Digital Gardens Let You Cultivate Your Own Little Bit of the Internet數(shù)字花園：你的專屬網(wǎng)絡(luò)空間

塔尼婭·巴蘇

A growing number of people are creating individualized， creative sites that eschew the one-size-fits-all1 look and feel of social media.越來越多的人正在創(chuàng)建個(gè)性化、有創(chuàng)意的網(wǎng)站，摒棄社交媒體那種萬能套用的界面風(fēng)格。

Sara Garner had a nagging feeling something wasnt quite right.

A software engineer， she was revamping her personal site， but it just didnt feel like her. Sure， it had the requisite links to her social media and her professional work， but it didnt really reflect her personality. So she created a page focused on museums， which she is obsessed with. Its still under construction， but she envisions a page that includes thoughts on her favorite museums， describes the emotions they evoked， and invites others to share their favorite museums and what theyve learned.

“Im going for a feeling of wonderment， a connection across time.” she says.

Welcome to the world of “digital gardens.” These creative reimaginings of blogs have quietly taken nerdier corners of the internet by storm2. A growing movement of people are tooling with back-end code to create sites that are more collage3-like and artsy， in the vein4 of Myspace and Tumblr—less predictable and formatted than Facebook and Twitter. Digital gardens explore a wide variety of topics and are frequently adjusted and changed to show growth and learning， particularly among people with niche interests. Through them， people are creating an internet that is less about connections and feedback， and more about quiet spaces they can call their own.

“Everyone does their own weird thing”

The movement might be gaining steam now， but its roots date back to 1998， when Mark Bernstein introduced the idea of the “hypertext garden，” arguing for spaces on the internet that let a person wade into5 the unknown. “Gardens … lie between farmland and wilderness，” he wrote. “The garden is farmland that delights the senses， designed for delight rather than commodity.” （His digital garden includes a recent review of a Bay Area carbonara dish and reflections on his favorite essays.）

The new wave of digital gardens discuss books and movies， with introspective journal entries; others offer thoughts on philosophy and politics. Some are works of art in themselves， visual masterpieces that invite the viewer to explore; others are simpler and more utilitarian， using Google Docs or Wordpress templates to share intensely personal lists. Avid readers in particular have embraced the concept， sharing creative， beautiful digital bookshelves that illustrate their reading journey.

Beneath the umbrella term， however， digital gardens dont follow rules. Theyre not blogs， short for “weblogs，” a term that suggests a time-stamped record of thought. Theyre not a social-media platform—connections are made， but often its through linking to other digital gardens， or gathering in forums like Reddit and Telegram6 to nerd out over code.

Tom Critchlow， a consultant who has been cultivating his digital garden for years， spells out the main difference between old-school blogging and digital gardening. “With blogging， youre talking to a large audience，” he says. “With digital gardening， youre talking to yourself. You focus on what you want to cultivate over time.”

What they have in common is that they can be edited at any time to reflect evolution and change. The idea is similar to editing a Wikipedia entry， though digital gardens are not meant to be the ultimate word on a topic. As a slower， clunkier way to explore the internet， they revel in7 not being the definitive source， just a source， says Mike Caulfield， a digital literacy8 expert at Washington State University.

In fact， the whole point of digital gardens is that they can grow and change， and that various pages on the same topic can coexist. “Its less about iterative learning and more about public learning，” says Maggie Appleton， a designer. Appletons digital garden， for example， includes thoughts on plant-based meat9， book reviews， and digressions on Javascript. It is “an open collection of notes， resources， sketches， and explorations Im currently cultivating，” its introduction declares. “Some notes are Seedlings， some are budding， and some are fully grown Evergreen[s].”

Appleton， who trained as an anthropologist， says she was drawn to digital gardens because of their depth. “The content is not on Twitter， and its never deleted，” she says. “Everyone does their own weird thing. The skys the limit.”

That ethos of creativity and individuality was echoed by several people I spoke to. Some suggested that the digital garden was a backlash10 to the internet weve become grudgingly accustomed to， where things go viral11， change is looked down upon， and sites are one-dimensional12. Facebook and Twitter profiles have neat slots for photos and posts， but enthusiasts of digital gardens reject those fixed design elements. The sense of time and space to explore is key.

“The stream has dominated our lives since the mid-2000s，” Caulfield says. But it means people are either posting content or consuming it. And， Caulfield says， the internet as it stands rewards shock value and dumbing things down13. “By engaging in digital gardening， you are constantly finding new connections， more depth and nuance，” he says. “What you write about is not a fossilized bit of commentary for a blog post. When you learn more， you add to it. Its less about shock and rage; its more connective.” In an age of doom-scrolling14 and Zoom fatigue， some digital-garden enthusiasts say the internet they live in is， as Caulfield puts it， “optimistically hopeful.”? ■

薩拉·加納有種感覺縈繞心頭，總覺得哪里不太對。

作為軟件工程師，她曾著手改進(jìn)自己的個(gè)人網(wǎng)站，但總感覺網(wǎng)站不像她自己的風(fēng)格。當(dāng)然，那上面有必要的鏈接，能找到她在社交媒體上的主頁和與她專業(yè)工作相關(guān)的網(wǎng)頁，但并沒有反映出她的個(gè)性。她對博物館著迷，于是創(chuàng)建了一個(gè)博物館主題網(wǎng)頁。網(wǎng)頁仍在建設(shè)中，而她已能構(gòu)想出它的樣子，里面包含著她對自己鐘愛的博物館的思考，記錄著它們曾喚起的情感，還邀請別人講講自己最喜歡的博物館及參觀心得。

“我想要令人驚艷的感覺，一種跨越時(shí)間的連接?！彼f道。

歡迎來到“數(shù)字花園”的世界。這些對博客的創(chuàng)意重塑，已經(jīng)悄然席卷了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)里那些滿是書呆子氣的角落。越來越多的人利用后端代碼工具來創(chuàng)建網(wǎng)站，使其視覺效果更像拼貼畫、更有文藝范兒，有聚友網(wǎng)和湯博樂的風(fēng)格，比臉書和推特更富于變化、不拘一格。數(shù)字花園探索的主題包羅萬象，會(huì)時(shí)常調(diào)整和變換，以顯示成長變化和學(xué)習(xí)過程，在懷有小眾興趣的人當(dāng)中尤其如此。借著它們，人們正在創(chuàng)造的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)，不再是一個(gè)關(guān)于連通和反饋的網(wǎng)絡(luò)，而是一個(gè)個(gè)私享的清靜空間。

“每人都有自己的小癖好”

這場運(yùn)動(dòng)可能現(xiàn)在風(fēng)頭正勁，但它的起源要追溯到1998年，當(dāng)時(shí)馬克·伯恩斯坦提出了“超文本花園”的概念，主張?jiān)诨ヂ?lián)網(wǎng)上開辟空間，讓人們探索未知?！盎▓@……介于農(nóng)場和荒野之間?！彼麑懙溃盎▓@是為了愉悅感官的農(nóng)場，重在愉悅不在收成。”（他的數(shù)字花園里有一則對舊金山灣區(qū)奶油培根意面的近期評(píng)論和他對最喜歡的一些散文寫的讀后感。）

新派數(shù)字花園或以一篇篇內(nèi)省式的日志討論書籍和電影;或提供哲學(xué)思想和政治見地。有些本身就是藝術(shù)作品，堪稱視覺杰作，自會(huì)吸引觀看者去探索;還有一些偏簡單實(shí)用，即利用谷歌文檔或Wordpress模板來分享非常私人的作品清單。特別是書迷們，他們已經(jīng)欣然接受這一概念，分享他們集創(chuàng)意與美觀于一身的數(shù)字書架，展示自己的閱讀旅程。

但是，在這一總括名稱之下，各個(gè)數(shù)字花園并不循規(guī)蹈矩。它們不是簡稱為博客的“網(wǎng)絡(luò)日志”——即帶有時(shí)間標(biāo)記的思想記錄。它們也不是社交媒體平臺(tái)——會(huì)有交往，但通常是通過鏈接到其他數(shù)字花園或在紅迪網(wǎng)和Telegram這樣的論壇上交流代碼來實(shí)現(xiàn)的。

湯姆·克里奇洛是一位咨詢師，耕耘數(shù)字花園多年，他闡明了老式博客和數(shù)字園藝之間的主要區(qū)別：“寫博客是在和一大群人說話。”他說，“從事數(shù)字園藝，則是與自己對話。隨著時(shí)間推移，你可以專注于自己想慢慢培育的東西。”

二者的共同之處在于，隨時(shí)都可以編輯，以體現(xiàn)演進(jìn)和變化歷程。這種理念類似于編輯維基百科的條目，但數(shù)字花園不執(zhí)著于對某一主題的最佳定義。華盛頓州立大學(xué)的數(shù)字素養(yǎng)專家邁克·考爾菲爾德表示，作為一種更溫吞、更稚拙的探索互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的方式，它們樂在不必充當(dāng)最權(quán)威的信息源，而只是一種信息源而已。

事實(shí)上，數(shù)字花園的全部意義在于它們可以成長和改變，并且允許同一主題下存在不同網(wǎng)頁。設(shè)計(jì)師瑪吉·艾普爾頓表示：“這種方式更多是讓公眾共同學(xué)習(xí)，而不是迭代學(xué)習(xí)?！币园諣栴D自己的數(shù)字花園為例，里面包括對植物肉的看法，一些書評(píng)，還有關(guān)于Javascript的雜談。它是“開放的集合，匯聚了筆記、資源、草圖和我的一些探索，這些都是我正在花園里培育的東西”，她的數(shù)字花園簡介如是說，“有些筆記尚是‘幼苗，有些開始發(fā)芽，還有一些已長大，成為‘常青植物?！?/p>

人類學(xué)家出身的艾普爾頓說，數(shù)字花園吸引她的原因在于其深度?！斑@些內(nèi)容不在推特上，也絕不會(huì)被刪除?！彼f道，“每個(gè)人都發(fā)展著自己不同尋常的小癖好，不受拘束?！?/p>

我所接觸到的一些人也贊同這種提倡創(chuàng)造力和個(gè)性精神的觀念。有些人認(rèn)為，數(shù)字花園是對我們不喜歡又不得不習(xí)慣的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)模式的一種抵制，那種模式下，病毒式的傳播司空見慣，變化被看不起，各個(gè)網(wǎng)站千篇一律。在臉書和推特的個(gè)人資料中，照片和帖子有固定的存放位置，但數(shù)字花園的愛好者拒絕那些固定的設(shè)計(jì)元素。探索的時(shí)空感很重要。

“自2005年左右，流量已經(jīng)主導(dǎo)了我們的生活。”考爾菲爾德說。但是，這意味著人們要么在發(fā)布內(nèi)容，要么在消費(fèi)內(nèi)容?？紶柗茽柕陆又f，就目前來看，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)會(huì)犒賞有爆點(diǎn)的內(nèi)容，崇尚簡單通俗?！巴ㄟ^從事數(shù)字園藝，你會(huì)不斷找到新的朋友，對事物獲得更深的認(rèn)識(shí)并發(fā)現(xiàn)其微妙之處?！彼f，“你不是在撰寫陳腐僵化的碎片式評(píng)論性博文。隨著你的認(rèn)識(shí)加深，你會(huì)對它進(jìn)行補(bǔ)充。這種模式不太注重轟動(dòng)效應(yīng)，更關(guān)注互聯(lián)互通?！痹谶@樣一個(gè)陰暗刷屏、對網(wǎng)絡(luò)會(huì)議感到疲勞的時(shí)代，一些熱衷數(shù)字花園的人卻說，他們所處的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)，如考爾菲爾德所言，“洋溢著樂觀與希望”。? ?□

1 one-size-fits-all（意圖）各方面都顧及的;通用的。

2 take sb/sth by storm在（某處）大獲成功;完全征服（一群人）。? 3 collage拼貼畫，指在平面空間或者浮雕中，運(yùn)用不同的材料進(jìn)行構(gòu)思、排列、粘貼的一種繪畫表現(xiàn)形式。1912年，畢加索創(chuàng)作出了第一件較為完整的拼貼畫《藤椅上的靜物》（Still Life with Chair Caning）。他在畫布上黏貼了一個(gè)藤編，用實(shí)際的藤編取代直接在油畫布上畫出的藤編圖案。后來，拼貼畫成為流行藝術(shù)的一種重要形式，其超越現(xiàn)實(shí)的重組和敘述手法被廣泛應(yīng)用于現(xiàn)代平面設(shè)計(jì)中。? 4 vein風(fēng)格;情緒。? 5 wade into sth大膽涉足;毅然從事。

6一款跨平臺(tái)的即時(shí)通信軟件。用戶可以相互交換加密與自毀消息（類似于“閱后即焚”），發(fā)送照片、影片等所有類型的文件。

7 revel in sth陶醉于;沉湎于。? 8 digital literacy數(shù)字素養(yǎng)，是指利用數(shù)字技術(shù)確定、組織、認(rèn)識(shí)、評(píng)價(jià)和分析信息的能力。? 9 plant-based meat植物肉，人造肉的一種，一般是以植物蛋白作為原料，輔之以一些配料，利用食品加工技術(shù)，做出跟真肉有類似口感、風(fēng)味和香氣的產(chǎn)品。

10 backlash（社會(huì)或政治方面的）強(qiáng)烈反響;強(qiáng)烈反對。? 11 go viral（視頻、圖像、新聞報(bào)道等）通過互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上的社交網(wǎng)站、電子郵件或其他媒體迅速傳播和廣泛擴(kuò)散。? 12 one-dimensional乏味的，單調(diào)的。

13 dumb sth down（尤指為了更加普及而）使……簡化，將……通俗化。? 14 doom-scrolling指人們在智能手機(jī)應(yīng)用、社交媒體或網(wǎng)頁上不斷滾動(dòng)瀏覽負(fù)面消息。