Enshittication also includes the misuse of algorithms to maximize outrage, appeal to users' vanity and thus exploit the worst impulses in people - a Meta speciality. It's very real.
You're providing both a definition of enshittification and cherry-picking a use case domain (Facebook & Instagram) that suits your statement. FB and Instagram are already free products for consumers. You're mentioning whatever features and algorithm changes as 'people complaining' without discussing the now constant barrage of ads across every feature they provide.
Domestic US Airlines nickle-and-diming for everything, ads in increasing number of places across streaming services with price increases (and increases to the basic plan price as a higher floor) etc. is exactly enshittification. There are many products and businesses where quality is on a monotonic decrease and new ways to charge for previously free experiences are introduced. Ridiculous
Airlines are a great example because specific brands have lower satisfaction from user surveys (ACSI 2025 vs 2026 for Southwest) but the same is not true for Facebook (+3%) or Instagram (0%)
People don't feel as negatively about social media as they do about specific airlines
Very interesting points and perspective. Thank you. I don't know much, but a couple thoughts:
1) Social media are addictive. Increased usage is expected.
2) Cognitive dissonance might explain why satisfaction is stagnant rather than declining.
For many years in a row, cigarette consumption increased. That didn't mean cigarettes weren't getting worse or doing harm to people.
Would be really interesting to see these analyses by user segment or cohort. Perhaps the folks who feel platforms have gotten worse are those who joined early and held more positive initial thoughts about the platform? And that those folks' dissatisfaction is outweighed by later joiners who are perhaps less discerning? One theory, might be wrong, is potentially testable.
From the perspective of end users, it’s Enshitification. This really isn’t debatable. Ads are brutal now, algorithms maximize engagement at detriment of users sanity.
From the company perspective of course things are on the up and up, but addicting people to poor experiences will end poorly for everyone.
Why don't they then report lessened satisfaction? they report decreases for certain airlines (Southwest for instance). We should expect the same for Facebook or Instagram.
Do you think people who take drugs report on satisfaction? Why do we even care, they’re drug takers! Brain rotting and algo maxxing isn’t good for people and addicting them to things is not great. It’s akin to being a tv addicts back in the day. Airline flights are much more objective to judge by the consumer than something free and addictive offered digitally.
enshittification (for me) is very real, but not really when it comes to online platforms. Maybe that is where the term has crossed from it was termed for and has spread to other services.
It is the fast food outlets that are no longer fast, the retail stores that hire the absolute bare minimum number of staff so you have to wait longer to be served. The shrinkflation of groceries, or packing them with cheap, terrible ingredients after building a brand and customer loyalty with superior ingredients.
Basically anything and everything now seems to be companies seeing what they can get away with in order to maximize profits without bleeding too many customers.
tbh, I didn't realize the term was meant to be specific to tech platforms.
Have you ever really liked a band that hardly anyone listened to, and then they start releasing albums that are more tailored to a broader audience, and suddenly they're making highly popular music whose main appeal is that it's catchy? The music is worse, but they're more popular than ever, because vast throngs of people don't want music to enrich their lives; they want something that just makes them feel a little good on their way to work. You would have every right to feel betrayed and saddened by the quiet loss of your favorite band, who has been replaced by a mass-appeal machine.
But at least you can always go back and listen to their old albums. You can't get old-Facebook back. Facebook doesn't release in versions. There's no Facebook 1 community keeping the old servers alive. Facebook was killed and replaced with a broad-appeal version, a cashcow that doesn't enrich anyone's lives the way old Facebook actually managed to. It just hosts addictive algorithms.
Of course the data shows satisfaction and engagement rising. That's the whole strategy, to make the averages go up. But that doesn't mean people are being narcissistic for grieving something they lost. The band they loved sold out, and it's not selfish to say the music is worse, because it obviously is.
I’m not buying it. Mainly because “the platforms one uses should continue to respond to one’s idiosyncratic user needs” is Silicon Valley gospel! I’m building a platform myself, but I think we should be honest about things. Trying to flip it to “narcissism” just to serve your point is manipulative and dishonest.
I can guess why someone affiliated with a16z would publish this drivel: the enshittification argument points directly to extractive investor interests being the primary driver of the phenomenon.
While it is interesting to read a competently written propaganda piece, I much prefer the articles this Substack publishes that deal with real economic insights as seen through the eyes of investors.
The stated conclusion of the "enshittification" progression isn't inevitable – that they die. There is an adaptive feedback loop for sure, but look at restaurants by comparison in your own experience which I imagine maps to mine: portions are generous within the first year of opening (just to focus on one metric so to speak) but then as sure as the tides they cater to tourists who don't hold the restaurant as accountable as locals might in regard to quantity and quality (as tourists are transient customers), but the restaurant might be forced to rebrand themselves if they get enough negative reviews by reworking their menu, chef persona, maybe even do some pop-ups around town to redeem themselves amongst locals who murmur negativity word-of-mouth. So the enshittification is at least nonlinear, but seems to be a sort of given gravity that businesses of all sizes must stand against, lest it drags them down into a fatal mediocrity. My favorite burrito joint died of enshittification, I'm quite sure – but that's just my anecdotal take.
Enshittication also includes the misuse of algorithms to maximize outrage, appeal to users' vanity and thus exploit the worst impulses in people - a Meta speciality. It's very real.
You're providing both a definition of enshittification and cherry-picking a use case domain (Facebook & Instagram) that suits your statement. FB and Instagram are already free products for consumers. You're mentioning whatever features and algorithm changes as 'people complaining' without discussing the now constant barrage of ads across every feature they provide.
Domestic US Airlines nickle-and-diming for everything, ads in increasing number of places across streaming services with price increases (and increases to the basic plan price as a higher floor) etc. is exactly enshittification. There are many products and businesses where quality is on a monotonic decrease and new ways to charge for previously free experiences are introduced. Ridiculous
Airlines are a great example because specific brands have lower satisfaction from user surveys (ACSI 2025 vs 2026 for Southwest) but the same is not true for Facebook (+3%) or Instagram (0%)
People don't feel as negatively about social media as they do about specific airlines
Very interesting points and perspective. Thank you. I don't know much, but a couple thoughts:
1) Social media are addictive. Increased usage is expected.
2) Cognitive dissonance might explain why satisfaction is stagnant rather than declining.
For many years in a row, cigarette consumption increased. That didn't mean cigarettes weren't getting worse or doing harm to people.
Would be really interesting to see these analyses by user segment or cohort. Perhaps the folks who feel platforms have gotten worse are those who joined early and held more positive initial thoughts about the platform? And that those folks' dissatisfaction is outweighed by later joiners who are perhaps less discerning? One theory, might be wrong, is potentially testable.
From the perspective of end users, it’s Enshitification. This really isn’t debatable. Ads are brutal now, algorithms maximize engagement at detriment of users sanity.
From the company perspective of course things are on the up and up, but addicting people to poor experiences will end poorly for everyone.
Why don't they then report lessened satisfaction? they report decreases for certain airlines (Southwest for instance). We should expect the same for Facebook or Instagram.
Do you think people who take drugs report on satisfaction? Why do we even care, they’re drug takers! Brain rotting and algo maxxing isn’t good for people and addicting them to things is not great. It’s akin to being a tv addicts back in the day. Airline flights are much more objective to judge by the consumer than something free and addictive offered digitally.
Meta AI inside whatsapp is a great thing.
The inability to disable Reels in Instagram is another great thing.
The utter inability to flick a switch and not see any AI content is an even greater thing.
Adding functionality and not letting people disable said functionality is the pinnacle of great things
This is just MS-OFFICE on steroids.
enshittification (for me) is very real, but not really when it comes to online platforms. Maybe that is where the term has crossed from it was termed for and has spread to other services.
It is the fast food outlets that are no longer fast, the retail stores that hire the absolute bare minimum number of staff so you have to wait longer to be served. The shrinkflation of groceries, or packing them with cheap, terrible ingredients after building a brand and customer loyalty with superior ingredients.
Basically anything and everything now seems to be companies seeing what they can get away with in order to maximize profits without bleeding too many customers.
tbh, I didn't realize the term was meant to be specific to tech platforms.
the term can be applied to other industries, this focuses mainly on social media which is often the target
Have you ever really liked a band that hardly anyone listened to, and then they start releasing albums that are more tailored to a broader audience, and suddenly they're making highly popular music whose main appeal is that it's catchy? The music is worse, but they're more popular than ever, because vast throngs of people don't want music to enrich their lives; they want something that just makes them feel a little good on their way to work. You would have every right to feel betrayed and saddened by the quiet loss of your favorite band, who has been replaced by a mass-appeal machine.
But at least you can always go back and listen to their old albums. You can't get old-Facebook back. Facebook doesn't release in versions. There's no Facebook 1 community keeping the old servers alive. Facebook was killed and replaced with a broad-appeal version, a cashcow that doesn't enrich anyone's lives the way old Facebook actually managed to. It just hosts addictive algorithms.
Of course the data shows satisfaction and engagement rising. That's the whole strategy, to make the averages go up. But that doesn't mean people are being narcissistic for grieving something they lost. The band they loved sold out, and it's not selfish to say the music is worse, because it obviously is.
I’m not buying it. Mainly because “the platforms one uses should continue to respond to one’s idiosyncratic user needs” is Silicon Valley gospel! I’m building a platform myself, but I think we should be honest about things. Trying to flip it to “narcissism” just to serve your point is manipulative and dishonest.
I can guess why someone affiliated with a16z would publish this drivel: the enshittification argument points directly to extractive investor interests being the primary driver of the phenomenon.
While it is interesting to read a competently written propaganda piece, I much prefer the articles this Substack publishes that deal with real economic insights as seen through the eyes of investors.
The stated conclusion of the "enshittification" progression isn't inevitable – that they die. There is an adaptive feedback loop for sure, but look at restaurants by comparison in your own experience which I imagine maps to mine: portions are generous within the first year of opening (just to focus on one metric so to speak) but then as sure as the tides they cater to tourists who don't hold the restaurant as accountable as locals might in regard to quantity and quality (as tourists are transient customers), but the restaurant might be forced to rebrand themselves if they get enough negative reviews by reworking their menu, chef persona, maybe even do some pop-ups around town to redeem themselves amongst locals who murmur negativity word-of-mouth. So the enshittification is at least nonlinear, but seems to be a sort of given gravity that businesses of all sizes must stand against, lest it drags them down into a fatal mediocrity. My favorite burrito joint died of enshittification, I'm quite sure – but that's just my anecdotal take.
This essay is such a great example of the whole idea.
Wow, seems this topic is on a lot of minds. I literally wrote about it yesterday! Agree with the analysis here!
https://substack.com/@structurefunctionblog/note/p-212470629?r=33x9u3&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web
Pretty well done 👍🏿