Login to your ABC account
Create a new ABC account
Complete your ABC account
Welcome
Forgot your password?
Password reset link sent…
We've sent an email to email. Please follow the instructions in it to set your new password
Reset your password
New wishlist
"Enshittification" is Doctorow's word to describe the decay of online platforms. It captures the feeling of a world that is ever worsening.
Enshittification is not a technical glitch. It is a technique that every platform - from X to TikTok, Amazon to Apple, has adopted. First they lure users onto their platforms, then attract businesses who might profit from this newly formed public, and then finally squeeze both for their own profit. Tech giants lure users in with convenience and then degrade their services over time, draining profit at the cost of user experience. In the meantime our public squares have turned somewhere between the mall and a dumpster fire, that is unfit to deal with the problems of our times.
What is to be done? Like a surgeon, Doctorow sets out the symptoms, the diagnosis and the cure to these metastasizing platforms. We need to question the monopolies that dominate so much of our online lives, we must demand regulation and our privacy back, allow for interoperability, and win tech workers' rights.
Where our booksellers share their passion with you!
Subscribe to the weekly blog feed for regular updates.
ABC Friends
