Whenever you're on Twitter (by the way, if you're on the Twitter, look up @LordFrakula. That's me, and I say cool stuff), do you ever click on the trending topics? Just to see what people around the world are Tweeting about, or perhaps you're just curious why a certain topic is trending and what exactly it means? And I'm sure that you've seen several trending topics from foreign languages, or perhaps clicked on a trending topic of your native/preferred language and came across a bunch of Tweets in other languages come up.
To be honest, I find it kind of annoying. Now, I have absolutely no problems with a guy next to me speaking Italian, or the lady who Tweets about the New York Yankees in Spanish. I have no problems with any of the other languages. I respect other language and encourage people to learn new languages. It opens a variety of doors, and even affects how they communicate in their native language. It affects how they learn and think, trust me it's a good thing.
However, with the internet, it isn't always so good. As global as the internet is, it's always easier for the average user if it's a little more... local, more personal. Such as Google, a perfect example. I was doing a search on John Clay, the running back for the Wisconsin Badgers. Without even completing my search entry, Google suggested that I was looking for John Clay before I could finish typing. Google also understood that I had several other search entries such as "Wisconsin Badgers Football Schedule"; "Wisconsin Badgers Football Roster"; and the names of several athletes on the team. Google knew I was a fan of the Wisconsin Badgers, and made a safe assumption that, perhaps I was looking for information on John Clay. Well, yes, Google, I was.
I can type in the name of a business, and Google will give me first the local results, and then the national results, and perhaps if at all the international results. I can type in "Record Store" and instantly- a map of record stores in my town and nearby. Google knows. Google is smart. I commend Google for making local, and personalized results a priority.
Now, back to Twitter. Twitter is rather imprecise. I do believe that Google does have language filters- you can choose to find your results in anything from Spanish to Arabic and I think Google may even translate the pages for you, but I'm not entirely sure about that. Twitter, as far as I know, has no language filters. If I click on trending topic "Prius Goes Plural" for example, I will see a bunch of spam Tweets, a bunch of Tweets in my preferred language on the topic, and a bunch of other random Tweets in other languages that I don't really care for.
With Twitter, would it really be too much to include some sort of filters? My suggestion? When signing up for Twitter, perhaps they could ask you to choose a preferred language, in which you will be Tweeting. Let's say, maybe I live in the United States, but it's easier for me to type in Spanish. Let's say I'm more proficient with Spanish, and a majority of my Tweets are going to be in Spanish. Well, when I search for Tweets, I will only see results that are in Spanish, and likewise, when other people are looking for other users with similar interests, they will see my Spanish Tweets. It will waste time spent looking for Spanish Tweets through all the Chinese/English/French/Italian whatever language Tweets.
Perhaps that's too much to ask- or maybe it's just more complex than need be. What if there was some sort of program (which I'm very certain there is) that can identify your preferred language based upon your Tweets? What if there was some sort of program that could filter out all those Tweets that are outside your preferred language? Is that not possible? Because to be honest, if I type Tom Cruise, I don't wanna read Spanish. I don't understand Spanish.
Again, I emphasize that I'm all for a multi-cultured society. In real life, it works great. It works great to have multiple languages because, generally speaking, you're not going to encounter many languages you're not familiar with if you stay in a familiar place with familiar people. However, the internet doesn't have borders, boundaries or anything of the sort. There really are no communities, there's no exclusivity and distance is meaningless. But perhaps the internet, and perhaps Twitter, should be built a little more personally. Perhaps Twitter should give me results in a language I prefer, be it Russian or Chinese or Swahili or English or whatever.
I don't know... Just a suggestion, thought I'd throw it out there to whoever is willing to catch it. If I had it my way, the Official Internet Language would be whatever you choose, and whatever makes accessing the information you need the easiest for each user.
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