The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World

by Max Fisher Narrated by Peter Ganim

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

OCTOBER 2022 - AudioFile

A NEW YORK TIMES journalist exposes the algorithms and incentives used by social media to promote hyper-partisanship for the purpose of driving revenue. Narrator Peter Ganim presents the author’s arguments and eye-opening anecdotes in an evenhanded but compelling voice. The audiobook presents a history of how social media arrived at the point where, by feeding the participant a steady diet of clickbait on FaceBook, YouTube or Twitter, the average apolitical person can be manipulated into extreme positions, whether in Myanmar or Washington, DC. Though many examples will be familiar, their implications will startle. The audiobook ends with the Capitol Insurrection of 2021, but the algorithms go on. A riveting, chilling listen. L.W.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

05/23/2022

New York Times reporter Fisher debuts with a scathing account of the manifold ills wrought by social media. He explores toxic misogyny, recounting the unsavory particulars of “GamerGate,” in which a woman video game developer was subjected to “collective harassment” after false allegations that she slept with a journalist in exchange for a positive review of her game. Other examples of the dark side of social media include anti-Muslim hate speech in Myanmar proliferating on Facebook, the spread of anti-vaccine rhetoric during the pandemic, and efforts by Russia to interfere with U.S. elections. Fisher also breaks down the tactics used by social media companies to get users to spend more time online, among them notifications that are meant to set off feel-good dopamine releases in the brain, a tactic similar to the “intermittent variable reinforcement” used by casinos. There’s no shortage of books lamenting the evils of social media, but what’s impressive here is how Fisher brings it all together: the breadth of information, covering everything from the intricacies of engagement-boosting algorithms to theories of sentimentalism, makes this a one-stop shop. It’s a well-researched, damning picture of just what happens online. Agent: Jenn Joel, ICM Partners. (Sept.)

From the Publisher

The Chaos Machine is an authoritative and devastating account of the impacts of social media . . . The way the book connects the dots is utterly convincing and should obliterate any doubts about the significance of algorithmic intervention in human affairs.”—New York Times Book Review

“A stark warning about the extent to which Facebook et al distort our perception of reality.”—The Guardian

“The single most complete understanding of how social media has rewired our brains, our culture, and our politics that I have ever read. It’s outstanding.”—Jon Favreau, Offline

“A sobering investigation into the effects of platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Tracking political movements that spread over social media, both in America and worldwide, Fisher describes how algorithms . . . systematically promote extreme content that sparks moral outrage and forges group identities united by a sense of threat.”—The New Yorker

“Fisher has drawn together a chilling record of the cultural and commercial imperatives behind violent events, and how the perversity of machines and of people, working in tandem, have upended life around the globe.”—Air Mail

“Well argued, engaging, and often necessarily discomforting… The Chaos Machine’s greatest achievement is perhaps how skillfully it traces seemingly disparate phenomena back to the design of social media platforms that prioritize engagement at all costs… At a time when calls for the regulation of platforms is growing ever louder, Fisher makes an urgent, compelling case for change.”—Mary McGill, Irish Independent

“Social media isn’t just changing our lives. It’s changing the world, and even its creators and would-be overseers have only the foggiest ideas about how. In this meticulously reported, grippingly told account, Max Fisher chases the results across continents, and paints a disturbing picture of not just where we are, but where we’re going. The Chaos Machine is an essential book for our times.”—Ezra Klein, author of the New York Times bestseller Why We’re Polarized

“Well-researched and thoroughly unnerving… Fisher’s lucid, clear explanations and convincing arguments are bound to leave readers questioning their own use of social media.”—Booklist (starred review)

“A scathing account of the manifold ills wrought by social media… There’s no shortage of books lamenting the evils of social media, but what’s impressive here is how Fisher brings it all together: the breadth of information, covering everything from the intricacies of engagement-boosting algorithms to theories of sentimentalism, makes this a one-stop shop. It’s a well-researched, damning picture of just what happens online.”—Publishers Weekly

“An often riveting, disturbing examination of the social media labyrinth and the companies that created it… Fisher dives into the chaotic social media landscape, synthesizing dozens of interviews from a wide range of sources… he examines the rise of the social media giants and the dangers they have created for our society… Fisher is spot-on when he describes how the promotion and manufacture of moral outrage were not glitches in the system but inherent features.”—Kirkus Reviews

“In this timely book, Max Fisher reveals how powerful social-media giants set all of humanity on an alternative course to the future. The Chaos Machine boldly exposes how a few technology companies chose profit over people, helped spread salacious misinformation, and ultimately ripped the fabric of society apart. I hope everyone will read this important investigation with an open mind, because we must choose a different path forward, and fast.”—Amy Webb, author of The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity

“Max Fisher blends together deep reporting, riveting stories, and a global canvas in this gripping and definitive work on the damage wrought by social media. The Chaos Machine is essential reading if you want to understand a force that is reshaping the world and the very real consequences it is having on people everywhere.”—Ben Rhodes, author of the New York Times bestseller The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House

Library Journal

★ 07/01/2022

In his first book, New York Times journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Fisher details how the radical free speech ethos of Silicon Valley, coupled with artificial intelligence algorithms designed to drive user engagement, combined to create a toxic stew of racist, misogynistic, and conspiracy-laden content across social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. These companies' founders and executives, loath to do anything that may affect their bottom line, turned a blind eye to the harm. Fisher details how YouTube and Facebook recommendations pushed users toward more extreme content, which tragically fed ethnic violence in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and India, places where users received the majority of their news from social media. Groups that originated online also played a role in the election-related U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Fisher's insightful and sometimes frightening look into social media companies is rooted in court records and hundreds of interviews with researchers and Silicon Valley employees and executives. VERDICT A deeply researched and well-written study for anybody interested in social media or technology and their effects on society and the transmission of news.—Chad E. Statler

OCTOBER 2022 - AudioFile

A NEW YORK TIMES journalist exposes the algorithms and incentives used by social media to promote hyper-partisanship for the purpose of driving revenue. Narrator Peter Ganim presents the author’s arguments and eye-opening anecdotes in an evenhanded but compelling voice. The audiobook presents a history of how social media arrived at the point where, by feeding the participant a steady diet of clickbait on FaceBook, YouTube or Twitter, the average apolitical person can be manipulated into extreme positions, whether in Myanmar or Washington, DC. Though many examples will be familiar, their implications will startle. The audiobook ends with the Capitol Insurrection of 2021, but the algorithms go on. A riveting, chilling listen. L.W.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2022-05-12
A veteran journalist examines the rise of the social media giants and the dangers they have created for our society.

Fisher, a columnist and international reporter for the New York Times, dives into the chaotic social media landscape, synthesizing dozens of interviews from a wide range of sources. Focusing primarily on Facebook, the author walks through the key steps in the progress of the technology, seeing the advent of algorithms as a turning point. By tracking the sites that consumers visit, algorithms allowed for precise targeting for future contact. The best-performing sites gave users a sense of belonging, usually by denigrating “outsiders.” Over time, the result was increasing social and political polarization, with debate and discourse replaced by attacks that could easily spill into the offline world. Fisher is spot-on when he describes how the promotion and manufacture of moral outrage were not glitches in the system but inherent features. Senior leaders at Facebook received countless warnings about potential problem areas; claiming that they would address them, they never did. The company had rules to exclude certain posts, but they were inconsistent, vague, and overly complex (more than 1,400 pages). The author capably explains the many complex elements involved, but his liberal perspective is occasionally too evident. The mere mention of Donald Trump often makes him splutter with indignation. He has much to say about right-wing groups but little about those on the left. Nonetheless, Fisher is a diligent reporter, and when he maintains his focus on the mechanics of social media, he makes numerous important points. He even suggests that social media has become so counterproductive that we should consider shutting down the big firms—he aptly cites the murderous computer HAL in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey—or at least forcing a thorough restructuring process. It’s a sensible idea worth discussing, but given the power of big tech, it’s unlikely to happen.

An often riveting, disturbing examination of the social media labyrinth and the companies that created it.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178756362
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	09/06/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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