The rise of enshittification: officially the word of the year (www.techspot.com)
from ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 27 Nov 18:58
https://lemmy.world/post/22511322

Macquarie Dictionary, Australia’s national dictionary, has recognized the importance of the term enshittification in today’s tech by crowning it the word of the year – it also won the people’s vote.

Enshittification is defined as the gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking.

It’s a helpful term for describing many of today’s tech products, from Google search being a slush of ads, link farms, forum posts, and useless AI content, to social media platforms becoming a hate-filled nightmare. Don’t forget those products that move from being one-off purchases to subscriptions before their quality starts becoming diluted, or once-great video game franchises that become little more than a way for publishers to push more microtransactions and season passes onto people. Companies are putting yearly increases in profits and share prices above absolutely everything else, including making sure the products they offer aren’t, well, shit.

#technology

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Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works on 27 Nov 19:29 next collapse

Glad to hear it. I’ve been using it here and there in daily conversation and so far no one knew about it and I had to explain it everytime.

I find it to be a pretty useful term given daily life.

sunzu2@thebrainbin.org on 27 Nov 20:01 next collapse

I don't even have to explain it to the uninitiated, everybody already know what it means even without hearing it before.

Normies aint stupid, they see same shit. Propaganda just keeps them busy not thinking too much about it because once they do, they might change their consumption patterns.

Sweet baby jesus... we got to punish these corpos folks

metaStatic@kbin.earth on 27 Nov 20:28 next collapse

textbook definition of a meme but ask any normie what a meme is and you'll likely get some variation on an image macro.

this is how the game of telephone begins. I'm excited to see what they do to this one in a few years.

NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io on 27 Nov 21:29 collapse

It'll be (kinda already is) a synonym of "get worse".

BassTurd@lemmy.world on 27 Nov 22:01 collapse

I kind of like explaining it to newcomers. Feels good to enlighten the masses. It’s the basically “lucky 10000” xkcd.

DavidGA@lemmy.world on 27 Nov 20:05 next collapse

…in Australia.

metaStatic@kbin.earth on 27 Nov 20:24 next collapse

... and therefore the world

apocalypticat@lemmy.world on 27 Nov 21:00 collapse

Yup, that’s indeed what it says with the third word.

catloaf@lemm.ee on 28 Nov 01:10 collapse

Of?

apocalypticat@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 01:51 collapse

Lol read past the title, smart ass:

Macquarie Dictionary, Australia’s national dictionary, has recognized the importance of the term enshittification in today’s tech by crowning it the word of the year – it also won the people’s vote.

communism@lemmy.ml on 27 Nov 20:20 next collapse

How long before some big tech corpo appropriates it and advertises one of their products as “not enshittified” or whatever

metaStatic@kbin.earth on 27 Nov 20:24 next collapse

"not YET enshittified"

actually@lemmy.world on 27 Nov 22:14 collapse

Or one can be proud: enshittified since 1986

Dindonmasker@sh.itjust.works on 27 Nov 20:31 next collapse

Here at bingus & bongus Co we use an anti-shitification model that ensures our clients that our products will stay the same or get better at all time.

pdxfed@lemmy.world on 27 Nov 21:22 collapse

“Our nascent AI technology…”

“…Monthly fee to ensure no enshittification…”

“…our mobile app does require GPS permissions to maximize…”

bobs_monkey@lemm.ee on 28 Nov 02:47 collapse

eye twitch

BassTurd@lemmy.world on 27 Nov 22:00 next collapse

If it’s true and catches on, more power to them. I don’t believe anyone advertising that is being truthful and I definitely don’t think it will catch on.

TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works on 28 Nov 01:51 collapse

Dominos said that they’re not doing shrinkflation and instead are ‘growflating’
Then LITERALLY the next week they raised their prices for sauces

communism@lemmy.ml on 28 Nov 02:13 collapse

growflating

Still inflation… (Also not sure what “growflating” would even mean)

sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works on 28 Nov 03:33 collapse

Increasing size and price?

I’m fine with things naturally getting more expensive with time, it’s not okay to make things smaller/crappier to to hit a price target. Keep sizes the same and just inflate prices a little every year, it’ll be fine…

Kolanaki@yiffit.net on 27 Nov 20:28 next collapse

Enshittification does help to explain the other reason things start to suck when it has nothing to do with Eternal September. But with modern social media, it really is a near even split of both. Enshittified for profit by the corporations that run them, stuck in Eternal September by the growing number of users that strip such a place of its identity until it’s watered-down for the masses to get even more users.

AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world on 27 Nov 20:41 next collapse

Enshittification is defined as the gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking.

I think that’s overly broad in comparison to Doctorow’s original meaning (which they also cite in the article). The critical element missing from their definition is that the enshittified product/service never had a viable business model to begin with: it uses the hype cycle to sell users and investors on an unsustainable mirage before inevitably collapsing.

SkyNTP@lemmy.ml on 27 Nov 21:52 next collapse

You are right, but I would go one step further: enshittification is specifically a subsidized (artificial, unsustainable) capture of a free market by a middle man, followed by a squeezing of both buyers and sellers in that market using bought leverage.

It’s just another variety of antitrust that happens to be legal because society has not yet outlawed that behaviour.

morrowind@lemmy.ml on 28 Nov 00:32 next collapse

That is absolutely not a critical part. One of the primary examples doctorow uses is an online marketplace like Amazon. The missing part is the specific steps the business takes of first trapping consumers, then sellers, and finally raking in that cash.

Venator@lemmy.nz on 28 Nov 01:38 collapse

There’s plenty of products with viable business models that have undergone enshittification in recent years…

zarenki@lemmy.ml on 27 Nov 21:26 next collapse

Although by a different organization in a different continent, enshittification was also selected as word of the year for 2023 by the American Dialect Society.

Rexios@lemm.ee on 27 Nov 22:26 next collapse

Wasn’t this the word of last year?

taladar@sh.itjust.works on 27 Nov 22:45 next collapse

Seems like it would be the word of the first quarter of the 21st century.

Zorque@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 00:28 collapse

Different dictionary’s word of the year, I think.

TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works on 28 Nov 02:13 next collapse

>sees website complaining about ads
>disable ad blocker to test

<img alt="" src="https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/4e73f27e-9c26-40e3-ad52-42fe92783652.png">

Dupree878@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 02:20 collapse

Checks out

gofsckyourself@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 02:52 next collapse

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/334632eb-83d3-4b86-830c-060bc3548aed.png">

[deleted] on 28 Nov 04:17 collapse

.

style99@lemm.ee on 28 Nov 05:10 collapse

People = Shit