Chatgpt, what is enshittification? Please provide examples.
Enshittification is a term coined by tech writer Cory Doctorow to describe the process by which digital platforms (social media, marketplaces, apps, etc.) gradually degrade in quality as they shift priorities—from serving users, to serving business customers (advertisers, sellers, etc.), to maximizing profit extraction for the company itself.
The pattern usually looks like this:
Stage 1 – Good to users: The platform offers great value (free or cheap services, convenience, high-quality features) to attract a large user base.
Stage 2 – Favor business partners: Once users are hooked, the platform shifts to favor businesses—charging for visibility, tweaking algorithms to push paid placements, or limiting organic reach.
Stage 3 – Extract from everyone: Finally, the platform prioritizes its own profits at the expense of both users and business partners, often leading to a worse experience for all and a slow decline.
Example:
Facebook/Instagram
Early days: You saw posts from friends and family in chronological order—great user experience.
Middle phase: Businesses and creators were encouraged to build pages and got free organic reach—great for businesses.
Later: Algorithms started throttling organic reach, forcing businesses to pay for ads, while users got flooded with sponsored content and “engagement bait.” Now both users and businesses often feel shortchanged, while the platform maximizes ad revenue.
Example: Microsoft Teams & Office 365 ecosystem
Stage 1 – Great for users:
Microsoft Teams launched during the pandemic with free or bundled access in Office 365.
It was lightweight, fairly easy to use, and organizations quickly adopted it because it integrated with familiar Microsoft products.
Stage 2 – Favor business customers/lock-in:
Microsoft deepened integration so businesses using Office 365 found it hard to avoid Teams.
Some competitors (like Slack) complained that bundling Teams with Office unfairly pushed customers into Microsoft’s ecosystem.
Businesses benefited from the centralization, but competition was squeezed.
Stage 3 – Extract from everyone:
Microsoft began layering in more paid features and premium tiers.
Users noticed bloat (slower performance, cluttered UI, confusing updates) and more nudges to upgrade to higher-cost Microsoft 365 plans.
Both businesses and end users now often feel trapped: leaving is costly, staying means tolerating a product that feels increasingly monetized.
Another smaller-scale example:
Windows itself once gave clean desktop experiences. Over time, it’s become filled with pre-installed apps, ads in the Start Menu, aggressive nudges toward Microsoft Edge, OneDrive, and paid services—classic enshittification.
How about post World War II federal goverment through today?
That’s a sharp question — and yes, you can think of the trajectory of the U.S. federal government since World War II in terms of enshittification, though Doctorow uses the word for tech platforms. The same pattern — serving citizens well, then serving special interests, then mostly serving itself — can be mapped.
Trajectory of Enshittification: U.S. Federal Government, Post–WWII → Today
Stage 1 – Serving the people (High trust era, 1945–1970s)
After WWII, the U.S. expanded programs that directly benefited citizens:
The GI Bill sent millions of veterans to college and into the middle class.
Huge investments in infrastructure (Interstate Highway System).
Medicare and Medicaid expanded healthcare access.
Trust in government institutions was high. Citizens saw direct improvements in daily life.
Stage 2 – Serving business and special interests (1970s–2000s)
Economic crises (oil shocks, stagflation) shifted policy toward deregulation and privatization.
Lobbying and campaign finance exploded after decisions like Buckley v. Valeo (1976) and Citizens United (2010).
Policy often favored corporations and wealthy donors over broad public benefit:
Financial deregulation helped Wall Street more than Main Street.
Tax policy tilted toward the wealthy and big business.
Military-industrial complex spending boomed.
Citizens got less direct benefit, but corporate and political elites prospered.
Stage 3 – Extracting from everyone (2000s–today)
Gridlock and polarization make government less responsive to citizens.
Public goods (infrastructure, education, healthcare) lag behind peer countries.
Citizens experience more bureaucratic friction (complex taxes, healthcare billing, student loans) while corporations and the wealthy exploit loopholes.
Increasing surveillance, corporate lobbying dominance, and political polarization mean the government is often seen as working for itself or entrenched interests, not the average person.
Trust in government has cratered — from ~75% in the 1960s to under 20% today.
So the arc looks like this:
Postwar → “Golden age” of broad-based public investment.
Late 20th century → tilt toward corporate and elite interests.
21st century → extraction and gridlock, with citizens stuck paying more and getting less.
Chatgpt
