Opinion: Are TikTok and Instagram dulling your taste?

Chayka's view is that the proliferation of recommendation algorithms on services like Netflix, Spotify and TikTok since the 2010s have created a cultural world that's flatter, more homogenous and more passively consumed. — AFP

Partway through Kyle Chayka's new book, Filterworld, about how digital algorithms transform culture, a quote from one of his subjects stopped me cold.

Valerie Peter, a younger woman interviewed for the book, had never liked legwarmers. But in late 2021, legwarmers became a pervasive fashion trend on Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest. She felt compelled to buy a pair. The decision felt almost subconscious, disturbingly so. It were as if clout-chasing influencers and surveillance-based digital advertising had somehow corrupted her self-identity.