The Enshittification Hall of Shame 98
In 2022, writer and activist Cory Doctorow coined the term "enshittification" to describe the gradual deterioration of a service or product. The term's prevalence has increased to the point that it was the National Dictionary of Australia's word of the year last year. The editors at Ars Technica, having "covered a lot of things that have been enshittified," decided to highlight some of the worst examples the've come across. Here's a summary of each thing mentioned in their report: Smart TVs: Evolved into data-collecting billboards, prioritizing advertising and user tracking over user experience and privacy. Features like convenient input buttons are sacrificed for pushing ads and webOS apps. "This is all likely to get worse as TV companies target software, tracking, and ad sales as ways to monetize customers after their TV purchases -- even at the cost of customer convenience and privacy," writes Scharon Harding. "When budget brands like Roku are selling TV sets at a loss, you know something's up."
Google's Voice Assistant (e.g., Nest Hubs): Functionality has degraded over time, with previously working features becoming unreliable. Users report frequent misunderstandings and unresponsiveness. "I'm fine just saying it now: Google Assistant is worse now than it was soon after it started," writes Kevin Purdy. "Even if Google is turning its entire supertanker toward AI now, it's not clear why 'Start my morning routine,' 'Turn on the garage lights,' and 'Set an alarm for 8 pm' had to suffer."
Portable Document Format (PDF): While initially useful for cross-platform document sharing and preserving formatting, PDFs have become bloated and problematic. Copying text, especially from academic journals, is often garbled or impossible. "Apple, which had given the PDF a reprieve, has now killed its main selling point," writes John Timmer. "Because Apple has added OCR to the MacOS image display system, I can get more reliable results by screenshotting the PDF and then copying the text out of that. This is the true mark of its enshittification: I now wish the journals would just give me a giant PNG."
Televised Sports (specifically cycling and Formula 1): Streaming services have consolidated, leading to significantly increased costs for viewers. Previously affordable and comprehensive options have been replaced by expensive bundles across multiple platforms. "Formula 1 racing has largely gone behind paywalls, and viewership is down significantly over the last 15 years," writes Eric Berger. "Major US sports such as professional and college football had largely been exempt, but even that is now changing, with NFL games being shown on Peacock, Amazon Prime, and Netflix. None of this helps viewers. It enshittifies the experience for us in the name of corporate greed."
Google Search: AI overviews often bury relevant search results under lengthy, sometimes inaccurate AI-generated content. This makes finding specific information, especially primary source documents, more difficult. "Google, like many big tech companies, expects AI to revolutionize search and is seemingly intent on ignoring any criticism of that idea," writes Ashley Belanger.
Email AI Tools (e.g., Gemini in Gmail): Intrusive and difficult to disable, these tools offer questionable value due to their potential for factual inaccuracies. Users report being unable to fully opt-out. "Gmail won't take no for an answer," writes Dan Goodin. "It keeps asking me if I want to use Google's Gemini AI tool to summarize emails or draft responses. As the disclaimer at the bottom of the Gemini tool indicates, I can't count on the output being factual, so no, I definitely don't want it."
Windows: While many complaints about Windows 11 originated with Windows 10, the newer version continues the trend of unwanted features, forced updates, and telemetry data collection. Bugs and performance issues also plague the operating system. "... it sure is easy to resent Windows 11 these days, between the well-documented annoyances, the constant drumbeat of AI stuff (some of it gated to pricey new PCs), and a batch of weird bugs that mostly seem to be related to the under-the-hood overhauls in October's Windows 11 24H2 update," writes Andrew Cunningham. "That list includes broken updates for some users, inoperable scanners, and a few unplayable games. With every release, the list of things you need to do to get rid of and turn off the most annoying stuff gets a little longer."
Web Discourse: The rapid spread of memes, trends, and corporate jargon on social media has led to a homogenization of online communication, making it difficult to distinguish original content and creating a sense of constant noise. "[T]he enshittifcation of social media, particularly due to its speed and virality, has led to millions vying for their moment in the sun, and all I see is a constant glare that makes everything look indistinguishable," writes Jacob May. "No wonder some companies think AI is the future."
Google's Voice Assistant (e.g., Nest Hubs): Functionality has degraded over time, with previously working features becoming unreliable. Users report frequent misunderstandings and unresponsiveness. "I'm fine just saying it now: Google Assistant is worse now than it was soon after it started," writes Kevin Purdy. "Even if Google is turning its entire supertanker toward AI now, it's not clear why 'Start my morning routine,' 'Turn on the garage lights,' and 'Set an alarm for 8 pm' had to suffer."
Portable Document Format (PDF): While initially useful for cross-platform document sharing and preserving formatting, PDFs have become bloated and problematic. Copying text, especially from academic journals, is often garbled or impossible. "Apple, which had given the PDF a reprieve, has now killed its main selling point," writes John Timmer. "Because Apple has added OCR to the MacOS image display system, I can get more reliable results by screenshotting the PDF and then copying the text out of that. This is the true mark of its enshittification: I now wish the journals would just give me a giant PNG."
Televised Sports (specifically cycling and Formula 1): Streaming services have consolidated, leading to significantly increased costs for viewers. Previously affordable and comprehensive options have been replaced by expensive bundles across multiple platforms. "Formula 1 racing has largely gone behind paywalls, and viewership is down significantly over the last 15 years," writes Eric Berger. "Major US sports such as professional and college football had largely been exempt, but even that is now changing, with NFL games being shown on Peacock, Amazon Prime, and Netflix. None of this helps viewers. It enshittifies the experience for us in the name of corporate greed."
Google Search: AI overviews often bury relevant search results under lengthy, sometimes inaccurate AI-generated content. This makes finding specific information, especially primary source documents, more difficult. "Google, like many big tech companies, expects AI to revolutionize search and is seemingly intent on ignoring any criticism of that idea," writes Ashley Belanger.
Email AI Tools (e.g., Gemini in Gmail): Intrusive and difficult to disable, these tools offer questionable value due to their potential for factual inaccuracies. Users report being unable to fully opt-out. "Gmail won't take no for an answer," writes Dan Goodin. "It keeps asking me if I want to use Google's Gemini AI tool to summarize emails or draft responses. As the disclaimer at the bottom of the Gemini tool indicates, I can't count on the output being factual, so no, I definitely don't want it."
Windows: While many complaints about Windows 11 originated with Windows 10, the newer version continues the trend of unwanted features, forced updates, and telemetry data collection. Bugs and performance issues also plague the operating system. "... it sure is easy to resent Windows 11 these days, between the well-documented annoyances, the constant drumbeat of AI stuff (some of it gated to pricey new PCs), and a batch of weird bugs that mostly seem to be related to the under-the-hood overhauls in October's Windows 11 24H2 update," writes Andrew Cunningham. "That list includes broken updates for some users, inoperable scanners, and a few unplayable games. With every release, the list of things you need to do to get rid of and turn off the most annoying stuff gets a little longer."
Web Discourse: The rapid spread of memes, trends, and corporate jargon on social media has led to a homogenization of online communication, making it difficult to distinguish original content and creating a sense of constant noise. "[T]he enshittifcation of social media, particularly due to its speed and virality, has led to millions vying for their moment in the sun, and all I see is a constant glare that makes everything look indistinguishable," writes Jacob May. "No wonder some companies think AI is the future."
Tesla owner (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
My wife and I were out yesterday for a nice outdoor patio lunch in our small city and a Cybertruck pulled up to the red light by the restaurant. When the light turned green, it did not move. It sat there. About 5 minutes go by and the owner finally gets out, on the phone.
He got back in several times, got out, fidgeted with something around the front of the thing, got back in, out, in, out again, on the phone, voice getting louder. Eventually a cop pulled up behind and told him to move it. The owner could no
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
Please, you don't have to make up stories, anonymously, here of all places, when nobody here is interested in such a thing. I am of course talking about your "wife."
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Lots of people do dumb things. I frequently drive a 40 year old sports car, just not on days I have something really import to do as in can't be rescheduled. I absolutely expect sooner or later something I can't either limp around with, or deal with at least temporarily with some common spares and the tools I keep in the trunk will go wrong. It will have to be towed home. I have insurance coverage for that :-)
Now I would not even try starting it in below 0 temps but if it were an electric, well it cold sh
Re: (Score:3)
People with more money than sense in other words. From the moment the cybertruck was unveiled it should have been obvious it would be a turd in every way imaginable. An ugly, overbearing, dangerous (to occupants, pedestrians & other road users), overpriced, underperforming wankpanzer. A terrible EV and a terrible truck. And after the fact we learn it is unreliable, and uninsurable too. Anyone who believed Elon Musk or his lies deserved everything they got with this lemon.
No wonder the waiting list went
Re: Tesla owner (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I can't claim credit for that but it's best name I've seen coined for this shitty vehicle.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Still the best EV you can buy.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd take a Polestar any day and they look so much better.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Tesla owner (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I think the Model 3 and Y are good cars in some ways and poor in others. The software is great (barring lack of Android / Carplay), the storage and interior space is great. Driving experience is okay. But the lack of physical controls, especially in the latest incarnation is a major nuisance and safety concern. I would not recommend anyone buy a Tesla when they clearly an put owner's inconvenience and safety below saving a buck or two on stalks.
Also "best" means different things to different people. There a
Re: (Score:2)
Still the best EV you can buy.
I rode in the front seat of a Model 3 many years ago and was impressed, mostly by the space-age feel and mind-numbing acceleration. Recently I rode in the back seat and noticed some things from a different perspective.
The steering wheel is smaller, which I've read is for better performance when driving on a racetrack. The rearview mirror is smaller, which is better for ... I don't know. The rear seat sits higher so that my 5'7" frame almost touches the ceiling. I was less impressed with this latest ride.
Re: (Score:2)
Have fun at the clinic.
Not only Tesla driver UI wise (Score:3)
Tesla led the way, but now most new cars apart from real bottom of the range ones have some shitty touchscreen with formally easily within reach buttons now shoved on there so its hard or impossible to do on the move - eg BMWs climate controls - or if you're really unlucky buried N menus down like most in car enternainment systems. In my old car I pressed 1 button to change the radio channel - now I have to go 2 levels down, flick through a list of stations and THEN press select it. Sure, I can really do th
Re: (Score:2)
I love searching on Netflix. "Hey you searched on Doctor Who, so here are some recommendations which are conspicuously NOT Doctor Who".
Re: (Score:2)
At least it was probably shows that are similar. I watched the movie Leo with the kids. Adam Sandler is a voice actor in it. Later, I got a category recommendation of something like "Because of your interest in Adam" and showed a list of shows with Adam in the title and then a few with other actors named Adam. A couple further down the list did have Adam Sandler as well.
I'd argue that smart TVs have always been shit (Score:3)
Re:I'd argue that smart TVs have always been shit (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed, but smart TVs use to be crap because the CPUs and GPUs were inadequate to make a fast spiffy UI. AKA “shit because they couldn’t make it not shit”. Smart TVs are shit now because something other than the user experience is the goal, so “continue watching” is buried below “things we think (hope!) you would like” and “sign up for a new streaming service so we can get our cut of your monthly bleeding!”.
Re: (Score:2)
All my smart TVs are kept dump. They don't get my Wifi SSID / pass.
I prefer connecting a nice AlmaLinux mini PC to it. Fast enough UI, standard and compatible browsers, no data collection.
Re:I'd argue that smart TVs have always been shit (Score:4, Interesting)
The problem with this argument is that 5G and mesh networks are going to render your willingness to let your "smart" home devices spy on you and phone home irrelevant.
New cars already come with built-in SIM cards of their own. The next generation of networking technologies is probably going to make it cheap and ubiquitous for other devices to be independently online as well.
This is the part where the market has clearly failed and regulation is supposed to step in to protect the ordinary citizen, right?
Re: (Score:2)
My tv connected to the internet exactly once for an update. Then it was never allowed again. Letting it update was my last step before returning it since it was unusable as is.
Re: (Score:2)
I lived mine when it was new.
It just had a built in Chromecast when it was new.
Then 8 months later the did major "upgrade" and it was full of nonsense and less reliable.
Re: I'd argue that smart TVs have always been shit (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Streaming boxes are pretty tiny. I have a wall mounted TV that I just used some velcro to attach an NVidia shield to the back of. The outlet behind it has two receptacles in it anyways so power is not an issue. Plus many TVs have dedicated USB power ports for streaming boxes these days. Add a 2' HDMI cable and you are done. Completely invisible from the front.
Firewall Logs for Roku TVs (Score:4, Informative)
I have a router at home that has AdGuard built into it. 80% of the blocked connection logs are the Roku TVs trying to phone home. Luckily AdGuard is very good at blocking Roku TVs from phoning home.
Re: (Score:2)
Amazon Echo too. (Score:2)
It became progressively worse in the past few years and it is barely usable even as a voice controlled light switch anymore.
Re: (Score:1)
Amazon Echo became progressively worse in the past few years and it is barely usable even as a voice controlled light switch anymore.
Got a new one from my company as a gift, the thing turns itself off by itself and it takes literally hours off the charger to get it back online. Asked it to find updates, not deal. Had to return it and didn't hear anything back
All online was shittified (Score:3)
I've stumbled across a few e-books that use a non-standard code-page or font. It displays correctly in a PDF viewer but when I copy, the letters and digits are there and the punctuation is 'scrambled'. Similarly, if I want to search for punctuation I have to remember that:
"[" is really "@",
"]" is really "D",
"/" is really "ê",
"{" is really "8",
"}" is really "<"
Microsoft is the biggest offender but the list hides the reality that all of the big cloud services have enshittified their online products. I remember Google Play Store applet received so many bad reviews that Google deleted its own product listing. Facebook has gradually hidden, then deleted data's privacy-control settings.
Planet of Shame (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
wages are outpacing price increases.
Eggs aside, grocery prices are still insanely inflated. Cartel-like price fixing from the few major companies involved, carried over from the pandemic. Fast food companies too.
It's not the actual cost of food, though. It's now cheaper around me to eat a lunch special at a restaurant than to go through a drive-through. Even with a tip.
Re: Planet of Shame (Score:1)
Boris? He was wonderful in comparison to the lettuce.
Re: (Score:2)
That's not a problem with PDF, of course. It's obfuscation being used as content protection. A substitution cipher with a rearranged font to match.
The English language. (Score:1, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, you would assume that a writer could come up with a term that;s less, well, shitty.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Enshittification is a description of /. editors, the /. service, and the regular pushing of grifters like Cory Doctorow.
The observation it alleges to refer to is merely a feature of capitalism that has been well understood longer than we've been alive.
Can there be anything more pathetic than an author reduced to claiming he invented a word and for years attempting to monetize it?
That's life! (Score:2)
Modern life, that is:
It enshittifies the experience for us in the name of corporate greed
I'm privileged to be able to miss the worst of the 'daily life' examples of enshittification. I don't stream music, movies, or TV. I don't do social media, except for Slashdot. I spend too much time on YouTube, but browser extensions eliminate the ads and keep the UI tolerable. I use Linux, so beyond my wife's work experiences with Windows, the drama generated by that sad excuse for an OS doesn't affect me directly. All that said, the fact of pervasive enshittification makes me angry, i
Re: (Score:2)
Formula 1 (Score:3)
Not sure I agree. The advent of free youtube highlight reels has brought me back into the sport, and I think this is a really good way to watch it. I watch all the gran prix and qualifying now by just watching the highlights in one sitting. I used to watch a lot of the full races, but honestly, (a) I just don't have time these days (b) it's really not that interesting most of the time.
F1 is more about how the season develops at a driver/car/team level. Then there can be particular moments in a race, or drama during accidents or pitstops. But most of the time during races it's just cars following at 2 second intervals to 'manage tyres and fuel', with a few lead cars being obscenely quicker than everyone else. But this has always been the case with F1 because it is a development series. Outside of a handful of seasons, the racing is mostly won in hidden tech development long before the cars are on the track. If we are lucky, the leading team might have inter-team battles, and every now and again, another team will challenge the lead team for best car for a little bit. It's really a soap opera sport.
If I could easily pay-per-view a few of the races (e.g. Monza, Spa) then I'd likely do that, but when I think back to my youthful days watching races seasons, it was largely because I had lots of free time and nothing better to do.
You Forgot America (Score:3, Insightful)
The ultimate enshittification.
Re: (Score:3)
We were way further past racism in the 80s than we are now. Then, shortly after we elected a black President, we regressed. Or, some people regressed, rather.
The emergence of new technology used to be exciting. Home computers, home video, newer TVs and appliances. But now, there's a overarching foreboding with the advancement of tech. It's no long
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
"...what the fuck happened?"
Ronald Reagan and the religious right happened. A political party humiliated by Nixon's corruption happened.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Your post makes me sad, but I'm forced to agree. I grew up in 80s and 90s America -- what a great time. I love my country, but... what the fuck happened?
The root of the answer is economic, The Productivity Pay Gap [epi.org].
People are always for their own self preservation first. If you want them to help others, be tolerant of others, or generally work on making a better society they have to feel like their own self preservation is not being threatened. Over time the disconnect in that graph has grown, leading to more and more people worried about their own preservation. Unable to afford housing, food, transportation, they start to worry only about themselves and
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
We were way further past racism in the 80s than we are now.
We were not. The racists were just quieter, so we could pretend they weren't just as racist (if not moreso, as time goes by the elder nazis die off.) There were cross burnings in Oregon [paleofuture.com] on a semi-regular basis in the 80s. Even the part of California I live in is racist AF. I've blocked a shitton of locals (established accounts which were associated with other established accounts) on faceboot for extremely blatant racism, and on multiple occasions I walked in on my prior boss telling a racist joke about Me
Re: (Score:2)
Wikipedia has enshittified. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: Wikipedia has enshittified. (Score:1)
I noticed this quite some time ago. Their bias against China is pretty blatant, the last time I looked, with several long-debunked images being used front-and-centre.
At one time, I used to donate, but not for some years.
Re: (Score:2)
LOL. that is a degree of stupidness that would not have appeared on /. once upon a time. Encyclopedias exist to be an objective authority, they do not commit "appeal to authority" fallacies. Encyclopedias do not exist to "provide a balanced view", you idiot.
"I'm proud to be banned from Wikipedia, as it means i think normally"
No, it's doesn't mean that. It means you are an asshole. But the idea that you think "normally" is the problem.
Re: (Score:2)
I think what the parent is referring to is that you're required to back up edits with reference to authoritative sources, but the allowed authoritative sources are, perhaps, not.
alas even ... (Score:2)
PDFs for job search (Score:2)
With millions of people looking for work right now, Adobe has a golden opportunity to make PDFs relevant and useful again. AIT bots are about as bad at reading PDFs as trying to copy paste info out of them. They do a terrible job and you end up re-entering 90% of your info anyway. Any page layout formatting that makes it easier for humans to read just make this worse.
With almost no effort, Adobe could add meta tagging to PDFs to separate the content layer from the formatting later. Store your tagged info in
Re: PDFs for job search (Score:2)
Tell me you know nothing about where PDFs come from without... well, you know the rest.
Adobe owns the PDF standard but provides it free for everyone to implement. This means that while Adobe makes very fine tools that can create tagged PDFs like what you are describing, it takes time and effort to get it right, and they are not shy about charging their customers for the privilege of using these tools. The tools are excellent but the prices are high.
On the other hand, Joe Bob' Haus Of Software can throw toge
Re: (Score:1)
Till now.
PDFs were always shit... (Score:1)
If you aren't going to print it, don't PDF it.
Some more shittified things (Score:1)
Meetup.com (Score:2)
Used to be a passable way to meet new people and connect in a variety of communities.
Then they massively raised the prices for organizers, so most quit using it.
Then a few months ago they started charging memberships for features that used to be free.
All while making no improvements to the platform.
Now it's mostly just online new age self-help and real estate investing sales, with the occasional sports groups. Sad. And especially sad that a viable alternative hasn't really arisen yet. Perhaps a ./ reader
The enflattification of GUIs (Score:3, Interesting)
GUIs used to have buttons that were raised, so you know they were buttons, text entry boxes that were indented, so you knew you could type there, and the rest was flat because you could not interact with it.
Now some arty cunts have made the whole GUI flat, so the user has no idea what can be clicked or where text can be entered.
( Not mentioning the shitty Windows Dialogs where you cannot select the text of the message, to look it up, because that was always shit. )
Re: (Score:2)
No window borders as the default on Windows was a huge enshittification. Watching my elderly mother trying to make sense of a mass of intersecting rectangles while trying to do something with an email attachment was soul destroying.
Re: (Score:2)
It's part of the problem. Do not underestimate the SuperKendalls, peons who lie for sport. SuperKendalls believe in tribalism above all else, they enable elites to exploit them and gain the power you have identified. Elites are a fraction of a percent but SuperKendalls are everywhere. What's the greater problem, one Melonia Musk or the 75 million tribalists that enable him?
We live in a democracy, it is only the people that can ultimately solve the problem. SuperKendalls are to blame, corrupt billionair
Re: (Score:2)
We live in a democracy, it is only the people that can ultimately solve the problem. SuperKendalls are to blame, corrupt billionaires are merely the consequence.
Insert clasped hands meme here. The SuperKendalls are created and/or emboldened by propaganda from the corrupt billionaires; the corrupt billionaires are enabled and protected by the SuperKendalls. And so the march of prosperity theology continues.
Huawei (Score:1)
> more reliable results by screenshotting the PDF
Huawei have had this feature on their phones for many years. It's a lot easier than trying to select text directly.
Re: (Score:2)
Circle to Search on Android works for this as well. Badly named feature, since you don't need to search. But at least you don't actually have to snap a screenshot and remember to delete it.
I just use Linux for my smart tv. (Score:2)
Products are like politicians (Score:2)
You get what you choose and/or pay for.
Re: (Score:2)
Do you really choose politicians?
In most cases you have 2 terrible options which boils down to parties which are controlled by money, not by you the voting public.
Are you telling me that more than 50% of the US population chose Trump?
Was ARS copying or are they the ditor (Score:2)
Twitter is shit, maybe always was? (Score:1)
All I see on Twitter is a post by someone well-connected, followed by a flat list of 100s of comments, and most are inane.
That is useless for discussion of a subject compared to say, this site, where comments are NESTED and it is pretty to see sub-topics and join in where you like the area of chat, or skip over the ACs and usual morons.
What do people get out of Twitters massively-long, flat comment lists?
I don't get this (Score:2)
It's not enshittification if the free market decided this is what's best, right?
So many people here say that the market knows best so if this is what the market decided then why are we denigrating these decisions with terms like "enshittification"?
Re: (Score:2)
Wrong. Most of these companies lose money for an unacceptable amount of time to provide any meaningful return on equity. Stock prices are the exit strategy, and that is inflated really by a loose network of cronies, which is anything but "free".
Re: (Score:2)
If the market had any benevolent actors, the malevolent ones wouldn't prevail. Unfortunately, the greed required to have the resources to dominate the market don't usually happen with the former of the two.
Re: (Score:2)
Cars? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
<shows self out>
Re: (Score:1)
What exactly has been enshittified ?
Cars are safer then ever, more efficent than ever, and more reliable than ever.
I want 1997's Alta Vista back! (Score:1)