apple App Store at first rejected it on the grounds that it lacked substance. Many people still see the app as a joke. Some technology experts, like Polly Mosendz from The Wire and Judd Legum from Think Progress, point out that the way a simple app like Yo got millions in funding says much about the impending burst of the tech bubble.
Yo在今年愚人節(jié)首發(fā)。一開始，蘋果手機應(yīng)用商店以“沒有實質(zhì)內(nèi)容”為由拒絕發(fā)布;直到今天，仍有不少人認為這個應(yīng)用就是個玩笑。不少技術(shù)人員指出，如此簡單的一個應(yīng)用能獲得上百萬的投資恰恰反映了技術(shù)泡沫的破裂近在咫尺，The Wire網(wǎng)站的作者Polly Mosendz與美國知名新聞博客Think Progress的作家Judd Legum都持有此種觀點。
Simple, but deep
簡單卻深刻
Arbel calls Yo “context-based communication” and some people are beginning to “get it”. Jordan Crook, from Tech Crunch, explains why the context of a “Yo” says much more than two little letters: “As with anything, a ‘Yo’ can just be a ‘Yo’. But you’ll feel a very real difference between a ‘Yo’ you get in the morning from a friend and a ‘Yo’ you get at 2 am from a friend with benefits. Trust me. And that’s the magic.”
奧爾認為Yo是一種“依賴語境的溝通方式”，現(xiàn)在不少人已經(jīng)體會到這一點。來自Tech Crunch博客的喬丹•克魯克解釋了為什么有了語境，“Yo”就能表達出遠超出兩個字母的含義：“如果沒有任何語境，那么Yo只是兩個字母。但是，你卻能明顯感覺到早上朋友發(fā)來的Yo和凌晨2點“床伴”發(fā)來的Yo之間的不同。相信我，這就是它的魔力所在。”
But people don’t always want to load their “Yos” with meaning. David Shapiro, from The New Yorker, says now when he thinks about someone, he just “Yos” them instead of spending time starting and carrying on a conversation. He says it’s a great way of saying: “I’m thinking about you but I don’t have anything in particular to say.” Social media constantly demands our time and attention. Not responding to text messages and e-mails can hurt relationships. But, Shapiro says, a “Yo” doesn’t seem to demand a reply. “What a relief,” he says.
不過，人們并不總是想賦予“Yo”具體含義。在《紐約客》工作的大衛(wèi)•莎皮歐說，現(xiàn)在每當他想念誰的時候，他會給對方發(fā)一條Yo，而不是花好多時間網(wǎng)聊。他覺得發(fā)送Yo是個很不錯的辦法，告訴對方“我想你了，但是我沒什么特別想說的。”社交媒體總是占用我們大量的時間和注意力，而不回復(fù)短信或者郵件則容易傷感情。不過，莎皮歐認為Yo就不需要用戶有信息必回。正如他的感概：“這多省事兒啊!”
Andrew Leonard, from The Salon, says “Yo” also signifies something deeper. It “expresses our most essential humanity”. He says that the utterance of the word “Yo” is “a declaration, first, that I exist in this world, and second, that I seek connection and community with something outside myself.” It’s like saying: “Yo… I am here. Is anybody out there?”
來自The Salon的安德魯•里歐納德認為，Yo表達了一些更深層次的東西：“它傳達出了人性的本質(zhì)。Yo這個簡短詞匯本身就是個宣言：首先，我在這里，其次，我還想認識別人，和他人建立聯(lián)系。這就好像是說，嘿….我在這里呢，這兒還有別人嗎?”
