The debut of a New York Times investigative reporter and Pulitzer Prize finalist: a gripping narrative that fuses research, exclusive interviews, and on-the-ground reporting to capture the full inside story of Big Tech’s monomaniacal race to drive engagement—and profits—at all costs.

We all have a vague sense that social media is bad for us, for our children, and for our democracies. But what exactly is it about Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms that causes this creeping feeling of unease? Max Fisher, using years of his own international reporting for the New York Times, tells the inside story of how the social networks fundamentally altered the world, detailing the roots of their ideology, their race to maximize engagement, and the resulting algorithms that drive everyday users to extreme opinions and, increasingly, extreme actions.

Taking the listener from deep inside Silicon Valley to the far reaches of Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Germany, and Brazil, Max Fisher unfolds the definitive account of how the social-media harms that sometimes began in forgotten pockets of the world saw their dark culmination in America through the pandemic, the 2020 election, and Capitol Insurrection. The result is an intimately detailed account of the consequences of the polarization that social media incubates: the cancellations, the omnipotence of hate speech, and the spillover into real-world violence. Fisher weaves together the stories of dozens of alarmed outsiders and Silicon Valley defectors to reveal the true human cost at the heart of social media.

The Chaos Machine is a fresh, excoriating, and definitive narrative of the rise and legacy of the social-media giants. Delivering both astounding stories and hard-hitting reporting, Fisher captures the tangible havoc wreaked upon our minds and our world by the titans of the tech industry.

Listening Length

15 hours and 55 minutes
Author

Max Fisher
Narrator

Peter Ganim
Audible release date

September 6, 2022
Language

English
Publisher

Little, Brown & Company
ASIN

B09S3ZKZGY
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	15 hours and 55 minutes
Author	Max Fisher
Narrator	Peter Ganim
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	September 06, 2022
Publisher	Little, Brown & Company
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B09S3ZKZGY
Best Sellers Rank	#6,718 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #4 in Social Media Guides #5 in Social Media for Business #5 in Content Creation & Social Media

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

442 global ratings

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3 star		5%
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Donald Arteaga

Not What I Was Expecting!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 18, 2023

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I was expecting this book to be a deep-dive into social media, its algorithms, and the "never before seen" information which was exclusively provided for the book before public release. In other words, I was expecting to read the best of what journalism had to offer.

Instead, I got a fantastic prologue, an interesting first chapter...and then it dives head-first into identity politics throughout every chapter! Pretty much every problem involved with social media, from its developers to its online users, can apparently all be blamed upon straight white men. But for those like myself who don't believe all of society's problems can be explained with Intersectionality, I skimmed through the rest of the chapters and found this trend continued throughout.

(A note on the Gamergate chapter: I was a big gamer at the time Gamergate happened, so reading through this chapter was difficult. It felt like I was being gaslight. I had to check Wikipedia to make sure I wasn't going crazy...but apparently I'm going crazy! The way the author shares the story of Gamergate is vastly different from the way my gamer friends and I saw it.

For myself and my friends: We got together in the evenings to play videogames online, both males and females. No more and no less. When Gamergate happened, it was because there were a few outspoken feminists critics like Anita Sarkeesian who were making videos online critiquing videogames. That's fine. But rather than engage with legitimate criticisms toward her views (my gamer friend made multiple videos critiquing her), she ignored them. What frustrated so many gamers was people like her were critiquing the videogames we played, yet when she was critiqued right back she cried victimhood. It was also clear she wasn't a gamer herself; there were points made in her videos that, had she played the games thoroughly, would've easily weakened her arguments.

For Wikipedia and this author: Gamergate was the product of straight, white, right-wing incels who harassed helpless women online who just wanted to play videogames. By their standards, myself and my gamer friends are apparently "right-wing".

Never mind that lots of gamers (men and women) saw these women's critiques as cringeworthy and went on playing their videogames; no, it was apparent sexism and misogyny was always endemic in the gamer community. Never mind that lots of gamers (male, female, LGBT) threw insults at each other in ironic, unserious ways while gaming that had nothing to do with real discrimination; no, people always meant what they said to a random username online who'd they never know in real life.

Obviously, I don't endorse any of the death threats or physical violence that was directed at the feminist critics who received them. That's plain wrong. But to attribute those individuals as a reflection of the gamer community as a whole is so disingenuous. Long story short, a whole portion of the story about Gamergate that happened nearly a decade ago has now been covered up with an victimhood lens. They say "history is written by the victors"; I'll add it's also written by journalists with ideological agendas.)

Quite frankly, I'm tired of identity politics and this book is just another example as to why I am. I wish I had known this before reading; otherwise I would've happily skipped it.

One person found this helpful

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Angela Schreiber

Eye Opening

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 15, 2023

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If you've been critical, or disappointed with social media, this book is for you. I made it to page 35 before I broke up with social media.

One person found this helpful

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A Devastating Indictment of Social Media's Impact on Society

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 8, 2022

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Investigative reporter Max Fisher gives readers an alarming report about the many negative impacts social media has had on society. As someone old enough to remember life before the internet and social media, I found it interesting to read Fisher's analysis about the profound changes (mainly negative in his opinion) resulting from social media, especially Facebook, You Tube, and Reddit. Fisher devotes most of his book to providing numerous examples of how the algorithms used by these companies amplify and spread extremist views, personal attacks, and crazy adolescent fantasies, which then may infect mainstream society. Users seeking to connect with a small, manageable number of personal contacts may find themselves drawn into social groups promoting false and insidious conspiracies of every kind imaginable. Fisher draws upon research from anthropology and evolutionary psychology to show how social media exploits deep seated weaknesses in human behavior to generate profits and create social mayhem. Perhaps the most important of Fisher's findings concerns the real costs of the wild theories and claims which go viral. Individuals find themselves targeted by hate campaigns and death threats, and extremist political groups gain traction, threatening the stability of our society. If this sounds exaggerated, Fisher offers the country of Myanmar as a case study, where extremists used newly available social media tools to spread false information which contributed to what Fisher describes as genocide against a minority group. This book includes few descriptions of the benefits of social media, since the author's purpose is clearly to sound the alarm about negative aspects which he believes are far more consequential. Fisher spends most of the last part of his book examining why governments (especially in the US) have failed to regulate the major social media companies, given their slow and often inadequate actions to regulate themselves. My only major criticism of this book, however, is that Fisher does not seem to have any practical ideas in this regard. His primary solution is to shut down the social media companies, which is obviously unrealistic in a democratic society. I think that this book definitely identifies important issues about corporate responsibility and the role of government attempting to deal with a powerful new technology such as social media. However, I found the most important questions to be about individual responsibility. Social media may indeed be "addictive" in various ways, but people still have the ability to make rational choices about what to do and believe. Perhaps for now, we can only hope that books like this will make social media users more careful about believing what they read, as well as not going down the "rabbit hole" of unfounded conspiracy theories.

55 people found this helpful

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Kenneth N.

Eye opening

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 9, 2023

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I purchased this book for research on a masters thesis. I never expected it to be so profoundly unsettling as it explains so much about the world right under our nose.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Michael Bonar

Most important book of our time

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 10, 2022

Verified Purchase

This is great journalism on an issue that is happening real time. The "engagement" algorithm that causes people to burn their neighbours' homes down is the same formula drawing the Republican party toward the far right. The big tech companies that are now locked in to the engagement algorithm for their financial livelihood are runaway trains. They are like the social equivalents of A-bombs now. The only "safe way" to use the engagement algorithm is not to use it.

4 people found this helpful

Swaminathan

must read - global over view of social media influence documentary

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on January 19, 2023

Verified Purchase

Deep study of how social media mind influencing and wiring happens to human conscience, influencing actions and other outcomes triggering uncertainty to world order, orchestrating chaos and demonic use of algo explained with real life incidences, anecdotes and necessary churning points of history. This books offers comprehensive view of the subject and reduces the necessity of read any other book on similar /same object thereby making worthy time investment to study, perceive and analyse.

Elspeth

This should be required reading in schools and for both users and non users of social media

Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on November 2, 2022

Verified Purchase

An outstanding, thoroughly researched book written in clear, direct language. Goes well beyond the superficial problems created by social media we are all aware of into the history and, above all, data, behind them, to paint an altogether terrifying picture of the dangers of this online world. Social media is responsible for drastically changing global mentalities and we all have a responsibility to understand this - thank you Mr. Fisher for enlightening us. We should all, we must all, read this book.

Chick loves lit

Brilliant. Scary.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 19, 2023

Verified Purchase

This is a very eye-opening read. The author provides a no-holds-barred account of what's going on. it's been a long time since a non-fiction kept me up reading at night. This book did. Highly recommend.

Amazon Customer

Everyone Needs To Read This Book

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on April 13, 2023

Verified Purchase

This book is eye opening. The good, bad and very ugly side of social media is revealed in depth. Multiple detailed accounts of the ease with which false information can spiral out of control to the point of leading to riots and death is sad, the speed at which it happens is incredibly scary. You will never look at social media the same way after you have read this book.

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