Book Review of the Chaos Theory by Max Fisher

This is not the first book on social media that questions the almost unanimously positive regard this technology is held in, or has been held in, until more recently. Similar books have been written by people like Jarod Lanier and Tristran Harris, notably both poacher’s turned gamekeepers. Both have made similar arguments to Fisher based on their experience working in the tech industry. Fisher however, comes at the subject using the lens of investigative journalism. This approach adds to the growing chorus of commentators that are urging a reconsideration of the role of social media in today’s world.

The book posits Social Media as a machine and looks at various features of this machine. He does this by sifting through some really concerning events over the past few years. These events include Facebook’s use during the genocide of Rohynga Muslims in Myanmar, the rise of the anti-vax movement or the New Zealand mass shooting.

What Max Fisher tells us in this book is that social media is not benign, it is not even neutral. Due to the nature of algorithmification, the drive towards virality, recommendations, the need to drive growth in a commercial environment, and the fact that people will spend more time watching car crashes than psa’s about car safety social media is a technology that has been shaped by these circumstances to be something that is programmed to sow chaos. The whole nature of the machine is chaotic. From how it was built to how it operates today. He identifies and explains many plausible constructs including 'irony posting', 'ampliganda' and the dictatorship of the like.

Most worrying for me is that this book ratifies my own opinion that there is knowledge and acceptance within the industry of how addictive these technologies are. Indeed people have been chosen to work on these technologies due to their ability to hack users' conscious defences against it. They do this by using unconscious routes to override your ability to resist the lure of social media. Anyone scrolling through twitter for a long period of time when they are supposed to be going to sleep or working can attest to this. This is how social media, emails, and other wasteful internet endeavors infiltrate our personal space. This harvesting of attention is unethical and social media could be said to be a new frontier in the addiction industry. Whilst these technologies are addictive it could be suggested that the companies are more addicted to our attention than we are to their product which drives them to produce ever more addicting products.

One brilliant review on the book by a goodreads author does question the evolutionary hypothesis that is at play in the book (see below). But for me the addictive nature of the chaos machine is telling and points to it’s ability to bypass our more evolved tendencies. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

Having established a pressing concern very much along the lines of the 'crisis solution construct' that is one of the theories explored in the book one possible course of action is provided by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen in a very brief epilogue. Turn off the algorithm and make big SM companies liable for what they publish which will reduce the drive for engagment at all costs.

Max Fisher's book makes the case for a long held belief of mine. That social media is a complete black hole that has very little to recommend it. Worse than this though are the actual negative impacts it can have. It feeds on all of our weakeness to bring out the worst in us. Something must be done.