One of Esquire 's 25 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024 “[ Filterworld ] brings stark clarity to
the formulas that guide our behaviors online…it does the near impossible: It makes algorithms
those dull formulas of inputs and outputs fascinating.” — The Atlantic “A
thought-provoking account of how Big Tech and its algorithms have rewired interests degraded
language and shaped users to ‘seek out culture that embraces nothingness.’” — The New York
Times Book Review “Chilling...Evocative...Incisive.” — The Wall Street Journal New Yorker
staff writer and author of The Longing for Less Kyle Chayka delivers a timely history and
investigation of a world ruled by algorithms which determine the shape of culture itself.
From trendy restaurants to city grids to TikTok and Netflix feeds the world round algorithmic
recommendations dictate our experiences and choices. The algorithm is present in the familiar
neon signs and exposed brick of Internet cafes be it in Nairobi or Portland and the skeletal
modern furniture of Airbnbs in cities big and small. Over the last decade this network of
mathematically determined decisions has taken over almost unnoticed—informing the songs we
listen to the friends with whom we stay in touch—as we’ve grown increasingly accustomed to our
insipid new normal. This ever-tightening web woven by algorithms is called “Filterworld.” Kyle
Chayka shows us how online and offline spaces alike have been engineered for seamless
consumption becoming a source of pervasive anxiety in the process. Users of technology have
been forced to contend with data-driven equations that try to anticipate their desires—and
often get them wrong. What results is a state of docility that allows tech companies to curtail
human experiences—human lives—for profit. But to have our tastes behaviors and emotions
governed by computers while convenient does nothing short of call the very notion of free
will into question. In Filterworld Chayka traces this creeping machine-guided curation as
it infiltrates the furthest reaches of our digital physical and psychological spaces. With
algorithms increasingly influencing not just what culture we consume but what culture is
produced urgent questions arise: What happens when shareability supersedes messiness
innovation and creativity—the qualities that make us human? 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? To the last question Filterworld argues yes—but to escape Filterworld and even
transcend it we must first understand it.
