"The implied answer to algorithmic anxiety is to learn not to desire differentiation in the first place, to simply be satisfied with whatever is placed in front of you. The cultivation of taste is discouraged because taste is inefficient in terms of maximizing engagement." π§ π π©
#Filterworld : how algorithms flattened culture by #KyleChayka
"The feed flows by without the user needing to pay attention to any one thing too closely, since another is always about to load, personalized to some degree by their previous actions. There is nothing to alienate personal taste but also nothing to deeply compel it." π§²
#Filterworld : how algorithms flattened culture by #KyleChayka
"This perception that culture is stuck and plagued by sameness is indeed due to the omnipresence of algorithmic feeds. But itβs not that innovation isnβt happening; only in the direction of the feed, encouraging the development of products that serve the structure of digital platforms. The perfect piece of algorithmic culture, after all, is almost intentionally uninteresting." πͺΉ
#Filterworld : how algorithms flattened culture by #KyleChayka
"While we have the advantage of freedom of choice, the endless array of options presented by algorithmic feeds often instills a sense of meaninglessness: I could be listening to anything, so why should any one thing be important to me? The constructive relationship between collecting and culture goes in both directions." 
#Filterworld : how algorithms flattened culture by #KyleChayka
"Artists have always evaluated their work based on numbers, whether on-air radio plays, movie tickets sold, or museum exhibition attendance. But before Filterworld, creative tasteβwhich is the way that artists evaluate their own work, as much as how consumers evaluate their appreciation of itβhas never been so influenced by data and the granular measurement of attention." π
#Filterworld : how algorithms flattened culture by #KyleChayka
"The collector is the only one who decides how to arrange their possessions. Thatβs not true of our digital cultural interfaces, which tend to change without warning and without record; each redesign erases its previous iterations. This instability only intensifies the cultural flattening going on, since users canβt store or revisit their past experiences within their original context." β
#Filterworld : how algorithms flattened culture by #KyleChayka
"Building a collection online more closely resembles building a sandcastle on the beach: eventually the tide washes in, and itβs as if it never existed in the first place."
"The shifting sands of digital technology have robbed our collections of their meaning. They appear only as nostalgic ruins, the remains of once-inhabited metropolises gone silent."π
#Filterworld : how algorithms flattened culture by #KyleChayka
"Itβs not that great art needs to be inherently offensive; rather, when everything conforms to established expectations, we miss out on culture that is truly progressive and uncomfortable, that might subvert categories rather than fit neatly into them." π₯
#Filterworld : how algorithms flattened culture by #KyleChayka
"The hollowed-out meaning of taste in the Filterworld era is similar with the way engagement is measured by digital platforms on provoking immediate like or dislike. Tasteβs moral capacity, generally leads an individual toward a better society and better culture, is being lost. Instead, taste amounts to a form of consumerism in which what you buy or watch is the last word on your identity." πͺͺ
#Filterworld : how algorithms flattened culture by #KyleChayka
"The algorithmic interface presents itself as a neutral conduit, an open window or, more specifically, an accurate reflection and intensification of your personal taste. Yet it is far from neutral."
"Itβs the opposite of the interfaceβs message of personalization, and the opposite of the cultivation of personal taste, since itβs a manipulation from the start." 
#Filterworld : how algorithms flattened culture by #KyleChayka
Zee