What it means
Enshittification is the slow rot of an online platform that starts off great, hooks you, then gets steadily worse to squeeze out money. First it's good to users, then it favours business customers, then it screws everyone to please shareholders. Anyone who's watched a favourite app fill up with ads and junk has lived it.
Usage examples
"The app used to be brilliant, now it's pure enshittification, three ads before you can even search."
"Every platform goes through enshittification eventually, they get you hooked then make it worse."
"Instagram's gone full enshittification lately, half my feed's ads and the rest is stuff I never asked for."
"The enshittification hit when they paywalled basic features and started shoving sponsored rubbish into every scroll."
Where it comes from
Cory Doctorow coined enshittification in 2022 while writing about how digital platforms rot in a very specific order. First they treat users like royalty, then they tilt toward business customers, then they milk the whole place for investors till the thing feels broken, spammy, and grim. The word spread fast because people instantly recognised the pattern.
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