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This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley.

Depending on what corners of social media you're on,

chances are good you've heard this earworm of a song by the group Ocean Alley.

It's all about Caledic, baby.

She was the company,

The company,

The song is called Confidence, and the Australian indie band released it five years ago.

But thanks to going viral, it's having a moment right now.

But whether it's having a moment on your feed, well that's all up to the algorithm.

Writer Kyle Chaca has been thinking about this for several years.

In his new book Filter World, how algorithms flattened culture,

he writes about how we are fed algorithmic recommendations that dictate what music

we like, how we interpret the news, what movies we consume, even what foods we eat, clothes we

wear, the language we use, and the places we go. And Cheka argues that all of

this machine-guided curation has made us docile consumers and flattened our likes and tastes.

Kyle Chaca is a staff writer for the New Yorker,

covering technology and culture on the internet.

His work has also appeared in The New Republic,

the New York Times magazine, and Harpers, among other publications.

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