"But I'm a beta tester for Bromance!"

We've entered a world in which prominent venture capitalists encourage their children to tweet earlier and often in order to build up their personal brand online.

Betabeat is no stranger to this game. Having a great social strat and being active on the Facebook and Tumblr is key to getting more eyeballs on our stories, which is how we earn the big bucks.

But there is something troubling about a world in which people are judged on their social media score, as computed by firms like Klout.

"Your Facebook influence, as measured by Klout, will determine your access level to select brand pages on Facebook--and it could net you perks," is how Mashable begins one of their typically upbeat pressers for the new Audi campaign being run by the marketing startup Involver.

It won't be long before people starting hosting events on Facebook where a certain score on Klout is required before a user can nab an invite to the party.

Can't we all just trust our gut to tell us who is uncool and defer to good looks and wealth in the event of an emergency? We're losing a little something by turning elitism over to an algorithm.