The Chaos Machine - Rambling Readers

Hardcover, 400 pages

English language

Published Jan. 26, 2022 by Little Brown & Company.

ISBN:: 978-0-316-70332-1

(2 reviews)

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. The Chaos Machine 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 network 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 on maximizing engagement, …

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. The Chaos Machine 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 network 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 on 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.

6 editions

DigitalRob reviewed The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher

Review of 'The Chaos Machine' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is the fourth book I’ve read about the impact of social media on our world and society. It is truly frightening, and these books are the biggest reason I’ve stopped using most social media most of the time. For various reasons, I can’t simply delete my accounts.

I work in education and there is an increase in bad behavior from both students and parents. This increase, the decline of civility, and dramatic polarization of our societies can be directly linked to social media.

Social media is designed to be addictive, and it optimizes individual feeds to increase the time online for users. The best way to extend time online is to promote moral trigger words, which link heavily to outrage. Of course, like the tobacco companies trying to preserve their market, social media companies deny that their products are causing any harm even when their own data contradicts them. …

This is the fourth book I’ve read about the impact of social media on our world and society. It is truly frightening, and these books are the biggest reason I’ve stopped using most social media most of the time. For various reasons, I can’t simply delete my accounts.

I work in education and there is an increase in bad behavior from both students and parents. This increase, the decline of civility, and dramatic polarization of our societies can be directly linked to social media.

Social media is designed to be addictive, and it optimizes individual feeds to increase the time online for users. The best way to extend time online is to promote moral trigger words, which link heavily to outrage. Of course, like the tobacco companies trying to preserve their market, social media companies deny that their products are causing any harm even when their own data contradicts them.

A significant difference with this book is the focus on Youtube. The other three mention Youtube, but this book goes into detail about the effects of Youtube, which are not different or better than other social media sites. I think people in general fail to recognize Youtube as a social media enterprise, but in many ways it is the most effective.

All three books have a bit of a different focus, and this one really centers on the algorithms. It’s clear that if we want to truly address the problems with social media, we have to tackle the use of algorithms to promote content.This could happen by simply making algorithmic amplification of content illegal, but I don’t see this happening. Another method, which could happen through Gonzalez v. Google, which is going to SCOTUS this year. This case could go many different directions, but one possible outcome is to eliminate the Section 230 protections for ISPs and online tools as it applies to algorithmically amplified content.

If you want to do yourself a favor, increase your peace of mind, and improve our society, spend as little time as possible on social media: use it with purpose. Don’t just scroll and don’t let it decide what you read and click on.

Other books on this topic:
– Privacy is Power by Veliz
– An Ugly Truth by Frenkel and Kang
– Anti-Social by Marantz

emmadilemma

rated it

Mar 20

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