I see it referenced constantly here, not quite as much on Reddit. I know what it means, but just wondering why such the popularity over on this side of the fence?
Cause it’s one big part of why the Fediverse and Lemmy exist in the first place.
We wouldn’t need all this decentralization overhead if centralized sites were trustworthy and focussed on serving their users. The fact that they are not is what leads to privacy violations and enshittification, hence why people created the Fediverse and why we are here (at least most of us I presume).
It lets ppl describe late capitalism without using those words or even knowing that’s what they’re describing.
Were stuck Don’t Look Up style in a cycle of trying to find a way to explain and enumerate the things happening around us without pointing to their precursors even when we remember them from our own lives and experiences.
This is the correct answer. These “things are getting worse” terms are on the right track, but they don’t describe why things are getting worse.
Class-based systems like feudalism and capitalism have overarching rising and falling phases, and in the late phases, exploitation of our labor increases drastically as the ruling classes fight over a declining surplus. This has rippling effects to every other aspect of society, from how hard we’re forced to work, to the degradation of media, art, politics, etc.
Exactly this. It is not new, it’s just a form of rent seeking.
Because the Fediverse itself is a response to enshittification.
This is it exactly. We simply have too many examples of why we cannot trust millionaire maniacs with running a platform…
Selection bias. Lemmy users by default are probably more sensitive to/negative about enshittification than those on reddit.
Many of us came here in response to the enshittification of reddit.
The term “enshittification” is a useful neologism because without it we’d need half a sentence to get the same concept across.
I’d argue most of us are older but not too old to remember what the internet was as well.
Because most people on lemmy are here because of it.
Remember when things were better, before all the enshittification ? Pepperidge Farms remembers
I think it’s happening more and more in the tech industry - one theory I heard was that rising interest rates meant companies couldn’t just take out loans that were practically free money, so they’re cracking down on monetizing every nook and cranny.
Reddit was no exception. Many of us left this thing we once loved because of it, and came here. So on top of industry trends, there’s a huge selection bias among us Lemmings.
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This place is noticeably more anticorporate - which makes sense because corporations tend to be dicks - and leftist. Enshittification is a fairly apt term for what goes on.
and leftist
Wasn’t there some controversy a while back due to the political beliefs of the Lemmy developers and the instance they run (lemmy.ml)? Maybe I’m misremembering.
Yes, they are tankies. Arguably tankies are No True Leftist or they wouldn’t be fellating right-wing regimes, but at least purportedly and self-identified…ly… they are not only “leftist” but “Communist”, ML is Marxism-Leninism after all.
this is your brain on liberalism
What’s your opinion of the Bolsheviks?
Yes, that they’re too leftist and are apologists.
People here are far more likely to be anti-capitalist, anti-corporate, pro-privacy, etc. those groups all circle the same kind of Cory Doctorow/Matt Stoller/Luddite world where the word enshittification became popular.
How you conflate those other things with Luddite is… fascinating.
I assume they mean in the original term, that technology should be used to make life better, not to damage peoples employment.
I had no idea the term Luddite had any meaning beyond the colloquial definition of shunning technology in general. Thanks for giving me something to read about today.
I had no idea myself until just recently. The 99% Invisible podcast had a decent episode about it which I listened to that helped put it all into context.
The short story is that it was a labor movement trying to prevent mill owners from abusing workers by using automation to bleed the maximum productivity out of the fewest people. The Luddites would break into mills and smash the “infringing” machines. Tensions rose, the Luddites were eventually crushed, and the term Luddite was intentionally rebranded by capitalists to be synonymous with ignorant/anti-intellectual so that no one would ever want to associate with them again.
I’m just glad people stopped inserting the word “literally” everywhere. Literally language enshitification.
And that, everybody, is literally not the correct usage of “enshittification”.
Jk, but for real though, it’s not a direct synonym for “degraded” or “gets worse”. It’s more specific than that.
Plus, “literally” now literally has an alternative definition in the dictionary meaning “figuratively”. So y’know, maybe get over the needless linguistic prescriptivism.
I think it’s just everywhere now. I see it on Tumblr too.
It’s because we were given a name for something that didn’t have a name before but was everywhere.
This is a great thing. With a definition we can understand and discuss the topic.
If you think this didn’t have a name before, then you may need to read up a bit on the history of capitalism.
It’s rent seeking.
