We are living in the Age of Enshittification

Today, I’d like to touch upon the term "enshittification." Yes, that’s exactly the term I’m using. It might be unknown to some, but it has existed since November 2022, when it was first coined by Cory Doctorow, a Canadian writer and journalist. What’s it all about? Well, it’s about the fact that the Internet, the services available on it, apps, and many other products even outside the global web are getting worse and worse. This state of affairs is only deepening, and we all lose out—with users leading the pack, of course. Yes, this is going to be a post where I do some solid complaining.

As for enshittification itself, this phenomenon can be described by dividing it into three stages: first, a product or service appears and makes users fall in love with it because it works really well and solves some problems. Then, once users are addicted to it, the quality starts to slide: more and more ads, changes designed to keep us hooked even longer, etc. Naturally, the product has to start making money. If it stopped there... maybe it wouldn't be so bad. But nowadays, many companies move to the third stage: profit maximization, immense pressure for growth, and shareholder push. Everything has to grow, money has to multiply, and every subsequent quarter has to be strictly better. Of course, this is most often achieved through further changes that make users' lives miserable. The platform becomes truly unpleasant, but addiction does its job – we use it because, after all, "everyone else is using it."

Unfortunately, you can see this almost everywhere now. In my opinion, this aforementioned desire for unrestrained, reckless growth is to blame. As a passive investor, I noticed a long time ago that Wall Street, for example, is detached from reality. The laws of economics are bent; the system simply must grow... Personally, I believe this can't last forever and will simply collapse under its own weight, drowning everyone who naively thinks that the pie of abundance is infinite. No, it is not. Returning to the main topic, however: I decided to write this post because over the last 3-4 years, I've observed that the services I use or used to use are genuinely getting worse. I'm talking about the online ones.

Let's start with Facebook. Yes, I have an account there because it can still (let's emphasize: still!) be useful. However, it is something completely different than a decade ago. The main page or app is unusable: it's cluttered with totally random content thrown in from people we don't even know. And, of course, Reels, just so you have something to watch, scroll through, and get stalled by ads. A tragedy. I keep it solely for Messenger, although I try to convince my friends to switch to something else, something not from Meta: this company is currently the total opposite of creating sensible products and solving users' real problems.

Another example is LinkedIn. Once a really good, useful networking platform full of valuable content. Nowadays, it's not much different from Facebook, as it's cluttered with a whole lot of nonsense unrelated to work. Besides, making life difficult for users is perfectly visible here: if you use the site via a mobile browser, after a moment of scrolling, you'll see a banner encouraging you to use the app. Ignoring it will cause you to be thrown back to the top of the page. When you start scrolling again, the banner will reappear, but ignoring it a second time will result in... getting kicked off the page. This is truly absurd. It didn't encourage me to get the app. Instead, I stopped using the platform altogether; I only use it for the messenger.

Even apps that aren't, or at least weren't, strictly social media have suffered a terrible drop in quality. Example: Strava. Once a training tool. Now it pays more and more attention to social aspects, which is why I see more and more posts, photos, and videos there... What for? I have no idea. They even added a messenger, and the order of displayed messages is set by an algorithm by default, not by their posting date. In short, it's turning into a typical social medium with all its flaws. And the training features? When I recently saw Strava suggesting that my estimated 10k run time was 58 minutes, I was shocked... because I know it's something under 45 minutes. Where does this nonsense come from? Well, Strava calculates it based only on the last 30 days... Even though it has data spanning several years. I don't see any logic in this, especially since it's promoted as a feature available in the paid tier. Since we're on the topic of sports, Komoot is also worth complaining about: once a great route-planning app. Now it also promotes sharing everything possible and pushes a monthly paid premium package, even though I bought lifetime access to worldwide maps years ago.

I'll go further: as an IT enthusiast, I have certain habits and read certain portals. Heck, I even happened to work at two of them as an editor back in the day. One of them – Dobreprogramy – has taken such an incredible nosedive in quality in recent years that now I'm ashamed to wear the backpack with their logo, which I still have from one of the readers' rallies years ago (of course, there's no question of any rallies happening now). All because of a takeover by a larger publisher (Wirtualna Polska): from that moment on, they systematically cut out more and more elements, like community-created blogs or, most recently, the discussion forum. Nothing is left of the old vibe. I can beat my own breast and admit that as an editor, I happened to commit clickbait... well, they just got more views. Now I would never do such a thing in my life; my views and approach have changed. Another example from this world: the Antyweb portal, which... seems to write for itself, because it turned off comments some time ago. Well, such behavior... I'll leave without comment.

Of course, this might sound like the complaints of an old geezer, but there's no denying that there are many more similar voices of criticism. What can we do about all this? I must admit I don't have too many ideas here. We simply don't have the agency to fully remedy certain phenomena. Nevertheless, certain things remain in our hands. I've decided to "vote with my wallet": I hardly use social networks because I think they require too much time to tailor to your needs and offer nothing meaningful in return. I try to avoid all subscriptions like the plague because they bring something completely contrary to independence.

And above all, through all these changes, I'm becoming "more analog." I dedicate much more time to activities away from the computer: nurturing relationships with family and friends, playing with my child, working in the garden, or tinkering in the garage. All of this gives a sense of fulfillment as well as allows me to slow life down a bit. Even though I'm still somewhat of a gadget geek, even though I'm an IT enthusiast, I rely less and less on the digital world – and I don't regret it at all. The development of AI means that information and help are now at our fingertips. Is there any point, then, in sharing everything digitally, building something digitally? I am less and less convinced of it.