5 ms·
On the “Enshittification” of Platforms: Technology Is Only Human After All
- brucethemoose2 3y agoWell there you have it: enshittification is inevitable, and it works. Therefore the "easy" solution is to lubricate the ramps away from enshittified platforms. I do worry a bit when public stockholders (some of which are "regular" people) are the ones left holding the bag.
- RecycledEle 3y ago> Therefore the "easy" solution is to lubricate the ramps away from enshittified platforms. I imagined people comically trying to travel up greased ramps, and sliding back down / falling. I think lubricating those ramps is exactly what our corporate overlords do.
- SomeHacker44 3y agoStockholders have the power to stop enshittification. They can vote in a new board and get new executives who wont do it. But of course that ... almost never happens. Why? Question left as an exercise.
- brucethemoose2 3y agoThats not always an option. Many (most?) of these mega online communities are literally not sustainable without an enshittification plan, with investor dollars pouring in being the primary source of income until the music stops.
- red-iron-pine 3y ago> with investor dollars pouring in being the primary source of income until the music stops. ya see there's your problem.
- NoraCodes 3y agoWith all respect, fuck this. We can build platforms that won't be enshittified, we just choose not to, and throwing our hands up and saying "oh well! guess it's human nature to make everything bad in the name of shareholder value!" is a cop-out.
- paulryanrogers 3y agoHow? Enshittification appears to be inevitable to me, unless one has a benevolent benefactor paying all the bills. Or perhaps strong and wise regulators who can force profit motivated organizations to interoperate and enforce interests of users.
- namaria 3y agoYes, the problem is greed. The 80s were wrong. Greed is not good. It's terrible in fact.
- pydry 3y agoThat's kind of like saying "we can just hold elections" while ruled by a king.
- thebiglebrewski 3y agoAuthor here - I wrote this because I was trying to brainstorm solutions that would create more enduring platforms better for all and came up pretty dry as you can see. Do you have any better ideas? I'd love to hear them!
- NoraCodes 3y agoTo be clear, it's a good article as far as it goes and I appreciate you sharing it, but it's incredibly frustrating to me when people in our field come right up to the edge of criticizing capitalism and then just back off. Enshittification isn't limited to tech; it happens to just about everything in a capitalist society, because it benefits capital. We have to move past this economic model.
- aa-jv 3y agoEnshittification starts at the keypress, yo. We are all responsible.
- Turskarama 3y agoNone of you are on Tumblr and it shows.
- thebiglebrewski 3y agoI heard Tumblr still has an awesome community! Very good point. While it seems the majority of things have enshittified, maybe it hasn't as much, and that's pretty cool. How?
- Turskarama 3y agoThe main reason Tumblr never became shit is because it never wanted to make a lot of money, it's perfectly fine carrying along being unprofitable.
- hammyhavoc 3y agoWhat do you mean? Tumblr definitely reached a point where it was objectively past its best—they even banned NSFW content.
- red-iron-pine 3y ago[dead]
- dmvdoug 3y ago> …another way to look at it is that the system is working. Article literally argues that the system works because it provides 12-15 years of quality community experience, even if thereafter the community gets thoughtlessly torn apart and destroyed. In other words, the author doesn’t understand the true nature or value of community.
- thebiglebrewski 3y agoAuthor here - yup, clearly I don't understand the true nature or value of community and haven't ever been a part of one myself and apparently it's something that's meant to be provided forever for free :). Mostly kidding around, but I appreciate the comment and you reading the article! It is sad that communities are destroyed at the whims of gigantic corporations but it just seems to happen super often, I wish there was a way to prevent it.
- dmvdoug 3y agoThere was something about the style of the piece that grated on me. Which is clearly a me thing, not a you thing. I apologize.
- thebiglebrewski 3y agoThat is no problem at all, I appreciate the honesty! No apology necessary. Thanks for engaging with my article :).
- gfosco 3y ago> we’ve instead entered a period of “Enshittification”, where the platforms we loved and trusted have been taken over by corporate interests that no longer care what the users want or need. It's funny to me because we've been here for many years. i.e. Facebook hasn't given two shits what people want or need in a decade. People have been asking for more control of their feed, and complaining about user-hostile decisions made all this time. The other big tech cos are no different, and "trust" has always been low..
- thebiglebrewski 3y agoFair point, I think different platforms have gotten there sooner than others, but I'm just noticing far more of them reaching this point lately.
- dv_dt 3y agoI think it's actually been happening on a broad economic scale with different scales of organizations being in different phases. Basically when a nation or company is expanding into new productive capacity without any previous thing there (expansion into vacuum) - things are good, but once one needs to replace entrenched interests then the enshitification starts. This is where the entrenched interests to ensure profits takes precedence to more efficient or productive value creation. IMHO, this can happens at company, industry, and nation level scales. E.g. The US in the 50's was early cycle, now it's in the late cycle with small GDP growth. China was in the expansion into vacuum phase with high GDP growth, and is in the latter stages of that ending.
- winternett 3y agoIt's also ripe for companies to extort and fleece users in several other categories of software dependence, especially with mobile phones, and even with cars that rely on software and signs of intentional sabotage are beginning to manifest in mission critical consumer and government systems and solutions just to encourage costly upgrades and updates. It's long overdue to send a serious message to software makers that turn upon their user bases. Congress has dropped this ball too many times. We can abandon Facebutt and InstaGramps over abusive and user hostile changes, but when you have to watch a 5 minute ad before starting your car when your wife's water just broke, it all becomes too real... I know, dramatic example, but it can get that bad if we give it a pass now/