Does your Facebook stream seem to mostly be reflecting your own opinions back to you from your friends? If so, you’ve seen the Echo Chamber in action. If you’re using Zolt as your news app, with an easy click its newest feature enables you to block Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Kim Kardashian and select other topics that might rub you the wrong way.
Zolt is a news summarizer app that collects the stories you’re most interested in, distilling them down to 60 words or less. Perfect for people who want to stay on the pulse, but don’t particularly care to get bogged down in the details. Today, the company announces that on its iOS app, customers will be able to filter out the news that sets your blood a-boil.
“By giving you the power to #Shush individuals or topics which annoy you,” the company pitches, “Whether it’s Trump offending someone (again), Hillary changing her opinion like the wind or Kim posting topless pictures of herself on Instagram.”
I’m not sure whether #Shush is a PR stunt (if so, it’s working; I’m writing this) or a genuinely useful feature. Personally, I never found it that arduous to scroll past stories I don’t give two hoots about.
“Bill Gates, who has arguably done more for the world through his technology and philanthropy than anyone before him has 29 million Twitter followers,” Zolt’s founder Rush Sadiwala says, suggesting that he is on a make-the-world-a-better-place agenda with the app’s newest feature. “Kim Kardashian who has one sex tape and a reality TV show to her name has 46 million twitter followers. Humanity is better than this.”