Enshittification became popular in 2023 after it was used in a blog post by author of The Internet Con, Cory Doctorow, who used it to describe how digital platforms can become worse and worse:
“Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification.”
“Enshittification,” Cory Doctorow’s coinage describing the process by which internet media platforms become increasingly unusable and un-quittable, has been named 2023’s “Digital Word of the Year.” Here, we break down what the term means and Doctorow’s solution to the internet’s relentless enshittification.
You’re talking micro about something that is macro. This isn’t rueing your fav indie band breaking into mainstream and now Karen at the front desk is using her new favorite band to try and bond with you.
EEE is a predatory business tactic used to assimilate and digest potential rivals instead of actually competing thru products. It’s anti-consumer monopoly shit, a siren’s song.
That’s what EEE used to mean, sure. Now it also means “a company I don’t like is using a protocol that I do like.” That dilution of the original meaning is unfortunate, IMO.