Enshittification

Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It

by Cory Doctorow

Hardcover, 352 pages

English language

Published by MCD.

ISBN:: 978-0-374-61932-9

Enshittification: it’s not just you―the internet sucks now. Here’s why, and here’s how we can disenshittify.

We’re living through the Enshittocene, the Great Enshittening, a time in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit. It’s frustrating. Demoralizing. Even terrifying.

Enshittification identifies the problem and proposes a solution.

When Cory Doctorow coined the term enshittification, he was not just finding a funner way to say “things are getting worse.” He was making a specific diagnosis about the state of the digital world and how it is affecting all of our lives (and not for the better).

Enshittification: it’s not just you―the internet sucks now. Here’s why, and here’s how we can disenshittify.

Enshittification identifies the problem and proposes a solution.

The once-glorious internet was colonized by platforms that made all-but-magical promises to their users―and, at least initially, seemed to deliver on them. But once users were locked in, the platforms turned on them to make their business customers happy. Then the platforms turned to abusing their business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. In the end, the platforms die.

Doctorow’s argument clearly resonated. Once named, it became obvious that enshittification is everywhere, so much so that the American Dialect Society named it its 2023 Word of the Year, and was cited as an inspiration for the 2025 season of Black Mirror.

Here, now, in Enshittification the book, Doctorow moves the conversation beyond the overwhelming sense of our inevitably enshittified fate. He shows us the specific decisions that led us here, who made them, and―most important―how they can be undone.

2 editions

andbenn reviewed Enshittification by Cory Doctorow

A look at how the new business model is to make you pay more

4 stars

A very entertaining and scary read. While it focuses on tech, it applies to physical products and even services. Essentially, companies try to extract more and more from us, often by throwing features and capabilities, or shrinking the product.

I have a hunch the book contains some of his longer blog posts from the past. Maybe with some new material. It's organized well and reads well. I had not read his previous books, but do recognize his name and know he's worked with the Electronic Freedom Foundation.

Probably could be a stronger book with summarized interviews of various sources who can back up some of the claims and biases. Still, an enjoyable read.

SocProf reviewed Enshittification by Cory Doctorow

What it is and how to solve it

4 stars

I don't care much for Doctorow's fiction but he has a knack to explain complicated things clearly. And this is true here, as he explains all the ways we got to our enshittified stated. As importantly, the last part of the book is dedicated to potential solutions. 4 stars instead of 5 because the idea that Trump might have an "anti-trust agenda" is laughable.

Ben Waber reviewed Enshittification by Cory Doctorow

An Enjoyable But Flawed Book

4 stars

This is an extremely enjoyable read, and as a popular account that loosely sketches the causes of enshittification it stands up. However, Doctorow often uses a scan of news articles instead of deep historical or empirical research, with a variety of claims made without any proof beyond vibes to back them up. His biases are also on full display here but masquerading as fact - he clearly really likes tech workers, absolving them of all responsibility for many of the trends in the industry. He could be correct! But beyond his individual, subjective observations he brings no other proof to the party. Overall, this is a decent book on an important topic, but it is easily refutable in its current form and feels like a missed opportunity.

Apollo reviewed Enshittification by Cory Doctorow

The Definitive Look at Rotten Tech

5 stars

Enshittification has become an easy way to describe how tech goes bad, but Doctorow has done the work of backing up that wonderful new word he added to our lexicon with a framework and survey of tech's history to flesh it out. He provides a path forward to reverse Enshittification and his focus on coalition building is a key part of that. This book is for both veterans in the fight against Enshittification and those just now recognizing how bad things have gotten.