The Age of Enshittification

'Enshittification' is a word coined by the Canadian writer and technologist Cory Doctorow to describe, to filch Wikipedia’s definition, “the pattern of decreasing quality of online platforms that function as two-sided markets”. This is the tension behind much of Big Tech. How do businesses extract value without destroying the identity that they built, and, as a result, alienating their userbase? Doctorow coined the term enshittification in 2022, and it feels to me like it has captured a moment of social media in full maturity. After more than a decade of mass uptake – whether that’s a microblogging platform like Twitter, a network like Facebook, or even streaming services like Spotify and Netflix, which owe much to the social revolution – there is a cooling off of the desire to endlessly solicit new users. A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A viable revenue stream.

Cory Doctorow's new book, The Internet Con, is available wherever you could reasonably expect to purchase books (or online).

The Ned Ludd Radio Hour is a Podot podcast, written and presented by Nick Hilton.

The theme music is 'Internet Song' by Apes of the State.

The artwork is by Tom Humberstone.

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