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“ENSHITTIFICATION (noun, colloquial): 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”
https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2024/
…used by folks who don’t understand how venture capital/capitalism works to blame individual platforms instead of the system at large.
e.g., Do you think this latest VC-funded platform will enshittify like the others or is it safe to use?
If something was always shit at its core but you couldn’t tell because you were busy nibbling at its sweet crust, it doesn’t mean it enshittifies when you finally get to the centre, it means it was always a shit soufflé.
@aral I don't agree, mostly because I think the problem is a mix of what people do and what people think about what people do. Reality contains some things that can be anywhere from totally fine to preposterous monstrous injustices depending on disposition. And I'm not talking about obvious things like genocide, slavery, domination, abuse, and rape. I'm talking about things like scarcity, competition, compromise, triage, and prioritization. These things all exist on a continuum, and human beings being human they have different instincts for where to draw the line. Being aware of the ontologically unbroken nature of the continuum is important, but it is a valid choice to be untroubled by things up to a certain limit of inaction. This sort of thing can only be resolved by people living their lives and trying to act righteously according to their understanding of where the line is. There is no analysis or algorithm or set of first principles that ever obviates this.
