Filterworld

Very interesting premise for this book. How has the online world created and squished culture and art? Through various explorations, Chayka goes through examples were diverse and unique voices are no longer encouraged to be diverse and unique.

I'm not sure that this is problem just with culture and not just with the internet. In the large organisations I've been part of, people often become versions of the same. Regardless of their backgrounds, if you want to progress to a certain level, you need to change who you are somewhat to match the expectations of higher-ups.

Chayka focuses on how social media and the internet has applied this issue to the world, rather than an organisation. I was a little disappointed by the lack of an alternative put forward by the end of the book - Chayka extols the virtues of finding experts and curators, but doesn't give any routes to do so.

By the end of the experienment in the book, however, he's back on Twitter, Instagram and all the other socials. I was a little confused why he'd do this, after all the negative impacts he'd found throughout.

So this is book about a problem, but doesn't really lead to a solution, or an alternative. It seems like a missed opportunity. But maybe that's the second book.

I've got loads of mini-book reviews on this site. Follow the 'reading' tag for more.