Filterworld

From New Yorker staff writer and author of The Longing for Less Kyle Chayka comes a timely history and investigation of a world ruled by algorithms, which determine the shape of culture itself.From coffee shops to city grids to TikTok feeds and Netflix homepages the world round, algorithmic recommendations dictate 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. Filterworld traces this creeping, machine-guided curation that influences not just what culture we consume, but what culture is produced. And it finds answers to the most urgent questions: What happens when shareability supersedes innovation? What does it mean to make a choice when the options have been so carefully arranged for us? Is personal freedom possible on the Internet?

'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.', '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.', '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.', '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.'

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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