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Cory does use "enshitification" to mean a specific bait-and-switch tactic in which companies offer a free product for years, corner a market, and then abuse the
by nonrandomstring 3y ago
Cory does use "enshitification" to mean a specific bait-and-switch
tactic in which companies offer a free product for years, corner a
market, and then abuse their trapped user base.
It's sassy. But specifics are most useful in writing that has
durability as well as aesthetic power. People reading in 10 years
won't necessarily get what "enshitification" means.
Instead I prefer to talk about:
Hijack. It's pretty common for BigTech to take over a company or
service and hold it hostage.
Sabotage. The deliberate breaking of standards, dumbing down of
information, reduction of capabilities. Most often when BigTech
interacts with an existing system it leaves it much worse of
functionally.
Betrayal. Quite simply BigTech is treacherous. Whatever faith or
loyalty long-standing users have the company will sell them for a
dime, break promises, lie and steal whatever data they like.
And we could go on with many timeless names for harms perpetrated by
these aggressive and socially derelict companies - but my point is
that it pays to pause for a moment and think about the deeper nature
of the harms to find the best word for what's really happening.