Reviews - Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture

754 reviews for:

Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture

structured in a totally unintuitive way that made it repetitive and frustrating... but helped me clearly articulate some goals and motivation re: disengaging from algorithmic recommendation, moving towards considered curation. chayka's biggest and coolest impact imo is dirt.xyz and study hall, not his actual writing.

alyson_16's review against another edition

2.0

Like most of the reviews have already indicated, the book began with quite a lot of promise. However, as it progressed it felt like it was an opportunity for the author to exert his niche cultural knowledge and make assumptions that everyone chooses coffee shops based on their aesthetic.

I think the concept would have been better suited to an essay than a book. It became repetitive, confused and there were several tangents that made me question how they related to the topic at hand. I struggled to finish it.

simranv's review against another edition

4.0

As a chronically online person who feels like her taste has been indelibly shaped by algorithmic culture, this book (ironically enough) had “for you” written all over it.

This book could’ve been more concise (and could’ve done with fewer rambles about coffee shop aesthetics) but all in all, he makes some strong points. I enjoyed the chapter on human curation – while I don’t think he does a spectacular job at accounting for the systemic biases that inform human curation, I felt completely in agreement about its importance and liked the way he put forth his points.

I spent so many years being a believer in the Feeds, captivated by the fact that they had a certain idea of me and confident in their ability to guide me to the media I would most enjoy. However, I believe there was an inflection point – around when my taste had been primarily algorithmically shaped for a few years – where I began to feel they were boxing me in. They had grown so reflexive; they recommended me what to watch based on what I had watched because they recommended me what to watch based on what I had watched, ad infinitum.