Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture

by Kyle Chayka

The superficiality of the word itself is indicative: “influence” is never the end point, only a means of communicating a particular message. An influencer is easiest to define by how they make money. Like a media company producing magazines or podcasts, they sell advertising shown to the audiences that they have gathered. But the content that draws the audiences in in the first place is most often the influencer’s personal life, their aesthetically appealing surroundings (as well as aesthetically appealing selves) and entertaining activities. The material of their lives—in varying degrees of organic and staged—is copiously documented on social media platforms like Instagram, where they also publish sponsored posts for brands. Another difference is that unlike a free newspaper distributed on the street or a radio station sending out a signal, influencers don’t own the infrastructure of their medium. They piggyback on the digital platforms’ ability to distribute content, both through widely installed smartphone apps and through in-app feeds.