Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture

by Kyle Chayka

We took that stability for granted. In 1931, the German cultural critic Walter Benjamin wrote an essay called “Unpacking My Library,” describing our relationship with physical cultural objects. In the essay, Benjamin narrates removing his book collection from dusty crates, where the volumes had been enclosed for years. The volumes are splayed loose on the floor, “not yet touched by the mild boredom of order,” all set to be rearranged on shelves once more. For Benjamin, the very possession of these books formed his identity as a reader, writer, and human being—even if he hadn’t read all of them. They sat proudly on his shelves as symbols, representing the knowledge that he still aspired to gain or the cities to which he had traveled. Accumulating books was his way of interacting with the world, of building a worldview that he furthered in his critical writing.