The Age of Enshittification
10 hours ago
- #technology
- #capitalism
- #digital-decline
- The term 'enshittification' was coined by Cory Doctorow in 2022 to describe the decline in quality of digital services.
- Examples include Google Search prioritizing ads, TikTok manipulating video visibility, and Twitter/X degrading under Elon Musk's ownership.
- The term was named 'Word of the Year' by the American Dialect Society in 2023 and Macquarie Dictionary in 2024.
- Doctorow outlines a three-phase process of enshittification: attracting users, prioritizing business customers, and degrading the user experience for profit.
- Factors that once prevented enshittification, like tech worker pushback and monopoly regulations, have eroded.
- Users are complicit in their exploitation, often engaging with platforms against their own interests.
- Doctorow suggests structural changes like antitrust enforcement and data regulation to combat enshittification.
- New laws in the UK and EU are forcing tech companies to improve user conditions, potentially influencing global standards.
- The book questions if enshittification is just capitalism, highlighting unchecked extraction by billionaires.
- The term can also apply to politics, with figures like Donald Trump exemplifying the degradation of services for personal gain.