Lately (or in this current era). I want to ask you personally. Do you feel like everything is getting worse? It's not a spontaneous bias. And you aren't crazy for thinking so. Everything is literally heading towards to the south. Ranging from social media to clothes you are wearing. Their qualities are in decline while you have to squeeze out your wallet harder. And it seems this strange phenomenon is creeping into other aspect of your life without you knowing it. Yes. You are being taken advantage of. And again. Yes. You can say reality is heading to a dark path where everything stenches like ... shit.

The Enshittification of Reality

I don't think I need to explain what "enshittification" means. The word radiates so much aura you can tell it's not a good word to begin with. And not because it has the word "shit" in it. But because it perfectly describes our modern lives without being too complicated.

But I'll still explain it if you are so out of touch with reality.

"Enshittification" is a vulgar term, coined by Cory Doctorow, to describe a phenomenon of degradation in products and services in big tech industry over time. In a nutshell. It's similar to "a frog in a boiling pot" analogy. First. They offer high-quality products and promises to attract customers. Then. They graduately decrease their services and products' quality in order to reap more benefits. And finally. When their customers realize the problem, they make it harder to move away from their craps through degenerate tactics like monopoly or legal loopholes that lawyers rely on to make their honest livings.

While the term is used to describe big tech industry practice. Nowadays. It has been normalized to describe anything that used to be great but now bad. If you still don't get the picture. I have provided some examples you can (or could) come across.

Woes, Worns, and Worses

Search Engine

In the early days of Internet, and before Google manifested. There was an old search engine called "Ask Jeeves". The search engine itself was basic and didn't search well at all. This leaded to the creation of "Google" and their offer in a reliable search engine service. Back then. Google would put the most relevant results on the first page with less considerations in SEO. As company grew. Google added more features to their search engines; like more search category such as travel, book, and shopping.

However, as time went on and shareholders demanded more growth. Google "secretly" dropped their "don't be evil" motto and straight up be evil without any shames. Their search engine's efficiency had been crippled. Advertisements and sponsored craps that don't associate with your search keyword are shown in the results. Google's cranker shows its half-baked result before any actual results. Websites with low-quality subpar posts gated behind their king's ransom paywalls are shown first due to SEO abuse ... and Google does nothing about it except integrate more AI features nobody asked for.

But the question here is: can you move away from it? Obviously. Yeah. But other options are ... eh. Let's see. Bing? Owned by Micro$oft. As worse as (or worse than) Google. DuckDuckGo? Probably the best choice for public. But its backend actually relies on Bing, which is still associating with Micro$oft.

In summary. All roads lead to Google (or Micro$oft). I know there are other lesser choices like Baidu. But ... No. Just don't.

Cars

It's hard to live on this world without a personal vehicle in this era (sadly). Sure. Public transportations do exist. But they aren't much to brag about and they don't really cover all routes.

For cars. New cars are tied heavily with subscription services that requires a smartphone in order to be utilized. The worst part is these new "features" were already existed in old cars but being introduced as "new" and "smart" with a hefty price tag on it. If automotive manufacturers could turn air bags or acceleration into a subscription, they would do so in a heartbeat. One of them actually exists by the way. And as more unnecessary components grow in a car, it will become harder to fix or maintain.

If you only want a car that is actually a car. Look for older (DOES NOT MEAN "SECOND-THIRD-FOURTH ... THOUSANDS-HAND") models from trusted dealerships that don't jack up their prices or keep nagging you about their endless stock of pavement princesses. You want a vehicle, not a subscription on wheels. Just ... Can you imagine you have to pay more while you already paid a lot?

Video Games

Video games used to be a niche for nerds, geeks, and basement dwellers. But as technology progresses, video games have become a norm in society thanks to affordable computers. And as without saying. Enshittification also had plagued gaming, way before the invention of the word itself. Modern AAA games are plagued to have aggressive right-in-your-face micro-transactions, DLCs, seasons, or "premium" features that requires money to purchase.

Take "MineCraft: Bedrock Edition" as an example. Bedrock Edition was introduced as a "definitive" and ""real"" edition when Micro$oft acquired Mojang Studio. And Micro$oft being Micro$oft. They forced all players to require a Micro$oft account in order to play MineCraft. This means if you don't want to sign up a Micro$oft account, you can't play Minecraft even if you bought it before the acquisition.

They also added "marketplace" (in hope to make money from kids like what Roblox does) by selling cosmetics, maps, and mods ... Which costs next to nothing in Java Edition world. And yet. Even with above "improvements". Bedrock Edition is STILL unfamously known for having galore of game breaking bugs and poor UIs. Good thing Java Edition still exists. Because Micro$oft knows if they deprecate it, it would cause a mass exodus. But still. Java Edition is still under a hostage situation.

There are many, many games that had been enshittified. But unlucky for greedy publishers. Since gamers are the most oppressive, they are damn AGGRESSIVE when they know they have been rugpulled; they started to vote with their wallets (and piracy). And plus. There are many ways for them to get that gaming kicks either from retro, indie, mods, fangames, and .etc.

Above are just a few examples of enshittifications. There are more, MORE, enshittifications across every area in our life. To be honest. The word transcends itself from describe worsening software to worsening everything. From food, medicine, entertainment, work, and plethora of what makes humans, humane.

Enshittification has become a plague in humanity and a blight to our crops. It ruins any positive outlooks for a brighter future, dim it with short-term thinking that creates long-term problems for generations to come. Of course the reason enshittifications exists because we are living in a greedy society. Not capitalism. Not socialism. Not whatever human ruling systems their creators claim to be perfect. All downfalls in history were born from one's desire to be a cancer cell to everything and themselves. And this, is no exception.

Defeatism Won't Help

Sure. The reality might have been enshittified (can I stop saying that word?). But not all hope is lost. Because ... Aren't you tired of defeatism? Aren't you tired of saying "this is hopeless" over and over again? I am too. Well guess what. All you need to do to bring your hope back is to take actions against it.

Don't let your hope dies out because some douches want to make more pennies to themselves while others lose dollars. Be aware about enshittifications. Spread the words about enshittifications. Learn and research about why enshittification happens. And lastly. Look up solutions in order to deshittify ... Or create one by your own if you dare.

A brighter future is possible. We all have to work on it.