臉書是撕裂社會的工具？
Recently, Facebook published an unprecedented statement: the social media giant acknowledged for the first time that ordinary use of its product could be harmful.
近日，臉書發表了一份前所未見的聲明：臉書首次承認即使只是普通地使用臉書，也可能對人造成傷害。
unprecedented(adj.)前所未見的;前所未聞的=unheard of~
Passively consuming social media can make people feel worse about themselves, wrote Facebook’s researchers in an official blog post.
臉書的研究者在官方部落格文章中寫道，被動地消費社交媒體資訊會讓人們的自我觀感變差。
passively(adv.)被動地consume(v.)消耗;消費
The post arrived unexpectedly after a bruising year for Facebook’s reputation.
臉書在過去一年來名聲傷痕累累後，發表這篇文章。
unexpectedly(adv.)出乎意料地bruising(adj.)(經歷)不愉快的reputation(n.)名聲;名譽
The fake news scandals, as well as Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, have landed Facebook in the hot seat of congressional hearings.
假新聞醜聞，加上俄國干預2016年美國總統大選的事件，使得臉書陷入必須出席國會聽證的難堪局面。
fake news假新聞interference(n.)介入the hot seat困境congressional hearings國會聽證會
A handful of Facebook’s earliest champions and builders have become vocal critics of the company’s product.
幾位臉書草創時期的擁護者和員工直言不諱地批評臉書平台 。
champion(n.)擁護者vocal(adj.)直言不諱的
The first was Justin Rosenstein, now the co-founder at Asana, a collaboration software company.
率先開出反對第一槍的是羅斯坦，目前是協作軟體開發公司Asana的共同創辦人。
Rosenstein helped to lead the development of Facebook’s “like” button, but late last year he complained about the psychological effects of social media.
羅斯坦曾主導臉書按讚功能的研發，但去年底他抱怨社交媒體會對人的心理產生不良的作用。
psychological(adj.)心理的;心理學的=mental
“It is very common,” Rosenstein told the Guardian, “for humans to develop things with the best of intentions and for them to have unintended, negative consequences.”
羅斯坦告訴《衛報》，「人們常本著良善的立意研發出一些東西，但也常遭遇到一些意想不到的負面後果。」
intention(n.)意圖;打算intend to RV打算要做…unintended(adj.)無意的、無心的、沒有計劃的
Chamath Palihapitiya, who once led Facebook’s user growth team, was the most critical. “I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works,” he says.
前臉書用戶成長副總裁帕利哈皮提亞的批評最為猛烈，他說「我想我們創造出撕裂社會的工具。」
critical(adj.)批評的;批判的;尖銳的rip apart 撕裂fabric(n.)(尤指社會或建築物的)結構;構造=structurethe fabric of society社會結構
But as the year 2017 came to a close, it seems that Facebook is more than willing to put user well-being ahead of Facebook’s business priorities.
但隨著2017年結束，臉書似乎更加願意把使用者的福祉擺在公司的商業考量之前。
ahead of~在…前面priority(n.)優先考慮的事
Facebook has already begun to realign its products to stoke meaningful social interactions, including optimizing rankings on News Feed, so posts from the friends that users care about the most are more likely to appear at the top of their feed.
臉書已經開始重整其產品，鼓勵有意義的社交互動，包括優化「動態消息」的排序，讓使用者最關心的朋友發文更可能出現在「動態消息」的最前面。
realign(v.)重新調整;重新整頓stoke(v.)添加燃料以撥旺(爐火);煽動;激起interaction(n.)互動
Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said, “Time spent is not a goal by itself. We want the time people spend on Facebook to encourage meaningful social interactions.”
臉書的執行長祖克柏最近說：「讓使用者花時間滑臉書並不是我們的目標，我們想要鼓勵人們在臉書上進行有意義的社交互動。」
That being said, will users spend their time on Facebook with more purpose? Or will they just continue to scroll up and down in a distractful manner?
祖克柏話說得漂亮，但使用者會更有目的性地使用臉書嗎？還是他們只會繼續注意力不集中地滑臉書呢？
that being said儘管如此= having said that= that said=despite what has (just) been saiddistractful(adj.)分心的=distractedin a ….manner以…的方式=in a …way=in a…fashion