Enshittification, aka decline in quality online, is coming for everything. But we can fight against it.
Enshittification refers to the decline in quality seen in online services and products like Amazon, Facebook, Google Search, Twitter, Bandcamp, Reddit, Uber, and Unity. Cory Doctorow coined the term in November 2022, and it was named the 2023 Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society. Doctorow also calls this decline “platform decay.”
“Four constraints prevent enshittification: competition, regulation, self-help and labour. To reverse enshittification and guard against its re-emergence, we must restore and strengthen each of these.” – Link in the comments.
What can you do? (Focusing on the self-help aspect here)
1. Choose the competition. To decrease the power of Google, Facebook, et. al. choose to Brave search, DuckDuckGo, Mastodon, Bluesky Social etc.
2. Block ads on the big platforms. Without ad revenue, they can’t survive. Ublock Origin is a great plugin for this.
3. Use the web, not apps. You can’t block ads in apps, but you can on the web.
4. Inform others. The web can be saved if we all make an effort to make it a place where everyone wants to be.
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