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Filterworld and its slick sameness can induce a breathtaking, near-debilitating sense of anxiety. The sameness feels inescapable, alienating even as it is marketed as desirable.
Kyle Chayka • Filterworld
In Filterworld, it becomes increasingly difficult to trust yourself or know who “you” are in the perceptions of…
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Kyle Chayka • Filterworld
It’s been endlessly argued that algorithms influence too much of what we watch, listen to, read, and even think. Personal taste erodes while decision-making is outsourced to the platform.
Beware the Curators
Through algorithmic digital platforms like Instagram, Yelp, and Foursquare, more people around the world are learning to enjoy and seek out similar products and experiences in their physical lives. Through their feeds, they are consuming similar kinds of digital content, no matter where they live, and so their preferences are shaped in that image.
... See moreKyle Chayka • Filterworld
The outcome of such algorithmic gatekeeping is the pervasive flattening that has been happening across culture. By flatness I mean homogenization but also a reduction into simplicity: the least ambiguous, least disruptive, and perhaps least meaningful pieces of culture are promoted the most. Flatness is the lowest common denominator, an averageness
... See moreKyle Chayka • Filterworld
Filterworld culture is ultimately homogenous, marked by a pervasive sense of sameness even when its artifacts aren’t literally the same. It perpetuates itself to the point of boredom.
Kyle Chayka • Filterworld
What we gain with algorithmic feeds in terms of availability-having instant access to a broad range of material to be scanned at will —we lose in connoisseurship, which requires depth and intention. It's ultimately a form of deep appreciation, for what the artist has done as well as the capacities of our own tastes.
— Filterworld, pg. 238
It’s long past time that we realized these systems are not benefitting culture. Creators and consumers alike are pushed into preset formats that we may ultimately have no organic interest in. By giving in to algorithmic feeds, we are letting tech companies determine our tastes.