Facebook was once a novel and entertaining digital playground. It was a space where people could exchange news with friends for free and easily form relationships with people around the world. As users flocked in, the platform changed. Advertisers became more important customers, and the news feed was filled with ads. Users' data became an asset for advertising, and once formed, personal connections and networks made it difficult to easily leave for another platform.
Cory Doctorow, a science fiction author and digital rights activist, critically traces the process of platform degradation in his new book "Enshittification." He defines "enshittification" as a term meaning the phenomenon in which the user experience gradually worsens as a platform maximizes profits. This neologism, built on a vulgar word meaning "excrement," clearly explains the platform fatigue that users have vaguely felt.
The book organizes the "life cycle" of platforms into four stages. At first, they provide the best service to secure users. Next, they sacrifice user convenience to attract advertisers and business customers. After securing market dominance, they maximize profits by pressuring even advertisers and vendors. In the end, both users and businesses become dissatisfied, and the platform degenerates into a "giant pile of excrement."
The author analyzes that this process has been repeated not only at Facebook but also at most big tech platforms including Amazon, Apple, and X (Twitter). Apple grew its app ecosystem and then sharply raised App Store fees, and search services show ads before the information users want. As digital content shifted from purchase to subscription, consumers can no longer fully own the content they bought.
The "lock-in" effect is cited as the background behind platforms gaining such immense power. This is because a structure was created in which users, businesses, and advertisers all become tied to a single platform, making it difficult for anyone to easily leave. Platforms that started as innovative intermediaries have, before anyone realized it, effectively monopolized even the relationship between producers and consumers, becoming entities that suck value from both sides.
That said, the author is not anti-technology. He argues that a better internet environment can be created through expanding mobility that allows users to freely leave platforms, antitrust regulation, and the restoration of technological self-determination that allows people to repair and use the devices they purchased themselves. He clearly organizes the cause of the vague discomfort with platforms that people have felt at some point, and even suggests a direction for reclaiming a "good playground and intermediary" once again. 24,000 won.
