Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture

by Kyle Chayka

In his book, Friedman wrote about various “flatteners,” forces that were knitting the planet closer together. Several of these were digital technology: affordable Internet browsers like Netscape; workflow software that enabled collaboration between international businesses and factories; and search engines like Google, which expanded access to information. “Never before in the history of the planet have so many people—on their own—had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people,” Friedman wrote. The book mostly addressed the macroscopic level of nations and corporations (which were rapidly becoming more similar). The “playing field” was being leveled, which meant that any company could compete against any other no matter where they were located. Hierarchies were being flattened, so a small company or a freelancer could compete with much larger enterprises. Just as highways interconnected the United States, the fiber networks of the Internet created “a more seamless global commercial network,” Friedman wrote, and “helped to break down global regionalism.”