In the early days the internet was a free, egalitarian space for anyone to surf. Now, commercial interests rule – but users do still have some control.
TL;DR: enshittification works because people let it and companies make money off of it.
It’s simple, really. Our entire life is dictated by commercialism. Tracking, ads, personalisation… The only reason they’re taking over the Internet, is because it works. As long as it is profitable to destroy the Internet, companies will just keep on doing it.
There are still plenty of spaces on the Internet, but they are difficult to find because large search engines take money to prefer certain results. And the sites that don’t pay to appear higher are among useless sites, malware infused sites, just plain oversaturation.
So, what are our options? Also simple: make ads/tracking etc not work. Block as much ads as possible, block trackers, never click on sponsored content. The problem is that this will only work if a critical mass starts doing this. People being more aware of ad culture online will take decades.
Now, this is different for the music industry. On platforms like Spotify, it’s impossible to find which results appear higher because the algorithm was greased financially to yield certain artists. Ever find music and have nobody really listening to it, yet it keeps appearing everywhere? This is a symptom of the same problem: people are not aware they listen to overpromoted crap. They only like it because they think they should, because something is popular. Anyone taking their time to dig a little deeper for the music they listen to it’s considered either weird or a music nerd.
In any event, the world will keep devolving (i.e. enshittification) so long as it’s profitable. Companies have to bet big on it because if they don’t, their competitors will and they will lose business.
TL;DR: enshittification works because people let it and companies make money off of it.
It’s simple, really. Our entire life is dictated by commercialism. Tracking, ads, personalisation… The only reason they’re taking over the Internet, is because it works. As long as it is profitable to destroy the Internet, companies will just keep on doing it.
There are still plenty of spaces on the Internet, but they are difficult to find because large search engines take money to prefer certain results. And the sites that don’t pay to appear higher are among useless sites, malware infused sites, just plain oversaturation.
So, what are our options? Also simple: make ads/tracking etc not work. Block as much ads as possible, block trackers, never click on sponsored content. The problem is that this will only work if a critical mass starts doing this. People being more aware of ad culture online will take decades.
Now, this is different for the music industry. On platforms like Spotify, it’s impossible to find which results appear higher because the algorithm was greased financially to yield certain artists. Ever find music and have nobody really listening to it, yet it keeps appearing everywhere? This is a symptom of the same problem: people are not aware they listen to overpromoted crap. They only like it because they think they should, because something is popular. Anyone taking their time to dig a little deeper for the music they listen to it’s considered either weird or a music nerd.
In any event, the world will keep devolving (i.e. enshittification) so long as it’s profitable. Companies have to bet big on it because if they don’t, their competitors will and they will lose business.