Enshittification. It's fun to say, hard to spell, and a useful descriptor of exactly how the internet has gone wrong. Cory Doctorow, the author and activist who coined the term a few years ago, recently published a book on the subject, called Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It. He was on Decoder a few weeks ago to explain what happened, and joins The Vergecast this week to help us figure out what to do about it. Can we, as regular people on the internet, help to de-enshittify the place? What responsibility do we have, and what kinds of choices should we be making? Cory has lots of thoughts on whether you can shop your way out of a monopoly, and what it really takes to enact structural change online.
Further reading:
Cory Doctorow on Decoder
Read Cory's book, Enshittification
Cory's last Vergecast appearance
From Pluralistic: How monopoly enshittified Amazon
AI is killing the old web, and the new web struggles to be born
FTC files a massive antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
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