Picture this: you're online, and suddenly, everything feels. . . off. Like someone dumped a load of junk in the middle of the digital highway. You're not alone in feeling this way. Someone came up with a catchy way to describe this feeling: "enshittification" It's like the digital world's been slowly getting worse, and no one knows why.
Every aspect of the web seems to be decaying at a fast pace. The web is being controlled by online platforms. These platforms are degrading, and everyone is frustrated and scared. A Canadian writer who studied this problem identified four things that were supposed to keep companies from getting worse.
Competition, regulation, self-help, and tech workers. The problem is that these things are falling apart as big companies try to make money as fast as they can. Think about that for a second. Big companies are making the web a bad place for everyone.
Amazon is a good example of what can happen when these ideas fall apart. Not long ago Diapers. com, refused to be bought by Amazon. Amazon’s response? They sold diapers at a huge loss for months. This aggressive behavior meant they were able to push out the competitors. There are a bunch of other examples of all sorts of things that have gone bad on the internet.
Let's talk about smart TVs. Smart TVs are a good example of how this process works. They used to be a new idea. In 2008, Samsung came out with the first smart TV that people could buy. Great news! Over time, they got better, cheaper, and more fun to use. But these days, there are some major downsides. They're not just a machine you use for fun. The internet is being controlled by companies and they are using it to know everything we do.
These companies can track you, see what you're watching, what you like, and what you don't. They can follow and sell this information to other companies. This is a prime example of how some tech has gotten worse over time and how it's affecting our lives and behaviour.
