Kyle Chayka
Kyle Chayka 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 Harper’s, among other publications. His reporting on tourism in Iceland was included in “The Best American Travel Writing 2020.” Chayka’s first nonfiction book, “The Longing for Less,” a history of minimalism, was published in 2020. His second book, "Filterworld," which explores the impact of digital algorithms on culture, was published in 2024.
The Dada Era of Internet Memes
How the viral TikToks of a Chinese glycine factory elucidate our increasingly chaotic digital environment.
The Internet’s New Favorite Philosopher
Byung-Chul Han, in treatises such as “The Burnout Society” and his latest, “The Crisis of Narration,” diagnoses the frenetic aimlessness of the digital age.
The Dumbphone Boom Is Real
A burgeoning cottage industry caters to beleaguered smartphone users desperate to escape their screens.
Trump’s Social-Media Potemkin Village
After an I.P.O. last week, Truth Social is confronting the gaping incongruity between its valuation and the paltry reality of its product.
A Dutch Architect’s Vision of Cities That Float on Water
What if building on the water could be safer and sturdier than building on flood-prone land?
“Argylle” Is the I.P. Ouroboros That Hollywood Hath Wrought
Intentionally or not, the new spy movie suggests the extreme convolutions that a production must undergo to justify its existence as an original story.
America’s Paranoid Taylor Swift Super Bowl MAGA Fever Dream
The fate of everything from the N.F.L. to American democracy has been sucked up in the Swiftularity.
How the Stanley Cup Went Viral
The canny marketing campaign behind the wildly popular tumblers.
Coming of Age at the Dawn of the Social Internet
Online platforms allowed me to cultivate a freer version of myself. Then the digital world began to close off.
The Terrible Twenties? The Assholocene? What to Call Our Chaotic Era
There is something paradoxical about pinning a name on an age characterized by extreme uncertainty. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying.
Elon Musk’s Poisoned Platform
Users and advertisers are fleeing X after Musk’s message supporting an antisemitic conspiracy theory. But the platform seems destined to die a slow death.
Your A.I. Companion Will Support You No Matter What
New chatbots offer friendship, intimacy, and unconditional encouragement. Do they mitigate isolation or exacerbate it?
How Social Media Abdicated Responsibility for the News
The Israel-Hamas war has displayed with fresh urgency the perils of relying on our feeds for updates about events unfolding in real time.
Why the Internet Isn’t Fun Anymore
The social-media Web as we knew it, a place where we consumed the posts of our fellow-humans and posted in return, appears to be over.
Rethinking the Luddites in the Age of A.I.
Brian Merchant’s new book, “Blood in the Machine,” argues that Luddism stood not against technology per se but for the rights of workers in the face of automation.
The Era-Defining Aesthetic of “In the Mood for Love”
Wong Kar Wai’s 2000 masterwork has influenced filmmakers ranging from Barry Jenkins to Sofia Coppola—and innumerable teens on TikTok.
My A.I. Writing Robot
A new wave of artificial-intelligence startups is trying to “scale language” by automating the work of writing. I asked one such company to try to replace me.
Meta’s Threads Is More of the Same Social Networking
Much of what’s on the new social network is the kind of banal celebrity and brand self-promotion that users have tried to avoid on Twitter.
An A.I.-Generated Film Depicts Human Loneliness, in “Thank You for Not Answering”
The artist Paul Trillo thinks of the A.I. filmmaking tools he used as “co-directing” the evocative short.
The Birth of the Personal Computer
A new history of the Apple II charts how computers became unavoidable fixtures of our daily lives.
The Dada Era of Internet Memes
How the viral TikToks of a Chinese glycine factory elucidate our increasingly chaotic digital environment.
The Internet’s New Favorite Philosopher
Byung-Chul Han, in treatises such as “The Burnout Society” and his latest, “The Crisis of Narration,” diagnoses the frenetic aimlessness of the digital age.
The Dumbphone Boom Is Real
A burgeoning cottage industry caters to beleaguered smartphone users desperate to escape their screens.
Trump’s Social-Media Potemkin Village
After an I.P.O. last week, Truth Social is confronting the gaping incongruity between its valuation and the paltry reality of its product.
A Dutch Architect’s Vision of Cities That Float on Water
What if building on the water could be safer and sturdier than building on flood-prone land?
“Argylle” Is the I.P. Ouroboros That Hollywood Hath Wrought
Intentionally or not, the new spy movie suggests the extreme convolutions that a production must undergo to justify its existence as an original story.
America’s Paranoid Taylor Swift Super Bowl MAGA Fever Dream
The fate of everything from the N.F.L. to American democracy has been sucked up in the Swiftularity.
How the Stanley Cup Went Viral
The canny marketing campaign behind the wildly popular tumblers.
Coming of Age at the Dawn of the Social Internet
Online platforms allowed me to cultivate a freer version of myself. Then the digital world began to close off.
The Terrible Twenties? The Assholocene? What to Call Our Chaotic Era
There is something paradoxical about pinning a name on an age characterized by extreme uncertainty. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying.
Elon Musk’s Poisoned Platform
Users and advertisers are fleeing X after Musk’s message supporting an antisemitic conspiracy theory. But the platform seems destined to die a slow death.
Your A.I. Companion Will Support You No Matter What
New chatbots offer friendship, intimacy, and unconditional encouragement. Do they mitigate isolation or exacerbate it?
How Social Media Abdicated Responsibility for the News
The Israel-Hamas war has displayed with fresh urgency the perils of relying on our feeds for updates about events unfolding in real time.
Why the Internet Isn’t Fun Anymore
The social-media Web as we knew it, a place where we consumed the posts of our fellow-humans and posted in return, appears to be over.
Rethinking the Luddites in the Age of A.I.
Brian Merchant’s new book, “Blood in the Machine,” argues that Luddism stood not against technology per se but for the rights of workers in the face of automation.
The Era-Defining Aesthetic of “In the Mood for Love”
Wong Kar Wai’s 2000 masterwork has influenced filmmakers ranging from Barry Jenkins to Sofia Coppola—and innumerable teens on TikTok.
My A.I. Writing Robot
A new wave of artificial-intelligence startups is trying to “scale language” by automating the work of writing. I asked one such company to try to replace me.
Meta’s Threads Is More of the Same Social Networking
Much of what’s on the new social network is the kind of banal celebrity and brand self-promotion that users have tried to avoid on Twitter.
An A.I.-Generated Film Depicts Human Loneliness, in “Thank You for Not Answering”
The artist Paul Trillo thinks of the A.I. filmmaking tools he used as “co-directing” the evocative short.
The Birth of the Personal Computer
A new history of the Apple II charts how computers became unavoidable fixtures of our daily lives.