Enshittification
What Is “Enshittification”?
… let me explain …
“Enshittification” is a term (sometimes known as “crapification”) coined by the writer Cory Doctorow in 2022 to describe the really predictable decline in quality of online platforms over time.
It refers to a three-stage lifecycle common to digital services:
The platform start out by being great and by serving users really well in order to attract more of them.
Once users are locked into a platform, it then turns it’s attention to serving business customers (advertisers) at the expense of it’s original users.
Finally, the platform needs to maximize profits for it’s shareholders, usually sacrificing usability and value for both it’s users and it’s business partners.
We’ve all seen this as we’ve tried to grow a business on social media.
How Does This Warrant A Blog Entry?
This idea of enshittification helps to explain why many social media platforms now feel way worse than they ever have.
Platforms are increasingly showing users content not because it’s something the user has shown interest in, but because it maximises engagement and therefore ad revenue.
This moves these platforms away from what made them great; communication and connection; and towards pure attention grabbing.
Features that once attracted users are downgraded. Ads multiply, real, genuine social interactions are buried, feeds prioritise sensational content.
Enshittification & Rage-Baiting
The main reason I’ve been driven to write this article, is because I see so much stuff online that DOES relate to what I do, but the whole system now means that if I interact, either positively or negatively, I’m still interacting and then they’ve won! 😂
I’m not really talking about the positive stuff, many people will have realised I rarely interact with content (unless I really do like it) however we’ve all seen the cutesy AI generated pap that encourages you to like the video of the Polar Bear saving a three legged kitten on a trampoline 🤣
It’s not just that platforms are intentionally amplifying outrage inducing content so it triggers engagement, content producers will also spell words incorrectly so that people comment. They ask inane questions, or suggest you are a genius if you can spot something glaringly obvious in a post.
It’s even got to the stage where a guy in Sri Lanka had made a fortune “by running Facebook pages, including some which push racist, Islamophobic and anti-migrant posts aimed at British audiences.”
King of slop: How anti-migrant AI content made one Sri Lankan influencer rich
Lets not even try to pretend that human beings aren’t idiots, or that by not replying to blatantly rage baiting content, I’m achieving anything.
I am specifically interested in things related to Photography and Dartmoor, so my series of articles in the category of “Stuff I think but don’t post about on Social Media as I don’t want to add to the increasing enshittification of the Internet” will address things that gall me online, that I can’t comment on those platforms, but that nonetheless need addressing somewhere.
Why not on a blog that nobody reads 🤣
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