Oh God, What Now? Why Tech Sucks – Cory Doctorow on Enshittification and how to fix it
Nov 25, 2025
Cory Doctorow, a renowned science fiction author and tech critic, dives into the concept of 'enshittification,' explaining how platforms like Facebook and Amazon degrade user experience over time. He uncovers the dark transformation of these platforms from user-friendly to ad-driven. The discussion spans antitrust failures, the monopolization of tech giants, and the implications of Elon Musk's Twitter takeover. Doctorow also emphasizes the need for collective action to combat these issues and explores potential escape routes for users seeking alternatives.
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What Enshittification Means
- Enshittification describes platforms that start great, lock users in, then prioritise advertisers and degrade experiences.
- Cory Doctorow coined it to explain why services become indispensable yet unusable over time.
Facebook As The Prototype Case
- Doctorow uses Facebook's trajectory as a prototype: early utility, mass adoption, advertiser pivot and the metaverse pivot.
- He illustrates how users stay because they value friends more than leaving the platform.
Three-Stage Model Of Platform Decay
- Doctorow outlines three stages: serve users, lock them in with value, then extract value from users and business customers.
- Lock-in enables platforms to add ads, degrade service and prioritise profit over users.
