'Enshittification' is coming for absolutely everything [View all]
https://www.ft.com/content/6fb1602d-a08b-4a8c-bac0-047b7d64aba5
No paywall link
https://archive.li/KCElF
Last year, I coined the term enshittification to describe the way that platforms decay. That obscene little word did big numbers; it really hit the zeitgeist.
The American Dialect Society made it its Word of the Year for 2023 (which, I suppose, means that now Im definitely getting a poop emoji on my tombstone).
So whats enshittification and why did it catch fire? Its my theory explaining how the internet was colonised by platforms, why all those platforms are degrading so quickly and thoroughly, why it matters and what we can do about it. Were all living through a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit. Its frustrating. Its demoralising. Its even terrifying.
I think that the enshittification framework goes a long way to explaining it, moving us out of the mysterious realm of the great forces of history, and into the material world of specific decisions made by real people; decisions we can reverse and people whose names and pitchfork sizes we can learn.
*snip*