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Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World
Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World | Max Fisher
15 posts | 10 read | 21 to read
From a New York Times investigative reporter, this "authoritative and devastating account of the impacts of social media" (New York Times Book Review) tracks the high-stakes inside story of how Big Tech's breakneck race to drive engagement--and profits--at all costs fractured the world, and is "an essential book for our times" (Ezra Klein). We all have a vague sense that social media is bad for our minds, for our children, and for our democracies. But the truth is that its reach and impact run far deeper than we have understood. Building on years of international reporting, Max Fisher tells the gripping and galling inside story of how Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networks, in their pursuit of unfettered profits, preyed on psychological frailties to create the algorithms that drive everyday users to extreme opinions and, increasingly, extreme actions. As Fisher demonstrates, the companies' founding tenets, combined with a blinkered focus maximizing engagement, have led to a destabilized world for everyone. Traversing the planet, Fisher tracks the ubiquity of hate speech and its spillover into violence, ills that first festered in far-off locales to their dark culmination in America during the pandemic, the 2020 election, and the Capitol Insurrection. Through it all, the social-media giants refused to intervene in any meaningful way, claiming to champion free speech when in fact what they most prized were limitless profits. The result, as Fisher shows, is a cultural shift toward a world in which people are polarized not by beliefs based on facts, but by misinformation, outrage, and fear. His narrative is about more than the villains, however. Fisher also weaves together the stories of the heroic outsiders and Silicon Valley defectors who raised the alarm and revealed what was happening behind the closed doors of Big Tech. Both panoramic and intimate, The Chaos Machine is the definitive account of the meteoric rise and troubled legacy of the tech titans, as well as a rousing and hopeful call to arrest the havoc wreaked on our minds and our world before it's too late.
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ShelleyBooksie
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Thank you @TheLudicReader for my amazing #LLSS package!! Everything was beautifully wrapped and so thoughtfully chosen. I loooove the fall stationary and the coffee beans smell SO good. Thank you for spoiling me ♡♡♡

Deblovestoread Lovely package! 3mo
TheLudicReader I am so happy that you like everything, Shelley! 🥰 3mo
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Beautiful 😍 3mo
48 likes4 comments
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5feet.of.fury
Mehso-so

This probably isn‘t a fair rating, it is well written and researched, but I started skimming because I knew most of the information & reliving it made me want to delete all my social media accounts and throw my smartphone into the sea.

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Booksbymybed
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Pickpick

This was a fascinating read. Lots of research, insight into famous cases and less loud ones. I thought I was pretty well informed, but there is so much underneath it all. “Algorithm has no moral compass”.
But ultimately it‘s a story of tremendous greed. And we are living it. This is a must read

5 likes2 stack adds
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Sharpeipup
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Can I count this as horror because the content is pretty scary? 😱

37 likes1 stack add
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RebL
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Did every page, paragraph, sentence or word make me angry? Yes. Pretty much rage read this one.

I waited a long time for my library hold to come in. As soon as I finished, I bought multiple copies to distribute. Libraries definitely generate book sales.

Tamra I‘m almost afraid to know…..🫣 1y
RebL @Tamra Big picture—every chance to make it right, modern day robber barons chose profit instead. Everything old is new again. 1y
Tamra @RebL ugh - the capitalist way 1y
22 likes1 stack add3 comments
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Purpleness
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Pickpick

Basically, because social media puts engagement above all else the algorithms running the sites aggressively promote posts that have high engagement. Moral outrage against people you already disagree with is really engaging, leading to more extreme posts being pushed. This makes more extremist views seem normal and consensus that agrees with those views seem stronger than it is in society as a whole. A toxic mix, as shown in multiple examples.

82 likes3 stack adds
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Purpleness
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TheBookgeekFrau That's a potent first line 😯 2y
40 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Purpleness
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“The germs are ours, but Facebook is the wind”

Vansa This actually isn't really true.Firstly, barely 30% of Sri Lanka's population is on Facebook.Thats not even half the population,in developing countries,internet access is only for the elite.More importantly,this way of thinking absolves people of responsibility for racism,and shifts the blame onto technology,which behaves the way we want it to.Facebook did not tell Sri Lankans to commit genocide on Tamils.It was an active choice by humans 2y
Purpleness @Vansa The book certainly has a narrow focus on the damage rather than the good of social media, but it isn‘t denying that people make choices; for example, the quote above is pointing out that the extremes social media amplifies already existed. But, that being said, we shouldn‘t ignore the influences that exploit our brain‘s instincts and encourage extremism for the sake of “engagement,” the main benchmark of success in the social media field. 2y
38 likes2 comments
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Purpleness
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An apt description, sadly. This a depressing but important book so far.

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Purpleness
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What great name for a researcher whose work was instrumental in the history of electronics! 😜

40 likes1 stack add
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Purpleness
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#librarybookhaul
Holds came in!

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Penny_LiteraryHoarders
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This book is going to do my head right in. But such an incredibly important book.

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Bookish.SAM
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Pickpick

Read. This. Book!

I can‘t recommend highly enough. This was an absolutely random pick as I was running out of the library at closing time, but it will stick with me. I tell anyone/everyone I‘m talking to about it.

Terrifying. Eye-opening. Well researched. Clearly articulated.

Seriously… Read. This. Book!

33 likes3 stack adds
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DocBrown
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Pickpick

I can think of a few other titles that work equally well for this book. Nightmare Machine. Terror Machine. Outrage Machine. Radicalization Machine. Polarization Machine. Destruction Machine. Emphasis on Machine. With the rise of AI algorithms, the humans have left the building. But they aren‘t off the hook. As long as decisions are made to prioritize profit over human wellbeing and development, it will keep getting worse. A sobering read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ShelleyBooksie Stacked - this sounds depressing but really good! 2y
50 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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Floresj
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Pickpick

Easily one of the best books I‘ve read in months (and I read voraciously). Terrifying, well-researched, engaging explanation of the algorithms that the major social media companies use to drive engagement and the consequences of this across countries. Our users had the germs, but Facebook was the wind will stick with me for awhile. Highly, highly recommend!

24 likes2 stack adds