Overview

'The story told here is instrumental to your own' - Jared Lanier 'Timely, erudite, important' - Ayad Akhtar What happens when our cultural and artistic lives are dictated to us by an algorithm? What does it mean when shareability supersedes innovation? How can we make a choice when the options have been so carefully arranged for us? From coffee shops to city grids to TikTok feeds and Netflix homepages the world over, algorithmic recommendations prescribe our experiences. This network of mathematically determined choices - the 'Filterworld' - has taken over, almost unnoticed, as we've grown accustomed to an insipid new normal. But to have our tastes, behaviours, and emotions governed by computers calls the very notion of free will into question. Internationally recognized journalist and New Yorker staff writer Kyle Chayka journeys through this ever-tightening web woven by algorithms. He explores how online and offline spaces alike have been engineered for seamless consumption. How the lowest common denominator is promoted at the expense of the complex, diverse or challenging. How users of technology contend with data-driven equations that promise to anticipate their desires but often get them wrong. How the FIlterworld is determining the very shape of culture itself. Chayka skilfully and compellingly traces this creeping, machine-guided curation that influences not just what culture we consume, but what culture is produced. In doing so, he attempts to answer to the most urgent question currently facing us: is personal freedom ever again possible on the Internet? Filterworld is a fascinating history of the rise of the algorithm and an important investigation into where it could take us next - if we let it.

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9781788706971

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Reviews

"''Necessary reading for anyone who has wondered just how, in expanding our world, the internet has ended up emptying our experience of it. [...] Timely, erudite, important.'' - Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Homeland Elegies ''Kyle Chayka is a vital observer of how digital technology shapes our culture, and Filterworld will change how you think about the internet. In his invigorating new book, Chayka demonstrates how everything from movies to music, design, media, and travel is at the mercy of algorithms.'' - Ben Smith, author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral ''Filterworld is a vital interrogation of algorithmic technology and its unrelenting power in shaping both our online and offline experiences. Chayka deftly explains how today's social media ecosystem operates and, more importantly, reveals a way out of the ever-tightening grip of this stifling digital filtration. [...] Filterworld is required reading for anyone who uses the Internet.'' - Taylor Lorenz, author of Extremely Online... ''Filterworld skillfully interrogates how the giant project of measuring humanity using the internet turned into an unfortunate modification of humanity. The story told here is instrumental to your own, even if you do not realize it.'' - Jaron Lanier, author of Dawn of the New Everything and ""The Father of Virtual Reality"""

"'Necessary reading for anyone who has wondered just how, in expanding our world, the internet has ended up emptying our experience of it. [...] Timely, erudite, important.' -- Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Homeland Elegies 'Kyle Chayka is a vital observer of how digital technology shapes our culture, and Filterworld will change how you think about the internet. In his invigorating new book, Chayka demonstrates how everything from movies to music, design, media, and travel is at the mercy of algorithms.' -- Ben Smith, author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral 'Filterworld is a vital interrogation of algorithmic technology and its unrelenting power in shaping both our online and offline experiences. Chayka deftly explains how today's social media ecosystem operates and, more importantly, reveals a way out of the ever-tightening grip of this stifling digital filtration. [...] Filterworld is required reading for anyone who uses the Internet.' -- Taylor Lorenz, author of Extremely Online... 'Filterworld skillfully interrogates how the giant project of measuring humanity using the internet turned into an unfortunate modification of humanity. The story told here is instrumental to your own, even if you do not realize it.' -- Jaron Lanier, author of Dawn of the New Everything and The Father of Virtual Reality 'An essential book for anyone questioning if their phones are ""listening"" to them.' * i-D * 'The promise of the Internet is that it is boundless, full of original content and unique cultural connections. So why does everything look, sound and feel the same? Kyle Chayka's insightful and timely book explains how big tech's algorithms have homogenized our experiences for profit, and too often left us poorer for it.' -- James Griffiths, author of The Great Firewall of China and Speak Not 'Filterworld incisively diagnoses a problem that I've long felt but struggled to name and is the most convincing explanation I've encountered for why so many of our cultural products carry an uncanny whiff of familiarity. Amidst cheers for the death of the monoculture, Chayka offers a sharp and necessary counterpoint, demonstrating how mass culture, even as it diffuses into niche datastreams, trends toward a vacuous mean.' -- Meghan O’Gieblyn, author of God, Human, Animal, Machine"

"'Necessary reading for anyone who has wondered just how, in expanding our world, the internet has ended up emptying our experience of it. Chayka's wide-ranging anatomy of algorithmic curation-which, he argues, is increasingly the cultural substitute for human choice itself-makes a bracing case not only for creativity exercised beyond the confines of digital constriction, but also against the dehumanizing sameness algorithms have introduced into our societies and lives. Timely, erudite, important.' -- Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Homeland Elegies 'Kyle Chayka is a vital observer of how digital technology shapes our culture, and Filterworld will change how you think about the internet. In his invigorating new book, Chayka demonstrates how everything from movies to music, design, media, and travel is at the mercy of algorithms. From record labels to influencer marketing to the design of airports, cafes, and cities, nothing is safe from algorithmic forces.' -- Ben Smith, author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral 'Filterworld is a vital interrogation of algorithmic technology and its unrelenting power in shaping both our online and offline experiences. Chayka deftly explains how today's social media ecosystem operates and, more importantly, reveals a way out of the ever-tightening grip of this stifling digital filtration. From influencers to entrepreneurs and creators, all must contend with algorithmic recommendations; Filterworld is required reading for anyone who uses the Internet.' -- Taylor Lorenz, author of Extremely Online... 'Filterworld skillfully interrogates how the giant project of measuring humanity using the internet turned into an unfortunate modification of humanity. The story told here is instrumental to your own, even if you do not realize it.' -- Jaron Lanier, author of Dawn of the New Everything and ""The Father of Virtual Reality"""

"'Necessary reading for anyone who has wondered just how, in expanding our world, the internet has ended up emptying our experience of it. [...] Timely, erudite, important.' -- Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Homeland Elegies 'Kyle Chayka is a vital observer of how digital technology shapes our culture, and Filterworld will change how you think about the internet. In his invigorating new book, Chayka demonstrates how everything from movies to music, design, media, and travel is at the mercy of algorithms.' -- Ben Smith, author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral 'Filterworld is a vital interrogation of algorithmic technology and its unrelenting power in shaping both our online and offline experiences. Chayka deftly explains how today's social media ecosystem operates and, more importantly, reveals a way out of the ever-tightening grip of this stifling digital filtration. [...] Filterworld is required reading for anyone who uses the Internet.' -- Taylor Lorenz, author of Extremely Online... 'Filterworld skillfully interrogates how the giant project of measuring humanity using the internet turned into an unfortunate modification of humanity. The story told here is instrumental to your own, even if you do not realize it.' -- Jaron Lanier, author of Dawn of the New Everything and ""The Father of Virtual Reality"""

Author Information

Kyle Chayka is a contributing writer for The New Yorker covering technology and culture on the Internet. His work has also appeared in the New Republic, the New York Times Magazine, and Harper's, among other publications.

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