Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture

by Kyle Chayka

The peak of this phenomenon might have been a brunch-focused restaurant called Carthage Must Be Destroyed. It opened in my then neighborhood of Bushwick in 2017, on a block full of forbidding warehouses. The interior was bare—exposed brick and plumbing, communal wood tables—but it had a single, aggressive design gimmick: Everything was painted pale pink. The door was pink, the counter was covered in pink tile, the espresso machine had pink housing, and the dishes were glazed-pink ceramic. The menu wasn’t particularly distinctive, offering the usual array of toasts, avocado and otherwise (its co-owner Amanda Bechara is Australian), so the main attraction was the aesthetic. The moment press photos were released, everyone wanted to go to “that pink restaurant.”