It’s been a few weeks since I finished ‘Filterworld’ by Kyle Chayka, and letting it sit and digest has been more beneficial than expected. My initial reactions were confusion, indignation, and disappointment. The subject matter, though sound, felt obvious. It didn’t help that the writing was dry and the anecdotes dull, I’ve come to understand that my initial reactions were, in part, due to my feelings and experiences with social media already being close to what the author was writing on. I am already making an effort to separate from the machinations of the all-knowing algorithm, so the message felt simplistic and obvious. This is not, as I’ve come to understand, a typical experience. Keeping this in mind, I’ve reviewed my notes and initial thoughts after finishing the book, so this write-up sits at a comfortable midpoint between these opinions.
The core of Chayka’s ‘Filterworld’ orbits the idea the way technology is influencing the world is flattening and homogenising taste and culture as a whole. For most of us, there exists an infinite feed of ‘content’ where there was once limitations. We’re now filling our spare moments scrolling on digital slot machines that live in our pockets. The ubiquitous and all-knowing algorithm serves up an endless buffet to us – it decides what we’ll enjoy, constantly honing in and refining, flattening our taste more and more at every step.
Our world, our culture, is constantly changing and fluctuating at a breakneck speed. At this time it’s unclear if this is a positive, I fear it is not. That could be my personal millennial nostalgia at play, but other voices in my orbit have expressed similar sentiments.
Back to how the book hit. Honestly, ‘Filterworld’ makes clear that the art of personal curation and taste-making should still be pursued. I wrote a little on this in my previous post – ‘Filterworld’ absolutely spurred those thoughts. I want to explore some of my own taste-making and curation, as I mentioned, and in a way that has extended into other practices. I do feel that research in this space would benefit me, and honestly I’m thankful that Chayka introduced these concepts to me. They’ve inspired this refinement of ideas, and are guiding me in further directions – my common placing practice for example.
The biggest flaw in the book, considering fully all the positives above, is absolutely the the length. This book does not need to be an entire book, a series of mid-length blog posts (or even a decently condensed op-ed) would’ve sufficed. It feels like a good quarter of the text is decent, the rest is repetitive, bordering on filler.
I don’t know if I’d recommend this book. Perhaps it would make a good primer if it is your first foray into critique of social media and internet culture. This is an okay introduction, but if you are at any level aware, you’ll likely have a similar perspective to my own. I wanted to enjoy this, I really do agree with the message in it, its the delivery I struggle with. I would say this is a book to borrow or pick up second hand, not to buy new. I’ve donated my copy to the local leave-a-book, it’s certainly not something I’ll keep on my shelf.
Leave a Reply