In Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything turned out to be 42, after a computer spent 7.5 million years working it out.*
I can't help being reminded of that when reading all the hoo-ha lately about Klout messing with its algorithm, to the disgruntlement of Klout-ers worldwide.
The #kloutpout is all about scores being adjusted downwards, cries of bias in favour of iphone users and accusations of social media snobbery (it's not what you do on the social web that counts, they're saying, but who you mix with...)
It's hard not to be sucked into the competitiveness of 'scoring', or any kind of system that allows you to compare yourself favourably to others, but let's not get carried away with the reduction of human behaviour, relationships and interraction to a number. Klout needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, surely.
*Although the answer to the 'ultimate question' was 42, the question remained unknown!
Image: http://sprained-spain.tumblr.com/
