Twitter, Facebook, and Airtime censoring idiocy

http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/12/idiocracy/

I just read the above article this morning explaining how Twitter has now introduced something called tailored trends. The goal of this new feature is to showcase hashtags and trends based on the people you follow. Therefore if your hashtags are filled with #changebandnamestolesbian, you have no one to blame but yourself and your choice of friends. 

Facebook is doing something similar by recommending apps that your friends like and not necessarily what the mass population likes (how excited would you be to live in a world where “booger flick” is the number one grossing app?)

Lastly, there’s an application called Airtime that is similar to chat roulette but without all the nasty (anyone who has ever tried chat roulette knows exactly what I’m talking about). It built on facebook’s identity platform and has a one-strike-you’re-out policy that apparently works quite well! It’s what chat roulette always wanted to be.

That said — I’m intrigued by this idea and horrified at the same time. Sure, it’s extremely depressing to see developers creating fart games that end up as the number 1 paid app, but is this the beginning of the big boys censoring what the mass population likes? Is it OK to change what is shown purely because it’s considered “inappropriate” by Twitter and Facebook? I’m not sure.

My opinion is that as long as there is still an option to view the “most popular” even though it may not be on the front page anymore, then this is completely cool. Because I, too want to see a world full of intellectuals trying to improve our world, instead of a mass population of booger playing bipeds.

Let’s see how it pans out.