Gadgets and gizmos

During the last series of the X-Factor social networks and in particular Facebook became the prime place to become an arm chair judge, a place venting anger or celebrating contestants’ successes. It is therefore little surprise that ITV are said to be discussing a system that will allow viewers to vote via the worlds largest social networking site.

According to the Telegraph, a source who is part of the operation revealed “It makes perfect sense as The X Factor has one of the youngest, most media-savvy audiences of any show in the world.” And when you think about that makes a lot of sense so long as the system in place is more reliable than the phone system that caused so much scandal in 2010.

At the moment the only way viewers can vote is by using their phone with the eventual winner, Matt Cardle, receiving in excess of 15 million votes. Although this is a mighty achievement the voting power Facebook could bring dwarves this number. There were 25 million UK facebook users mid 2010 with many fans flocking to the site to air their frustrations over ‘rigged’ phone votes.

The Facebook system would likely run alongside the standard voting system, Simon Cowell hopes that a system could be in place for use on the US version of the X-Factor later this year.

Do you think Facebook voting is good or bad idea?