enshittification

American  

[en-shit-uh-fi-key-shuhn] / ˌɛnˌʃɪt ə fɪˈkeɪ ʃən /

Sometimes shittification

noun

1. the gradual degradation of an online platform or service's functionality, as part of a cycle in which the platform or service first offers benefits to users to attract them, then pursues more and more profits at the expense of users.

   There's been a significant enshittification of the website in just this year alone.

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Etymology

Origin of enshittification

Coined in 2022 by Canadian author Cory Doctorow (born 1971); en- ¹ ( def. ) + shit ( def. ) + -i- ( def. ) + -fication ( def. )

Example Sentences

Between that and the increasing digitization of new electric cars—which just makes them more expensive and allows insurance companies to track and surcharge you—I’ve been wondering: Is enshittification partly an effect of the computerization of everything?

From Slate

On his Pluralistic blog, Doctorow coined the term enshittification as a succinct explanation as to why more Americans and global citizens were embracing the “techlash”: Corporations in Silicon Valley were making their products more extractive, juicing more revenue and rigging the game in their favor, because they’d eliminated all viable competitors.

From Slate

Adobe forcing a software-subscription model so that artists have little control over necessary tools and find it prohibitively difficult to cancel any services—it’s all enshittification.

From Slate

Outlets like Wired and the Financial Times prominently republished the blogger’s screeds on the topic; the American Dialect Society deemed enshittification its 2023 Word of the Year; thinkers like Paul Krugman and Slate’s own Dahlia Lithwick have expanded its lens to make sense of the crumbling of American democracy.

From Slate

Doctorow has now published a new book, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, expanding on his original theses—and providing some ideas for how to de-enshittify the world wide web that’s become our everyday life.

From Slate