wordsmithreads 's review for:

Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka

4.0

informative reflective slow-paced

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Quotes and thoughts I want to keep accessible:

• "Consumption without taste is just undiluted accelerated capitalism. There are two forces forming our taste [independent pursuit of what we individually enjoy] & [our awareness of what it appears most other people like, the dominant mainstream]" (meaning: taste needs to be formed by subtle simmering of slowly enjoying something you didn't before, instead of getting smacked over the head / told to like it)
• "In Filterworld, culture is becoming more ambient. Like Sleepify, it's designed to be ignored. Or like the Marvel movie franchise, no single moment or fragment of it is particularly significant, because there is always more to be consumed. When we embrace ambience, we lose the meaning of the finite and the discrete."
• We feel at home everywhere because everything feels the same. You can get an AirBnB, then an uber from place to place that looks like a place that looks like home, then pay with your phone instead of that country's currency. "Such tools have a way of making places feel slightly meaningless, since they can be navigated by phone. The city becomes a backdrop to the omniscient screen, falling into the space of flows." Learning: Add friction back to your day
• "All culture is now content"
• "Digging deeper was once the defining task of finding culture, particularly in the early internet. ... Forums were communities of consumption ... around a particular shared pursuit. ... Form of mutual learning." Learning: Today's algorithms are less conducive to mutual learning because it isn't what anyone is passionate about, just fed. How can I create friction in my life to have deeper engagement with content and culture?
• "In the moment, the content feels all encompassing, and yet it's totally insignificant once you wander away." Learning: "Seek out the seams of culture yourself, and chart your own path."
• "The way to fight the generic is to seek the specific, whatever you are drawn toward." Learning: Don't let the algorithm decide your taste. All it takes to form your own taste is "thought, intention, and care."