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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
informative
fast-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Hit a reading slump (and honestly the perfect 2024 reading number), but I got the gist of it & it scares me :)
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This book is a sort of methodical unpacking of cultural curation in the “age of the algorithm”, through the lens and experiences of the author.
While I felt it lost momentum/belaboured the point in a few parts, I’m glad to have read it. It’s helped me recognize and be critical of the way I consume culture, especially how I discover and judge it. Chayka mostly does a good job of criticizing social media and technology companies without disparaging their users.
Big takeaway? The internet has changed incentives around the creation of cultural artefacts, and in doing so, changed our behaviours around them. It’s incentivized engagement with *any* content over the quality of the content itself, and removed the context, friction, human curation, and self-discovery of past mediums. Also, we don’t physically own content in the way we used to.
Long review lol but final thoughts - would love to read a version of this from the perspective of global and marginalized communities - I feel this POV is really relevant to the points in this book and might challenge some elements of Chayka’s thesis.
While I felt it lost momentum/belaboured the point in a few parts, I’m glad to have read it. It’s helped me recognize and be critical of the way I consume culture, especially how I discover and judge it. Chayka mostly does a good job of criticizing social media and technology companies without disparaging their users.
Big takeaway? The internet has changed incentives around the creation of cultural artefacts, and in doing so, changed our behaviours around them. It’s incentivized engagement with *any* content over the quality of the content itself, and removed the context, friction, human curation, and self-discovery of past mediums. Also, we don’t physically own content in the way we used to.
Long review lol but final thoughts - would love to read a version of this from the perspective of global and marginalized communities - I feel this POV is really relevant to the points in this book and might challenge some elements of Chayka’s thesis.
Had a pretty hard time with this one. Started off loving it, then it goes full New Yorker and gets into weird moral superiority/taking the scenic route to say things that are really tangents. I finally got ~80% of the way through and said screw it, skipping to the conclusion and reading that. Technically DNF but I’m counting it dang it.
I find the overall thesis of how we interact with one another through culture and culture comes largely from what’s recommended to us. I am inclined to agree, those sorts of bonds that are built over these interests are what makes life worth living. Algorithms now largely telling us what we would like, pointing our attention elsewhere away from things that we may not even know we would like, flattening it all to just “the only metric on ‘good or bad’ the engagement number” is a terrifying thought.
It kinda just falls apart as it drones on. I would have loved it to have taken on more of how similar algorithms are to petit bourgeoise through things like the payola schemes or product placements, etc. It’s capitalism being the mass culture flattener all the way down, folks.
Read the intro and conclusion and then bounce.
I find the overall thesis of how we interact with one another through culture and culture comes largely from what’s recommended to us. I am inclined to agree, those sorts of bonds that are built over these interests are what makes life worth living. Algorithms now largely telling us what we would like, pointing our attention elsewhere away from things that we may not even know we would like, flattening it all to just “the only metric on ‘good or bad’ the engagement number” is a terrifying thought.
It kinda just falls apart as it drones on. I would have loved it to have taken on more of how similar algorithms are to petit bourgeoise through things like the payola schemes or product placements, etc. It’s capitalism being the mass culture flattener all the way down, folks.
Read the intro and conclusion and then bounce.
the premise is really interesting and while the author manages to discuss the main problems of algorithm-driven tech, he tends to jump from one point to another without fully fleshing the point out. He also repeats himself rather often that the book, which is not too long, felt quite stretched sometimes.
I think the first half of the book was quite solid but the later half, especially his recommendation on overcoming the algorithmic life felt quite half-baked. the author has a point but i don’t think he explained it well.
i also did not really enjoy the ‘human curation’ aspect of the ‘solution’. while algorithms may be awful, leaving our taste to human curators who are often part of the elite seems like we are reinforcing a sense of elite tastemaking (he did mention this without much reconciliation).
i felt like the solution would be dismantling capitalism but what would i know?
I think the first half of the book was quite solid but the later half, especially his recommendation on overcoming the algorithmic life felt quite half-baked. the author has a point but i don’t think he explained it well.
i also did not really enjoy the ‘human curation’ aspect of the ‘solution’. while algorithms may be awful, leaving our taste to human curators who are often part of the elite seems like we are reinforcing a sense of elite tastemaking (he did mention this without much reconciliation).
i felt like the solution would be dismantling capitalism but what would i know?
Filterworld *is* our world. This comprehensive analysis of life after analog takes a minute to get going, but is ultimately an interesting read. Personal passions have been replaced by monetization. It’s consistently harder to be unique. That’s just a small glimpse, but you get the idea. Recommend to people who are reading my book reviews on social media.