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A growing number of people are creating individualized， creative sites that eschew the one-size-fits-all1 look and feel of social media.越來越多的人正在创建个性化、有创意的网站，摒弃社交媒体那种万能套用的界面风格。
Sara Garner had a nagging feeling something wasn’t quite right.
A software engineer， she was revamping her personal site， but it just didn’t feel like her. Sure， it had the requisite links to her social media and her professional work， but it didn’t really reflect her personality. So she created a page focused on museums， which she is obsessed with. It’s 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 they’ve learned.
“I’m 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 don’t follow rules. They’re not blogs， short for “weblogs，” a term that suggests a time-stamped record of thought. They’re not a social-media platform—connections are made， but often it’s 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， you’re talking to a large audience，” he says. “With digital gardening， you’re 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. “It’s less about iterative learning and more about public learning，” says Maggie Appleton， a designer. Appleton’s 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 I’m 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 it’s never deleted，” she says. “Everyone does their own weird thing. The sky’s 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 we’ve 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. It’s less about shock and rage; it’s 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.” ■ 萨拉·加纳有种感觉萦绕心头，总觉得哪里不太对。
作为软件工程师，她曾着手改进自己的个人网站，但总感觉网站不像她自己的风格。当然，那上面有必要的链接，能找到她在社交媒体上的主页和与她专业工作相关的网页，但并没有反映出她的个性。她对博物馆着迷，于是创建了一个博物馆主题网页。网页仍在建设中，而她已能构想出它的样子，里面包含着她对自己钟爱的博物馆的思考，记录着它们曾唤起的情感，还邀请别人讲讲自己最喜欢的博物馆及参观心得。
“我想要令人惊艳的感觉，一种跨越时间的连接。”她说道。
欢迎来到“数字花园”的世界。这些对博客的创意重塑，已经悄然席卷了互联网里那些满是书呆子气的角落。越来越多的人利用后端代码工具来创建网站，使其视觉效果更像拼贴画、更有文艺范儿，有聚友网和汤博乐的风格，比脸书和推特更富于变化、不拘一格。数字花园探索的主题包罗万象，会时常调整和变换，以显示成长变化和学习过程，在怀有小众兴趣的人当中尤其如此。借着它们，人们正在创造的互聯网，不再是一个关于连通和反馈的网络，而是一个个私享的清静空间。
“每人都有自己的小癖好”
这场运动可能现在风头正劲，但它的起源要追溯到1998年，当时马克·伯恩斯坦提出了“超文本花园”的概念，主张在互联网上开辟空间，让人们探索未知。“花园……介于农场和荒野之间。”他写道，“花园是为了愉悦感官的农场，重在愉悦不在收成。”（他的数字花园里有一则对旧金山湾区奶油培根意面的近期评论和他对最喜欢的一些散文写的读后感。）
新派数字花园或以一篇篇内省式的日志讨论书籍和电影;或提供哲学思想和政治见地。有些本身就是艺术作品，堪称视觉杰作，自会吸引观看者去探索;还有一些偏简单实用，即利用谷歌文档或Wordpress模板来分享非常私人的作品清单。特别是书迷们，他们已经欣然接受这一概念，分享他们集创意与美观于一身的数字书架，展示自己的阅读旅程。
但是，在这一总括名称之下，各个数字花园并不循规蹈矩。它们不是简称为博客的“网络日志”——即带有时间标记的思想记录。它们也不是社交媒体平台——会有交往，但通常是通过链接到其他数字花园或在红迪网和Telegram这样的论坛上交流代码来实现的。
汤姆·克里奇洛是一位咨询师，耕耘数字花园多年，他阐明了老式博客和数字园艺之间的主要区别：“写博客是在和一大群人说话。”他说，“从事数字园艺，则是与自己对话。随着时间推移，你可以专注于自己想慢慢培育的东西。”
二者的共同之处在于，随时都可以编辑，以体现演进和变化历程。这种理念类似于编辑维基百科的条目，但数字花园不执着于对某一主题的最佳定义。华盛顿州立大学的数字素养专家迈克·考尔菲尔德表示，作为一种更温吞、更稚拙的探索互联网的方式，它们乐在不必充当最权威的信息源，而只是一种信息源而已。
事实上，数字花园的全部意义在于它们可以成长和改变，并且允许同一主题下存在不同网页。设计师玛吉·艾普尔顿表示：“这种方式更多是让公众共同学习，而不是迭代学习。”以艾普尔顿自己的数字花园为例，里面包括对植物肉的看法，一些书评，还有关于Javascript的杂谈。它是“开放的集合，汇聚了笔记、资源、草图和我的一些探索，这些都是我正在花园里培育的东西”，她的数字花园简介如是说，“有些笔记尚是‘幼苗’，有些开始发芽，还有一些已长大，成为‘常青植物’。”
人类学家出身的艾普尔顿说，数字花园吸引她的原因在于其深度。“这些内容不在推特上，也绝不会被删除。”她说道，“每个人都发展着自己不同寻常的小癖好，不受拘束。”
我所接触到的一些人也赞同这种提倡创造力和个性精神的观念。有些人认为，数字花园是对我们不喜欢又不得不习惯的互联网模式的一种抵制，那种模式下，病毒式的传播司空见惯，变化被看不起，各个网站千篇一律。在脸书和推特的个人资料中，照片和帖子有固定的存放位置，但数字花园的爱好者拒绝那些固定的设计元素。探索的时空感很重要。
“自2005年左右，流量已经主导了我们的生活。”考尔菲尔德说。但是，这意味着人们要么在发布内容，要么在消费内容。考尔菲尔德接着说，就目前来看，互联网会犒赏有爆点的内容，崇尚简单通俗。“通过从事数字园艺，你会不断找到新的朋友，对事物获得更深的认识并发现其微妙之处。”他说，“你不是在撰写陈腐僵化的碎片式评论性博文。随着你的认识加深，你会对它进行补充。这种模式不太注重轰动效应，更关注互联互通。”在这样一个阴暗刷屏、对网络会议感到疲劳的时代，一些热衷数字花园的人却说，他们所处的互联网，如考尔菲尔德所言，“洋溢着乐观与希望”。 □
1 one-size-fits-all（意图）各方面都顾及的;通用的。
2 take sb/sth by storm在（某处）大获成功;完全征服（一群人）。 3 collage拼贴画，指在平面空间或者浮雕中，运用不同的材料进行构思、排列、粘贴的一种绘画表现形式。1912年，毕加索创作出了第一件较为完整的拼贴画《藤椅上的静物》（Still Life with Chair Caning）。他在画布上黏贴了一个藤编，用实际的藤编取代直接在油画布上画出的藤编图案。后来，拼贴画成为流行艺术的一种重要形式，其超越现实的重组和叙述手法被广泛应用于现代平面设计中。 4 vein风格;情绪。 5 wade into sth大胆涉足;毅然从事。
6一款跨平台的即时通信软件。用户可以相互交换加密与自毁消息（类似于“阅后即焚”），发送照片、影片等所有类型的文件。
7 revel in sth陶醉于;沉湎于。 8 digital literacy数字素养，是指利用数字技术确定、组织、认识、评价和分析信息的能力。 9 plant-based meat植物肉，人造肉的一种，一般是以植物蛋白作为原料，辅之以一些配料，利用食品加工技术，做出跟真肉有类似口感、风味和香气的产品。
10 backlash（社会或政治方面的）强烈反响;强烈反对。 11 go viral（视频、图像、新闻报道等）通过互联网上的社交网站、电子邮件或其他媒体迅速传播和广泛扩散。 12 one-dimensional乏味的，单调的。
13 dumb sth down（尤指为了更加普及而）使……简化，将……通俗化。 14 doom-scrolling指人们在智能手机应用、社交媒体或网页上不断滚动浏览负面消息。
Sara Garner had a nagging feeling something wasn’t quite right.
A software engineer， she was revamping her personal site， but it just didn’t feel like her. Sure， it had the requisite links to her social media and her professional work， but it didn’t really reflect her personality. So she created a page focused on museums， which she is obsessed with. It’s 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 they’ve learned.
“I’m 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 don’t follow rules. They’re not blogs， short for “weblogs，” a term that suggests a time-stamped record of thought. They’re not a social-media platform—connections are made， but often it’s 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， you’re talking to a large audience，” he says. “With digital gardening， you’re 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. “It’s less about iterative learning and more about public learning，” says Maggie Appleton， a designer. Appleton’s 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 I’m 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 it’s never deleted，” she says. “Everyone does their own weird thing. The sky’s 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 we’ve 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. It’s less about shock and rage; it’s 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.” ■ 萨拉·加纳有种感觉萦绕心头，总觉得哪里不太对。
作为软件工程师，她曾着手改进自己的个人网站，但总感觉网站不像她自己的风格。当然，那上面有必要的链接，能找到她在社交媒体上的主页和与她专业工作相关的网页，但并没有反映出她的个性。她对博物馆着迷，于是创建了一个博物馆主题网页。网页仍在建设中，而她已能构想出它的样子，里面包含着她对自己钟爱的博物馆的思考，记录着它们曾唤起的情感，还邀请别人讲讲自己最喜欢的博物馆及参观心得。
“我想要令人惊艳的感觉，一种跨越时间的连接。”她说道。
欢迎来到“数字花园”的世界。这些对博客的创意重塑，已经悄然席卷了互联网里那些满是书呆子气的角落。越来越多的人利用后端代码工具来创建网站，使其视觉效果更像拼贴画、更有文艺范儿，有聚友网和汤博乐的风格，比脸书和推特更富于变化、不拘一格。数字花园探索的主题包罗万象，会时常调整和变换，以显示成长变化和学习过程，在怀有小众兴趣的人当中尤其如此。借着它们，人们正在创造的互聯网，不再是一个关于连通和反馈的网络，而是一个个私享的清静空间。
“每人都有自己的小癖好”
这场运动可能现在风头正劲，但它的起源要追溯到1998年，当时马克·伯恩斯坦提出了“超文本花园”的概念，主张在互联网上开辟空间，让人们探索未知。“花园……介于农场和荒野之间。”他写道，“花园是为了愉悦感官的农场，重在愉悦不在收成。”（他的数字花园里有一则对旧金山湾区奶油培根意面的近期评论和他对最喜欢的一些散文写的读后感。）
新派数字花园或以一篇篇内省式的日志讨论书籍和电影;或提供哲学思想和政治见地。有些本身就是艺术作品，堪称视觉杰作，自会吸引观看者去探索;还有一些偏简单实用，即利用谷歌文档或Wordpress模板来分享非常私人的作品清单。特别是书迷们，他们已经欣然接受这一概念，分享他们集创意与美观于一身的数字书架，展示自己的阅读旅程。
但是，在这一总括名称之下，各个数字花园并不循规蹈矩。它们不是简称为博客的“网络日志”——即带有时间标记的思想记录。它们也不是社交媒体平台——会有交往，但通常是通过链接到其他数字花园或在红迪网和Telegram这样的论坛上交流代码来实现的。
汤姆·克里奇洛是一位咨询师，耕耘数字花园多年，他阐明了老式博客和数字园艺之间的主要区别：“写博客是在和一大群人说话。”他说，“从事数字园艺，则是与自己对话。随着时间推移，你可以专注于自己想慢慢培育的东西。”
二者的共同之处在于，随时都可以编辑，以体现演进和变化历程。这种理念类似于编辑维基百科的条目，但数字花园不执着于对某一主题的最佳定义。华盛顿州立大学的数字素养专家迈克·考尔菲尔德表示，作为一种更温吞、更稚拙的探索互联网的方式，它们乐在不必充当最权威的信息源，而只是一种信息源而已。
事实上，数字花园的全部意义在于它们可以成长和改变，并且允许同一主题下存在不同网页。设计师玛吉·艾普尔顿表示：“这种方式更多是让公众共同学习，而不是迭代学习。”以艾普尔顿自己的数字花园为例，里面包括对植物肉的看法，一些书评，还有关于Javascript的杂谈。它是“开放的集合，汇聚了笔记、资源、草图和我的一些探索，这些都是我正在花园里培育的东西”，她的数字花园简介如是说，“有些笔记尚是‘幼苗’，有些开始发芽，还有一些已长大，成为‘常青植物’。”
人类学家出身的艾普尔顿说，数字花园吸引她的原因在于其深度。“这些内容不在推特上，也绝不会被删除。”她说道，“每个人都发展着自己不同寻常的小癖好，不受拘束。”
我所接触到的一些人也赞同这种提倡创造力和个性精神的观念。有些人认为，数字花园是对我们不喜欢又不得不习惯的互联网模式的一种抵制，那种模式下，病毒式的传播司空见惯，变化被看不起，各个网站千篇一律。在脸书和推特的个人资料中，照片和帖子有固定的存放位置，但数字花园的爱好者拒绝那些固定的设计元素。探索的时空感很重要。
“自2005年左右，流量已经主导了我们的生活。”考尔菲尔德说。但是，这意味着人们要么在发布内容，要么在消费内容。考尔菲尔德接着说，就目前来看，互联网会犒赏有爆点的内容，崇尚简单通俗。“通过从事数字园艺，你会不断找到新的朋友，对事物获得更深的认识并发现其微妙之处。”他说，“你不是在撰写陈腐僵化的碎片式评论性博文。随着你的认识加深，你会对它进行补充。这种模式不太注重轰动效应，更关注互联互通。”在这样一个阴暗刷屏、对网络会议感到疲劳的时代，一些热衷数字花园的人却说，他们所处的互联网，如考尔菲尔德所言，“洋溢着乐观与希望”。 □
1 one-size-fits-all（意图）各方面都顾及的;通用的。
2 take sb/sth by storm在（某处）大获成功;完全征服（一群人）。 3 collage拼贴画，指在平面空间或者浮雕中，运用不同的材料进行构思、排列、粘贴的一种绘画表现形式。1912年，毕加索创作出了第一件较为完整的拼贴画《藤椅上的静物》（Still Life with Chair Caning）。他在画布上黏贴了一个藤编，用实际的藤编取代直接在油画布上画出的藤编图案。后来，拼贴画成为流行艺术的一种重要形式，其超越现实的重组和叙述手法被广泛应用于现代平面设计中。 4 vein风格;情绪。 5 wade into sth大胆涉足;毅然从事。
6一款跨平台的即时通信软件。用户可以相互交换加密与自毁消息（类似于“阅后即焚”），发送照片、影片等所有类型的文件。
7 revel in sth陶醉于;沉湎于。 8 digital literacy数字素养，是指利用数字技术确定、组织、认识、评价和分析信息的能力。 9 plant-based meat植物肉，人造肉的一种，一般是以植物蛋白作为原料，辅之以一些配料，利用食品加工技术，做出跟真肉有类似口感、风味和香气的产品。
10 backlash（社会或政治方面的）强烈反响;强烈反对。 11 go viral（视频、图像、新闻报道等）通过互联网上的社交网站、电子邮件或其他媒体迅速传播和广泛扩散。 12 one-dimensional乏味的，单调的。
13 dumb sth down（尤指为了更加普及而）使……简化，将……通俗化。 14 doom-scrolling指人们在智能手机应用、社交媒体或网页上不断滚动浏览负面消息。