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Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Nonfiction (2025)Explaining the process of the “enshittification” of digital platforms over time and what to do about it.
Cory Doctorow's Enshittification takes a witty yet incisive look at the tech landscape, where platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Google start off great—before they inevitably turn terrible. In this contemporary moment of digital decline, Doctorow explores how tech giants lure users in with convenience and then degrade their services over time, squeezing profit at the cost of user experience. With a mix of sharp humor and deep insight, he unveils the slow creep of "enshittification," turning the online world into a worse place, one algorithm at a time.
Length: 10 hours 17 minutes
Cory Doctorow's Enshittification takes a witty yet incisive look at the tech landscape, where platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Google start off great—before they inevitably turn terrible. In this contemporary moment of digital decline, Doctorow explores how tech giants lure users in with convenience and then degrade their services over time, squeezing profit at the cost of user experience. With a mix of sharp humor and deep insight, he unveils the slow creep of "enshittification," turning the online world into a worse place, one algorithm at a time.
Length: 10 hours 17 minutes
11 pages, Audiobook
First published October 7, 2025
2418 people are currently reading
41561 people want to read
About the author
Cory Doctorow
260 books6,375 followersCory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of the YA graphic novel In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, and young adult novels like Homeland, Pirate Cinema, and
Little Brother
and novels for adults like
Rapture Of The Nerds
and Makers. He is a Fellow for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,285 reviews
June 9, 2025
4 stars - Please don’t let the cute cover fool you - this is a very serious book about how both the internet and our world got so crappy (see what I did there?) Using well-researched examples of different big corporations, the author clearly connects the capitalistic 💩 cycle - from initial excitement, functionality and innovation, to putting corporate & shareholder profit before end users and then business customers to total dysfunction and massive profits & soaring stocks. Meta, Uber, Amazon, Apple, streaming - they’re all here and they’re all very guilty of it. Super interesting, timely and also an approachable read & glad I read it early from Net Galley - recommend it highly to those wondering why all companies are 💩 now.
January 3, 2026
*added a star 1/2/26
"Here’s the natural history of enshittification:
1. First, platforms are good to their users.
2. Then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers.
3. Next, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves.
4. Finally, they have become a giant pile of shit." p16
Holy sh-t I need to catch my breath.
Pre-Read Notes:
I'm not super familiar with Cory Doctorow's work, but I know this term from other people who think about the price of the digital world and how it changes the real physical world that we actually live in. When I saw this one available in NetGalley, I jumped. I'm exactly the person he wrote this for!
"Because enshittification isn’t just a way to say “Something got worse.”* It’s an analysis that explains the way an online service gets worse, how that worsening unfolds, and the contagion that’s causing everything to get worse, all at once." p12
Final Review
(thoughts & recs) I just really wanted to highlight this entire book.
Enshitification is way, way better than Careless People. It will probably get a fraction of the attention, but it shouldn't be that way. Please, if you thought Careless People was an important book, read this one soon after.
My Favorite Things:
✔️ Wow, these case studies are eye opening. Did you know when prices increase at Amazon, it drives them up everywhere else? No? Please read this book.
✔️ In a really important way, this book is extremely sad. It tells the story of how capitalists prey on humans' most basic drive--to be together. "That’s why people are still on Twitter. It’s not that they like the service— it’s that they like one another. And leaving one another is especially hard in moments when things are especially terrible— say, when Elon Musk and Donald Trump are dismantling whole swaths of the US government in a blatantly undemocratic way. Those moments of existential terror are exactly when you need your community the most." p47
✔️ "Enshittification— deliberately worsening a service— is only possible when people value that service to begin with. Enshittification is a game of seeking an equilibrium between how much people like the thing that locks them to the service (often, that’s other people) and how much they hate the management of that service." I'm sorry. But this makes me furious. So much so that M & I are now having discussions about how to stop using some of these huge digital platforms and diversify our spending.
✔️ Doctorow isn't just sharing necessary information here. He's also witty and often funny, despite the heaviness of his topic. "If you operate a cloud-based app, you can monitor your customers’ every click and keystroke to discover which features are most valuable to your deepest-pocketed users, and then you can remove that feature from the product’s basic tier and reclassify it as an upcharged add-on. The CEOs who do this got their MBAs at Darth Vader University, where the first lesson is “I’m altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.” It works with surprising consistency, and tech executives are so confident in the lessons of the Darth Vader MBA that they come over all affronted and hurt when their customers balk." p83
✔️ "The reason Biden’s Democratic administration backed a generationally significant antitrust agenda is that the people demanded it. You. Me. Us. We were pissed off enough, and loud enough, about corporate abuse that a party and a politician with a long history of doing nothing (or worse than nothing) on these issues finally did something. This is even more remarkable than it sounds, because the academic research on this is clear: the US government almost never acts on the policy preferences of working people , when those preferences conflict with the desires of the rich. Something extraordinary happened in 2020– 2024. It’s still happening. Getting rid of the agencies that turned our demands into law doesn’t make those demands go away. Not hardly." p200 This honestly gives me hope.
✔️ "[...A] rule that required social media platforms to facilitate their users’ painless departure would be extremely easy to administer, without any of the fact-intensiveness that makes anti-harassment rules so cumbersome." p220 This might be the most terrible and simultaneously most helpful info in the book. Why? Because it backlights just how unscrupulous big tech companies are for ignoring this detail, and also gives the reader hope. There are options, unlike we've been convinced to believe.
Content Notes: end stage capitalism, social media, bad business, corruption, Tr*mp, politics of privacy, violations of privacy,
Thank you to Cory Doctorow, Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, and NetGalley for an accessible digital arc of ENSHITIFICATION. All views are mine.
"Here’s the natural history of enshittification:
1. First, platforms are good to their users.
2. Then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers.
3. Next, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves.
4. Finally, they have become a giant pile of shit." p16
Holy sh-t I need to catch my breath.
Pre-Read Notes:
I'm not super familiar with Cory Doctorow's work, but I know this term from other people who think about the price of the digital world and how it changes the real physical world that we actually live in. When I saw this one available in NetGalley, I jumped. I'm exactly the person he wrote this for!
"Because enshittification isn’t just a way to say “Something got worse.”* It’s an analysis that explains the way an online service gets worse, how that worsening unfolds, and the contagion that’s causing everything to get worse, all at once." p12
Final Review
(thoughts & recs) I just really wanted to highlight this entire book.
Enshitification is way, way better than Careless People. It will probably get a fraction of the attention, but it shouldn't be that way. Please, if you thought Careless People was an important book, read this one soon after.
My Favorite Things:
✔️ Wow, these case studies are eye opening. Did you know when prices increase at Amazon, it drives them up everywhere else? No? Please read this book.
✔️ In a really important way, this book is extremely sad. It tells the story of how capitalists prey on humans' most basic drive--to be together. "That’s why people are still on Twitter. It’s not that they like the service— it’s that they like one another. And leaving one another is especially hard in moments when things are especially terrible— say, when Elon Musk and Donald Trump are dismantling whole swaths of the US government in a blatantly undemocratic way. Those moments of existential terror are exactly when you need your community the most." p47
✔️ "Enshittification— deliberately worsening a service— is only possible when people value that service to begin with. Enshittification is a game of seeking an equilibrium between how much people like the thing that locks them to the service (often, that’s other people) and how much they hate the management of that service." I'm sorry. But this makes me furious. So much so that M & I are now having discussions about how to stop using some of these huge digital platforms and diversify our spending.
✔️ Doctorow isn't just sharing necessary information here. He's also witty and often funny, despite the heaviness of his topic. "If you operate a cloud-based app, you can monitor your customers’ every click and keystroke to discover which features are most valuable to your deepest-pocketed users, and then you can remove that feature from the product’s basic tier and reclassify it as an upcharged add-on. The CEOs who do this got their MBAs at Darth Vader University, where the first lesson is “I’m altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.” It works with surprising consistency, and tech executives are so confident in the lessons of the Darth Vader MBA that they come over all affronted and hurt when their customers balk." p83
✔️ "The reason Biden’s Democratic administration backed a generationally significant antitrust agenda is that the people demanded it. You. Me. Us. We were pissed off enough, and loud enough, about corporate abuse that a party and a politician with a long history of doing nothing (or worse than nothing) on these issues finally did something. This is even more remarkable than it sounds, because the academic research on this is clear: the US government almost never acts on the policy preferences of working people , when those preferences conflict with the desires of the rich. Something extraordinary happened in 2020– 2024. It’s still happening. Getting rid of the agencies that turned our demands into law doesn’t make those demands go away. Not hardly." p200 This honestly gives me hope.
✔️ "[...A] rule that required social media platforms to facilitate their users’ painless departure would be extremely easy to administer, without any of the fact-intensiveness that makes anti-harassment rules so cumbersome." p220 This might be the most terrible and simultaneously most helpful info in the book. Why? Because it backlights just how unscrupulous big tech companies are for ignoring this detail, and also gives the reader hope. There are options, unlike we've been convinced to believe.
Content Notes: end stage capitalism, social media, bad business, corruption, Tr*mp, politics of privacy, violations of privacy,
Thank you to Cory Doctorow, Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, and NetGalley for an accessible digital arc of ENSHITIFICATION. All views are mine.
October 9, 2025
A slight spoiler, but I love that this book spends 250 pages on “here’s what enshittification means” and gives incredibly detailed and valuable lessons on the ways it functions and how to spot and analyze it. And then with 5 pages left, Doctrow throws his hands in the air and just says “fucking run with it. Bastardize the idea” because what he sees as the enshittification is a problem that’s growing and must be combatted with thousands of imperfect methods. Essential reading if you want books on 21st century business or technology histories
November 1, 2025
3.5 ⭐
As a millennial who grew up on the internet, I've seen the humble, amazing beginnings of everything. From MySpace bulletins to the early days of Facebook (back so far as when we had to have a mandatory "First Name Last Name is" before every status update), I remember when the internet was this cool thing that lived in the "computer room" at your parents house where you could visit after school and enjoy such luxuries as a chronological feed and apps like Echofon keeping Twitter accessible from your desktop's taskbar.
Because of this, Enshittification is glaring. In this book, Doctorow explains how we got here (here, being the Enshittocene) and how we can get out. Through tons of examples and case studies, this book breaks down all the ways internet giants like Uber, Facebook, and Amazon have gone from incredible tools that we all loved to use, to things we all hate but are now stuck using, even though they have become shells of their former selves, hated by both their users and the advertisers paying to keep them alive.
Now, as far as the book itself goes, if you're a fan of Doctorow's already, or you're someone like me who is chronologically online and has watched all this happen to your favourite social media apps and services, a lot of what's in here is probably stuff you already know or at the very least, won't surprise you.
While this is an enjoyable read, for the most part, I found that Doctorow repeated himself and called back to things he already brought up a lot, to the point where I started to not want to pick it up anymore. I feel as though this were trimmed by ~100 pages, it would be a much more solid book and I would instead give it 4 stars.
All in all, despite the length, I would still recommend this book, especially if you feel like something is off with the tech and apps you interact with every day but can't really put your finger on why, or you want to learn more about the mechanisms behind why everything sucks now.
As a millennial who grew up on the internet, I've seen the humble, amazing beginnings of everything. From MySpace bulletins to the early days of Facebook (back so far as when we had to have a mandatory "First Name Last Name is" before every status update), I remember when the internet was this cool thing that lived in the "computer room" at your parents house where you could visit after school and enjoy such luxuries as a chronological feed and apps like Echofon keeping Twitter accessible from your desktop's taskbar.
Because of this, Enshittification is glaring. In this book, Doctorow explains how we got here (here, being the Enshittocene) and how we can get out. Through tons of examples and case studies, this book breaks down all the ways internet giants like Uber, Facebook, and Amazon have gone from incredible tools that we all loved to use, to things we all hate but are now stuck using, even though they have become shells of their former selves, hated by both their users and the advertisers paying to keep them alive.
Now, as far as the book itself goes, if you're a fan of Doctorow's already, or you're someone like me who is chronologically online and has watched all this happen to your favourite social media apps and services, a lot of what's in here is probably stuff you already know or at the very least, won't surprise you.
While this is an enjoyable read, for the most part, I found that Doctorow repeated himself and called back to things he already brought up a lot, to the point where I started to not want to pick it up anymore. I feel as though this were trimmed by ~100 pages, it would be a much more solid book and I would instead give it 4 stars.
All in all, despite the length, I would still recommend this book, especially if you feel like something is off with the tech and apps you interact with every day but can't really put your finger on why, or you want to learn more about the mechanisms behind why everything sucks now.
March 5, 2026
I have only been on Goodreads since 2018 but since I joined there have been several major changes and IMHO, all of them made the site worse. Remember the old book pages? PM? Why does every change make the site worse? GR is becoming enshittified! But, so Doctorow argues, are most if not all internet platforms. What exactly is enshittification? Doctorow provides a nice schematic:
While Enshittification focuses upon internet platforms. A platform basically serves as a middleman between buyers and sellers (think Amazon, Ebay or Uber). Another word for a platform is an intermediary which serves to connect people with one another. Doctorow argues the problem rests with no intermediaries per se, but rather when these intermediaries become too powerful. A quarter into the digitized 21st century and intermediaries have never been so powerful.
Doctorow focuses upon platforms here, but also applies this to broader aspects of the goods and services we consume. So, what explains the Great Enshittening? Doctorow approaches this like a disease investigation, with sections deemed "the Pathology," "the Epidemiology" and so forth. Basically, Doctorow argues that while all companies would like to enshittify their products to gather more value for them at their user's expense, there are features of our economy that historically have held them back. The four 'checks' he depicts in detail are: 1. the Discipline of Competition; 2. The Discipline of Regulation; 3. The Discipline of Self-Help (e.g., policies that allow people or firms to fix their problems by themselves), and 4. The Discipline of (Tech) Workers. Again, while all four apply to most firms, Doctorow focuses upon the tech industry.
With detailed case studies (Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple) Doctorow demonstrates in detail how all four of these 'checks' have been eroded in the last 25 years. In all sectors of our economy firms have been consolidating, becoming larger and with more market share. A large reason behind this concerns how the US basically abandoned anti-trust from the late 70s to know (thanks to Milton Friedman and neoliberalism). No competition, no impetus to improve your product. Regulation? Please. Regulators have been bought off or become part of the revolving door. Regarding self-help, computers have the ability to run any code, making them interoperable, but due to IP laws, firms restrict this, locking in people. Finally, workers with unions had power; today, what unions? Tech workers were scarce so the tech industry 'wooed' them with nice salaries, free gourmet food, etc., but now? Witness the mass tech layoff in the last few years. In all cases, the 'checks' that used to keep firms in check have eroded.
Doctorow's book really hit home for me. Lucid, clear and well argued. I loved the discussion of intellectual property here. Going back to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), firms lobbied for and won a precedent-- digital rights management (DRM). Copyright being perceived as too weak in a digital environment, DRM are another way to control content. You cannot copy DVDs because they are encrypted with DRM for example. Now, what the DMCA did was install HUGE penalties for cracking DRM. If you, say, 'crack' a DVD you bought, say to make a back up copy, you can still be liable for a 500,000 dollar fine and 5 years in jail. Even if you just have the 'tools' to do so, and never even use them, the same penalty applies. Over the years, various firms and industries have widened the use of DRM. When you buy a car today, you cannot turn of the surveillance of you (which is collected and sold to insurance companies for example) because that would mean 'cracking' the code in your car's computer. Ditto with car repairs; try putting a third party part in your Volvo and it may not work. Why? The part did not have the right chip. You can stick a chip on anything and call it smart, and then DRM provisions apply. Why cannot not you use different ink on your printer than from HP? Each HP ink cartridge has a chip with DRM. Ugly!!
All in all, a fantastic book! If you ever wondered why the internet gets worse each year, you really need to read this. Plus, Doctorow, an unrepentant optimist, has many positive things to say on how to rectify the situation. Kudos Cory! 5 unshitty stars!
1. First, platforms are good to their users.
2. They then abuse their users to make things better for their business customers.
3. Next, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves.
4. Finally, they have become a giant pile of shit.
The pattern is everywhere. Once you learn about it, you'll start seeing it, too.
While Enshittification focuses upon internet platforms. A platform basically serves as a middleman between buyers and sellers (think Amazon, Ebay or Uber). Another word for a platform is an intermediary which serves to connect people with one another. Doctorow argues the problem rests with no intermediaries per se, but rather when these intermediaries become too powerful. A quarter into the digitized 21st century and intermediaries have never been so powerful.
Doctorow focuses upon platforms here, but also applies this to broader aspects of the goods and services we consume. So, what explains the Great Enshittening? Doctorow approaches this like a disease investigation, with sections deemed "the Pathology," "the Epidemiology" and so forth. Basically, Doctorow argues that while all companies would like to enshittify their products to gather more value for them at their user's expense, there are features of our economy that historically have held them back. The four 'checks' he depicts in detail are: 1. the Discipline of Competition; 2. The Discipline of Regulation; 3. The Discipline of Self-Help (e.g., policies that allow people or firms to fix their problems by themselves), and 4. The Discipline of (Tech) Workers. Again, while all four apply to most firms, Doctorow focuses upon the tech industry.
With detailed case studies (Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple) Doctorow demonstrates in detail how all four of these 'checks' have been eroded in the last 25 years. In all sectors of our economy firms have been consolidating, becoming larger and with more market share. A large reason behind this concerns how the US basically abandoned anti-trust from the late 70s to know (thanks to Milton Friedman and neoliberalism). No competition, no impetus to improve your product. Regulation? Please. Regulators have been bought off or become part of the revolving door. Regarding self-help, computers have the ability to run any code, making them interoperable, but due to IP laws, firms restrict this, locking in people. Finally, workers with unions had power; today, what unions? Tech workers were scarce so the tech industry 'wooed' them with nice salaries, free gourmet food, etc., but now? Witness the mass tech layoff in the last few years. In all cases, the 'checks' that used to keep firms in check have eroded.
Doctorow's book really hit home for me. Lucid, clear and well argued. I loved the discussion of intellectual property here. Going back to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), firms lobbied for and won a precedent-- digital rights management (DRM). Copyright being perceived as too weak in a digital environment, DRM are another way to control content. You cannot copy DVDs because they are encrypted with DRM for example. Now, what the DMCA did was install HUGE penalties for cracking DRM. If you, say, 'crack' a DVD you bought, say to make a back up copy, you can still be liable for a 500,000 dollar fine and 5 years in jail. Even if you just have the 'tools' to do so, and never even use them, the same penalty applies. Over the years, various firms and industries have widened the use of DRM. When you buy a car today, you cannot turn of the surveillance of you (which is collected and sold to insurance companies for example) because that would mean 'cracking' the code in your car's computer. Ditto with car repairs; try putting a third party part in your Volvo and it may not work. Why? The part did not have the right chip. You can stick a chip on anything and call it smart, and then DRM provisions apply. Why cannot not you use different ink on your printer than from HP? Each HP ink cartridge has a chip with DRM. Ugly!!
All in all, a fantastic book! If you ever wondered why the internet gets worse each year, you really need to read this. Plus, Doctorow, an unrepentant optimist, has many positive things to say on how to rectify the situation. Kudos Cory! 5 unshitty stars!
December 11, 2025
If you've noticed that everything has gotten worse---from basic Internet services, medical costs, automobiles, air travel, the movie industry, appliances, toys, streaming services, the intelligence level of our politicians, etc.---then you are witnessing what Cory Doctorow calls "Enshittification", which happens to be the title of his latest must-read book. It's not just a clever, humorous title. It encapsulates a frightening truth about the world we are currently living in.
Doctorow, in a nutshell, explains how lack of competition, de-regulation, and a universal trend toward valuing shareholders over both labor and consumers have created monopolies in just about every aspect of our world. It's why Google, Amazon, Apple, Uber, Facebook, and a slew of other companies that we once looked up to and revered now suck. It's because they can afford to, and because they don't care about us---the consumer---anymore. They know that we have no choice but to use their products and services because they are the only ones who can provide those products and services, and they continue to price-gouge and offer shittier services as a result.
Doctorow's book is eye-opening, at least in terms of the amount of research and knowledge he has accrued. It's not really eye-opening in the fact that the world is much shittier than it was just 10 years ago. We already knew this. Doctorow just lays out the whys and wherefores. Thankfully, he also offers solutions. But they are going to require most of us to get off our asses, get involved, and work together.
God fucking help us.
Doctorow, in a nutshell, explains how lack of competition, de-regulation, and a universal trend toward valuing shareholders over both labor and consumers have created monopolies in just about every aspect of our world. It's why Google, Amazon, Apple, Uber, Facebook, and a slew of other companies that we once looked up to and revered now suck. It's because they can afford to, and because they don't care about us---the consumer---anymore. They know that we have no choice but to use their products and services because they are the only ones who can provide those products and services, and they continue to price-gouge and offer shittier services as a result.
Doctorow's book is eye-opening, at least in terms of the amount of research and knowledge he has accrued. It's not really eye-opening in the fact that the world is much shittier than it was just 10 years ago. We already knew this. Doctorow just lays out the whys and wherefores. Thankfully, he also offers solutions. But they are going to require most of us to get off our asses, get involved, and work together.
God fucking help us.
January 19, 2026
It was really depressing to be reading this in the midst of Goodreads taking away the direct messaging function, further enshittifying an already enshittified site that wishes its users would -- to quote another article about the current state of the internet -- "Stop Talking to Each Other and Start Buying Things."
The tech monoliths are moving toward a state of technofeudalism where they get to own everything, and we just rent anything important for our life from them.
While painting this gloomy portrait of the world today, Cory Doctorow tries to throw in some hopeful things he sees that might enable us to push back. But having just finished the book, it's hard to see anything but the walls of the hole we are in, especially since all his analysis barely touches on the ramifications AI will have on this whole affair, and I'm guessing it won't be good.
Very informative and highly recommended.
The tech monoliths are moving toward a state of technofeudalism where they get to own everything, and we just rent anything important for our life from them.
While painting this gloomy portrait of the world today, Cory Doctorow tries to throw in some hopeful things he sees that might enable us to push back. But having just finished the book, it's hard to see anything but the walls of the hole we are in, especially since all his analysis barely touches on the ramifications AI will have on this whole affair, and I'm guessing it won't be good.
Very informative and highly recommended.
November 29, 2025
Surprise surprise, Enshittification is a shit book. That's honestly too bad because the matter is extremely important and needs way more light shining on it. I really want to know what causes "enshittification" and how to battle it. But it's just too damn boring. I kept zoning out or going back to my PC or phone... I dnf at 20% because I both couldn't stand Doctorow's snarky, sassy, annoying way of writing and the extremely boring, copious filler material, droning on and on. I get it. I got it 5 pages ago! The problem is that this book in reality is just a bunch of blog posts by Doctorow combined together. The cohesion is fragile at best, non-existing at worst. It makes sense that it uses "blog" speak, that all-knowing, annoying way of writing to quickly entice readers, and that each part drags out, like stand-alone blog posts. It sucks, and I looked forward to this for months!
I guess if you love reading blogs you'll love this though.
I guess if you love reading blogs you'll love this though.
March 7, 2026
F*** Elon Musk and Trump.
Honestly, that should be a review enough for you.
An interrogating and enlightening non-fiction analysing and presenting the decline of online platforms by showing how digital giants (X, TikTok, Amazon, Meta, Apple) have become "hellish dumpster fires" of poor user experience.
Basically, attract, monetise, wring.
Lure, trap, squeeze.
First, platforms are good to their users. Then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers. Next, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Finally, they have become a giant pile of shit.
The writing is a personable and accessible. The author is humorous, realistic, and in-touch with the lay opinion and perspective.
There are an array of examples used, ones that call every consumer out and others that will shock you.
The monopolisation is glaring and this is only making things worse. There is an interweave of policies, money, and power that makes this a gridlocked system.
Amazon makes 38 billion every yearcharging merchants for search placement.
On average, the first result in an Amazon search is 29 percent more expensive than the best result for your search. Click any of the top four links on the top of your screen, and you'll pay an average of 25 percent more than you would for your best match. On average, that best match is located seventeen places down in an Amazon search result.
I appreciated that the book acknowledged how difficult it is to break this cycle as we have all invested so much (time, money, contacts, photos, ease, convenience, data).
There is some good news and advice on the emerging dynamos the underdog fight back. I do wish there was more information for what the ordinary person can do. If we have to rely on legislative solutions, it feels hopeless.
Bookstagram
Tiktok
Honestly, that should be a review enough for you.
An interrogating and enlightening non-fiction analysing and presenting the decline of online platforms by showing how digital giants (X, TikTok, Amazon, Meta, Apple) have become "hellish dumpster fires" of poor user experience.
Basically, attract, monetise, wring.
Lure, trap, squeeze.
First, platforms are good to their users. Then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers. Next, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Finally, they have become a giant pile of shit.
The writing is a personable and accessible. The author is humorous, realistic, and in-touch with the lay opinion and perspective.
There are an array of examples used, ones that call every consumer out and others that will shock you.
The monopolisation is glaring and this is only making things worse. There is an interweave of policies, money, and power that makes this a gridlocked system.
Amazon makes 38 billion every yearcharging merchants for search placement.
On average, the first result in an Amazon search is 29 percent more expensive than the best result for your search. Click any of the top four links on the top of your screen, and you'll pay an average of 25 percent more than you would for your best match. On average, that best match is located seventeen places down in an Amazon search result.
I appreciated that the book acknowledged how difficult it is to break this cycle as we have all invested so much (time, money, contacts, photos, ease, convenience, data).
There is some good news and advice on the emerging dynamos the underdog fight back. I do wish there was more information for what the ordinary person can do. If we have to rely on legislative solutions, it feels hopeless.
Bookstagram
Tiktok
November 19, 2025
Enlightening, and depressing. I knew I needed to understand just how deeply we are being screwed by corporations, but man, it was hard to hear it all explained in a way that validated everything I suspected and noticed.
Cory Doctorow, I both love you and hate you for the brain bomb you set off in my head with Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It.
Throughout all of the examples given from all areas of the Internet, the bottom line, more or less, is that corporations are going to make things as awful for consumers as they can get away with. As an example, Audible keeps removing features that are inconsequential. It would cost them nothing to continue to offer them, and people like the convenience of certain queries or the way things are displayed. We users complain, but nothing happens. It was baffling why they would pay their programmers to take away popular features, until I read this book. Now I get it. I don't like it, but now I also understand I'm not supposed to like it. As a consumer, I'm being trained to tolerate things getting just a little worse every version, every year.
There isn't much we can do about this, as it's as entrenched in corporate (secret) missions as shinkflation. That was the most disappointing message from the book. The only way to really combat it is to shop locally and support the smaller businesses that are doing things honorably. The corporations will continue to abuse us until we show them we won't put up with it. That takes time and persistence, but we the people do have the power to push back and show them we're not going to take their enshittified nonsense without a fight.
Cory Doctorow, I both love you and hate you for the brain bomb you set off in my head with Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It.
Throughout all of the examples given from all areas of the Internet, the bottom line, more or less, is that corporations are going to make things as awful for consumers as they can get away with. As an example, Audible keeps removing features that are inconsequential. It would cost them nothing to continue to offer them, and people like the convenience of certain queries or the way things are displayed. We users complain, but nothing happens. It was baffling why they would pay their programmers to take away popular features, until I read this book. Now I get it. I don't like it, but now I also understand I'm not supposed to like it. As a consumer, I'm being trained to tolerate things getting just a little worse every version, every year.
There isn't much we can do about this, as it's as entrenched in corporate (secret) missions as shinkflation. That was the most disappointing message from the book. The only way to really combat it is to shop locally and support the smaller businesses that are doing things honorably. The corporations will continue to abuse us until we show them we won't put up with it. That takes time and persistence, but we the people do have the power to push back and show them we're not going to take their enshittified nonsense without a fight.
December 20, 2025
5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audio format 🎧
I don't typically read a lot of nonfiction but I'm glad I got to this one in 2025. Great information about the digital platforms we're all on, including this one.
Enshittification goes into how the tech companies have completely exploited users and the decline of their platforms.
We're f'ing cooked unless there isn't more regulation for these platforms and the predatory behaviors of the tech oligarchs!
Audio format 🎧
I don't typically read a lot of nonfiction but I'm glad I got to this one in 2025. Great information about the digital platforms we're all on, including this one.
Enshittification goes into how the tech companies have completely exploited users and the decline of their platforms.
We're f'ing cooked unless there isn't more regulation for these platforms and the predatory behaviors of the tech oligarchs!
November 30, 2025
I'm gonna call it at 5, although it's probably more of a 4.5, but like Careless People -- ratings matter and we need people to fucking get on board with fixing this shit.
Distilled, Doctorow's argument is elegant and simple: things (the internet & digital products specifically, in this case) get worse because they're allowed to. If you want things to get better, you have to stop allowing them to get worse.
His "Cure" section (or the "What to Do About It" part of the book) can effectively be boiled down to: regulate, unionize, and strike fear into the hearts of the overlords. There's obviously more to it than that, but know that they're all excellent points and things we should do. However, if you're looking for a solution that gives you some sense of individual power, this isn't the book for that. Doctorow spares us the '3 Rs!' bullshit; any one of us recycling didn't stop the climate crisis. So it's a bit depressing, but it's also at least real, and he gives clear examples of where -- even in the new Trump administration -- positive direction is cropping up. There is hope (and it seems like a lot of it is based in Europe, quite frankly).
But reading all of this is a reminder of how far we've fallen and how easy it is to find yourself spun into the wheel of enshittification and technofeudalism (which, Doctorow argues, is the prioritization of "rent" over "profit", and baby are we ever there already). We subscribe to the rhetoric for a variety of reasons -- we like the supposed benefits we get from our shiny new gadgets, we want to keep our salaries to support ourselves and our families, we are too fucking tired to disentangle ourselves from the system. All of these are fair, and all of these are handcuffs that we're all going to need to reckon with sooner rather than later.
Doctorow doesn't say anything particularly new here, I don't think, but he organizes his thoughts brilliantly, writes compellingly, and brings the whole spiralling nightmare into the spotlight in a way that makes it just impossible to ignore. You can delude yourself, but we're in it, and we have to vote, rally, and fight for the right people and things to avoid what looks like a pretty damning future.
But humans are cockroaches, baby -- we've toppled empires before, we'll do it again. Elbows up.
Distilled, Doctorow's argument is elegant and simple: things (the internet & digital products specifically, in this case) get worse because they're allowed to. If you want things to get better, you have to stop allowing them to get worse.
His "Cure" section (or the "What to Do About It" part of the book) can effectively be boiled down to: regulate, unionize, and strike fear into the hearts of the overlords. There's obviously more to it than that, but know that they're all excellent points and things we should do. However, if you're looking for a solution that gives you some sense of individual power, this isn't the book for that. Doctorow spares us the '3 Rs!' bullshit; any one of us recycling didn't stop the climate crisis. So it's a bit depressing, but it's also at least real, and he gives clear examples of where -- even in the new Trump administration -- positive direction is cropping up. There is hope (and it seems like a lot of it is based in Europe, quite frankly).
But reading all of this is a reminder of how far we've fallen and how easy it is to find yourself spun into the wheel of enshittification and technofeudalism (which, Doctorow argues, is the prioritization of "rent" over "profit", and baby are we ever there already). We subscribe to the rhetoric for a variety of reasons -- we like the supposed benefits we get from our shiny new gadgets, we want to keep our salaries to support ourselves and our families, we are too fucking tired to disentangle ourselves from the system. All of these are fair, and all of these are handcuffs that we're all going to need to reckon with sooner rather than later.
Doctorow doesn't say anything particularly new here, I don't think, but he organizes his thoughts brilliantly, writes compellingly, and brings the whole spiralling nightmare into the spotlight in a way that makes it just impossible to ignore. You can delude yourself, but we're in it, and we have to vote, rally, and fight for the right people and things to avoid what looks like a pretty damning future.
But humans are cockroaches, baby -- we've toppled empires before, we'll do it again. Elbows up.
July 22, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
I wasn't familiar with Cory Doctorow's work, but I had heard of the concept of "enshittification" and, as someone who is old enough to remember what the internet was like, I jumped at the chance to understand how and why things had changed, and the thesis that we users *can* do something about it (well...). My impressions are those of someone who read this book and not any previous articles that the author might have based it on - if you have, maybe the book won't have anything new to tell you, I don't know.
It presented the information in a very clear and accesible way for those of us with just a passing knowledge of tech, using concrete case studies and examples (which abound) and a writing style that felt friendly but not annoying. The structure was fun, too: the author treats enshittification as a disease, so it's divided in four parts that explore its history, its pathology, its epidemiology, and its cure.
Like Code Dependent: Living in the shadow of AI, reading this filled me with rage at the fact that a bunch of greedy millionaires with a fragile ego get to decide the worst ways to ruin our lives, our economies, our planet, and the very ways in which we take part of society in an endless pursuit of profit, aided by our own governments, which should be looking after *us*.
While the final part ("The cure") gave me some hope, it was mostly in a "this is all bound to fall apart eventually" way. And there are governments doing something, to be sure, but... there really isn't much that we, as users, can do. Not to mention that the legislation that gets passed under the argument of doing something often ends up doing something worse, like the current thing the EU is doing of asking for facial recognition in order to "protect" users (the author doesn't mention this case specifically, but does talk about this issue, particularly when it comes to the EU).
I will also say that I learned many things that made me glad to be living in the Global South, because to some extent I am able to screw over so much of this bullshit when I'm not able to pay for any of these services anyway. There were some things that made me want to ask my USAmerican friends if they're okay, because it's just... how. How. do y'all live like that. How does it get to a point where not only there are no free health care but also a company gets to rent out rooms and staff and charge you MORE? Insane, despairing.
As a final note, I did find the book quite repetitive in places, not in a reiterative way that was useful, but actually repeating the exact same thing in different places, so I hope it gets a final revision. Other than that, I'd really recommend it to anyone interested in the topic.
I wasn't familiar with Cory Doctorow's work, but I had heard of the concept of "enshittification" and, as someone who is old enough to remember what the internet was like, I jumped at the chance to understand how and why things had changed, and the thesis that we users *can* do something about it (well...). My impressions are those of someone who read this book and not any previous articles that the author might have based it on - if you have, maybe the book won't have anything new to tell you, I don't know.
It presented the information in a very clear and accesible way for those of us with just a passing knowledge of tech, using concrete case studies and examples (which abound) and a writing style that felt friendly but not annoying. The structure was fun, too: the author treats enshittification as a disease, so it's divided in four parts that explore its history, its pathology, its epidemiology, and its cure.
Like Code Dependent: Living in the shadow of AI, reading this filled me with rage at the fact that a bunch of greedy millionaires with a fragile ego get to decide the worst ways to ruin our lives, our economies, our planet, and the very ways in which we take part of society in an endless pursuit of profit, aided by our own governments, which should be looking after *us*.
While the final part ("The cure") gave me some hope, it was mostly in a "this is all bound to fall apart eventually" way. And there are governments doing something, to be sure, but... there really isn't much that we, as users, can do. Not to mention that the legislation that gets passed under the argument of doing something often ends up doing something worse, like the current thing the EU is doing of asking for facial recognition in order to "protect" users (the author doesn't mention this case specifically, but does talk about this issue, particularly when it comes to the EU).
I will also say that I learned many things that made me glad to be living in the Global South, because to some extent I am able to screw over so much of this bullshit when I'm not able to pay for any of these services anyway. There were some things that made me want to ask my USAmerican friends if they're okay, because it's just... how. How. do y'all live like that. How does it get to a point where not only there are no free health care but also a company gets to rent out rooms and staff and charge you MORE? Insane, despairing.
As a final note, I did find the book quite repetitive in places, not in a reiterative way that was useful, but actually repeating the exact same thing in different places, so I hope it gets a final revision. Other than that, I'd really recommend it to anyone interested in the topic.
November 12, 2025
I’m done what I want to read of the book, it’s a dark book don’t let the cover fool you as cute… said another reviewer,
it’s an evil book
could use them," which was also good news for them, he mill owners had taken to kidnapping Napoleonic War ans from London and indenturing them to a decades ser-Xtile workers who operated the older machines.
These children were used to displace the organized guilds of Those workers were unable to get help from Parliament, so they formed guerrilla armies and propagated the half-joking myth that they were led by a giant called Ned Ludd (or sometimes King or General Ludd). They called themselves Luddites. Never let anyone tell you that the Luddites were afraid of technology or angry about "progress." That's a lie propagated by historys win-ners, whose great fortunes required oceans of blood from child laborers, murdered protesters, and enslaved Africans in the "New World" who provided the cotton for their machines.
The transition of millions of workers from peasant to proletariat was a bloody one, and it rightly attracts most ot our notice when we think about the Industrial Revolution. But just as important was the transition from a society built on rents to a society built on profits. For the capitalists of the "dark Satanic Mill" to make their fortune, their right to profit
Page 196
it’s an evil book
could use them," which was also good news for them, he mill owners had taken to kidnapping Napoleonic War ans from London and indenturing them to a decades ser-Xtile workers who operated the older machines.
These children were used to displace the organized guilds of Those workers were unable to get help from Parliament, so they formed guerrilla armies and propagated the half-joking myth that they were led by a giant called Ned Ludd (or sometimes King or General Ludd). They called themselves Luddites. Never let anyone tell you that the Luddites were afraid of technology or angry about "progress." That's a lie propagated by historys win-ners, whose great fortunes required oceans of blood from child laborers, murdered protesters, and enslaved Africans in the "New World" who provided the cotton for their machines.
The transition of millions of workers from peasant to proletariat was a bloody one, and it rightly attracts most ot our notice when we think about the Industrial Revolution. But just as important was the transition from a society built on rents to a society built on profits. For the capitalists of the "dark Satanic Mill" to make their fortune, their right to profit
Page 196
February 16, 2026
Diagnoses the decline of the promise of the Internet, from social media platforms to online shopping to the Internet of things, and offers what the author describes as a cure.
Doctorow first briefly surveys a number of the key players, like Facebook, Google, and Amazon, asserting that they have all gone through 3 stages - the first, in which they’re good to their users, allocating surplus to them; the second, in which they’re good to their business customers, who again benefit from the surplus; and the third, when everything goes to hell in a hand basket, and the platform rips off and exploits both sides of the equation, allocating the surplus to itself. This was a persuasive, helpful model.
He then explores what he calls the epidemiology of this phenomenon, including algorithmic wage theft (interesting that if Uber drivers are picky about only picking up higher value rides, Uber will offer them some higher value rides to train them into being less picky, then reduce the value of what they’re offered over time), representing both buyers and sellers in a closed system where only the platform can see/control what’s going on, locking in users and business customers with switching costs, and shutting down competitors. Not new news, but helpfully set out.
The cure Doctorow offers is systemic rather than personal: more and different regulation to make the right to repair widespread and meaningful and antitrust law effective, and unionization.
So, it was a reasonably useful and informative read overall. I didn’t love the joky, know-it-all tone and repetitiveness. Doctorow is a gleeful, sarcastic campaigner on these issues, whereas I am not, and so mostly just felt worn out in response. There were aspects of what he describes nostalgically as the good, old Internet that I can relate to, but the prospect of grappling with tech overlords to get anything to function reliably as billed doesn’t excite me. At the end, he was explaining that rather than a world of better content moderation so that people can’t spread hate online, we should have better access to our data to switch readily among interchangeable servers of choice. This made some sense, I acknowledged through my fatigue, but was relieved that we recently managed to rehook up up our old VCR. 3.5.
Doctorow first briefly surveys a number of the key players, like Facebook, Google, and Amazon, asserting that they have all gone through 3 stages - the first, in which they’re good to their users, allocating surplus to them; the second, in which they’re good to their business customers, who again benefit from the surplus; and the third, when everything goes to hell in a hand basket, and the platform rips off and exploits both sides of the equation, allocating the surplus to itself. This was a persuasive, helpful model.
He then explores what he calls the epidemiology of this phenomenon, including algorithmic wage theft (interesting that if Uber drivers are picky about only picking up higher value rides, Uber will offer them some higher value rides to train them into being less picky, then reduce the value of what they’re offered over time), representing both buyers and sellers in a closed system where only the platform can see/control what’s going on, locking in users and business customers with switching costs, and shutting down competitors. Not new news, but helpfully set out.
The cure Doctorow offers is systemic rather than personal: more and different regulation to make the right to repair widespread and meaningful and antitrust law effective, and unionization.
So, it was a reasonably useful and informative read overall. I didn’t love the joky, know-it-all tone and repetitiveness. Doctorow is a gleeful, sarcastic campaigner on these issues, whereas I am not, and so mostly just felt worn out in response. There were aspects of what he describes nostalgically as the good, old Internet that I can relate to, but the prospect of grappling with tech overlords to get anything to function reliably as billed doesn’t excite me. At the end, he was explaining that rather than a world of better content moderation so that people can’t spread hate online, we should have better access to our data to switch readily among interchangeable servers of choice. This made some sense, I acknowledged through my fatigue, but was relieved that we recently managed to rehook up up our old VCR. 3.5.
November 14, 2025
I liked the first third or so of this book that was more narrowly about enshittification, but it started to get more technical at the end and a bit repetitive. I also don't agree with all of his points, like the idea that Mastodon is the solution to social media or the romanticization of the "old, good internet". Still, I'm glad I listened to it, and there are some chilling facts and anecdotes included.
March 8, 2026
I've heard Doctorow interviewed on radio and I could hear his voice and intonations while reading this. (Incidentally, he did read the audiobook version, so you can hear his voice too.) If the title offends you, I would recommend that you pass on the book, as the author adjusts a LOT of words in similar fashion. He admits that it was a complaint of his which got a lot of attention that solidified his use of “enshittification” since it seemed to amuse people and attract attention. I feel that he overuses the conceit, but it serves its purpose. Doctorow uses the metaphor of a disease to structure the book. We read about the Natural History, the Pathology, the Epidemiology, and finally the Cure. It divides up his arguments neatly.
I couldn't help but think about Goodreads in relation to Doctorow's observations. He talks about members of Facebook feeling unable to abandon the platform because they don't want to lose the friend group that they have established there. There are other options, but it's impossible to get all your friends to change with you to the same new service because they also feel connected to their friends. I have witnessed this firsthand as I belong to a GR group debating the options to GR. Many members of this group would move, except they mourn the loss of reading friends. I'm in that camp.
Also as described by the author, Goodreads has become big enough to be able to ignore its members. Its algorithm is unfathomable, serving up less of what I want to see, indeed what I have asked to see (my Top Friends), and flaunting more obscure members of my friend list. We all know that GR is owned by Am@zon, which Doctorow does discuss. If we are having to spend more time on GR to find the people we prefer to interact with, we are exposed to more advertising and increase the likelihood of our spending money on their service. (If only they knew that I work diligently to avoid using it! I am willing to pay more and wait longer to order through my local independent bookstore. This book only reinforces my determination.) If it is any comfort to reviewers, GR is almost certainly abusing advertisers too.
I was grateful for the final section (the Cure) which offered a bit of hope. Ironically, the current administration in the US may estrange their trading partners enough that they will no longer even attempt to get along with the Americans and will pursue tech companies with legislation and punishing fines. It's already beginning and I wish them Godspeed.
I couldn't help but think about Goodreads in relation to Doctorow's observations. He talks about members of Facebook feeling unable to abandon the platform because they don't want to lose the friend group that they have established there. There are other options, but it's impossible to get all your friends to change with you to the same new service because they also feel connected to their friends. I have witnessed this firsthand as I belong to a GR group debating the options to GR. Many members of this group would move, except they mourn the loss of reading friends. I'm in that camp.
Also as described by the author, Goodreads has become big enough to be able to ignore its members. Its algorithm is unfathomable, serving up less of what I want to see, indeed what I have asked to see (my Top Friends), and flaunting more obscure members of my friend list. We all know that GR is owned by Am@zon, which Doctorow does discuss. If we are having to spend more time on GR to find the people we prefer to interact with, we are exposed to more advertising and increase the likelihood of our spending money on their service. (If only they knew that I work diligently to avoid using it! I am willing to pay more and wait longer to order through my local independent bookstore. This book only reinforces my determination.) If it is any comfort to reviewers, GR is almost certainly abusing advertisers too.
I was grateful for the final section (the Cure) which offered a bit of hope. Ironically, the current administration in the US may estrange their trading partners enough that they will no longer even attempt to get along with the Americans and will pursue tech companies with legislation and punishing fines. It's already beginning and I wish them Godspeed.
February 19, 2026
Confession: I bought this on Amazon. I am writing a review on an Amazon owned app. I’m sure a lot of other users feel the same numb dread every time they order something from Amazon, because regardless of how much we’ve chosen to learn about the company and its general shittiness, almost everyone knows that at the very least they are not the good guys. I expected to feel even more guilty after reading this and learning in even more specific detail exactly how shitty they are.
But the author actually helped me feel a bit less guilty. By showing their true level of ubiquity, and that even if I wanted to severely inconvenience myself by switching to other lesser known platforms, most other platforms to some degree use technology or borrow in some way from something Amazon owns, so even if it’s significantly less profit, there is a good chance they are still in some way profiting in some way from wherever you go. I am in a unique position, because somewhere around 2018-2019 I got rid of Facebook and Instagram. I have never had any other social media apps, and still only have Goodreads. But I have friends who do, and as I’ve been reading this I’ve been asking them if the specific forms of “enshittification” the author is describing matched their particular experiences on said apps. They all said they matched perfectly with what they were seeing every day. And I have DoorDash and Uber and everything he says about them lines up with what I’ve observed.
However, just cause I feel less guilty doesn’t mean it’s not enraging every time I read about even more ways these corporations have fucked over their own users and business partners, and exploited labor in terrible ways all over the world. Doctorow did a great job with his writing to ease the tension, cracking jokes and hurling insults throughout. Anyone who wants to subject themselves to what I’ve described, I’d add that I think it’s important to at the very least be aware of this stuff, even if it looks like the future is even grimmer and not much is going to really change.
But the author actually helped me feel a bit less guilty. By showing their true level of ubiquity, and that even if I wanted to severely inconvenience myself by switching to other lesser known platforms, most other platforms to some degree use technology or borrow in some way from something Amazon owns, so even if it’s significantly less profit, there is a good chance they are still in some way profiting in some way from wherever you go. I am in a unique position, because somewhere around 2018-2019 I got rid of Facebook and Instagram. I have never had any other social media apps, and still only have Goodreads. But I have friends who do, and as I’ve been reading this I’ve been asking them if the specific forms of “enshittification” the author is describing matched their particular experiences on said apps. They all said they matched perfectly with what they were seeing every day. And I have DoorDash and Uber and everything he says about them lines up with what I’ve observed.
However, just cause I feel less guilty doesn’t mean it’s not enraging every time I read about even more ways these corporations have fucked over their own users and business partners, and exploited labor in terrible ways all over the world. Doctorow did a great job with his writing to ease the tension, cracking jokes and hurling insults throughout. Anyone who wants to subject themselves to what I’ve described, I’d add that I think it’s important to at the very least be aware of this stuff, even if it looks like the future is even grimmer and not much is going to really change.
November 25, 2025
did i finish this book or did this book finish me. brutal. going to scream into the void for a while now
![Profile Image for laurel [the suspected bibliophile].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1645808644i%2F7494844._UX200_CR0%2C6%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
February 7, 2026
A really fascinating read into the internet and the enshittification of well...everything.
The only thing enshittification benefits is stakeholders, and turning everything from something you own and can repair into things that you subscribe to and are legally banned from messing with is not good, to put it mildly.
It's how I went from the free to paid version of Pandora ten years ago. It went from 5-6 songs in a row, then an ad, to one song then two ads, the same ads over and over. But I wanted music and the monthly price wasn't bad.
Anywho, I can definitely see why people are turning toward analog things. Things that aren't just physical but are "dumb" in the technological sense that they don't have computer chips. They can't be turned off by the corporation at a whim. They are owned, pure and simple, by you. Or borrowed in physical, simple form and returned to the owner/system, like a friend or library, because owning that much shit is ANOTHER problem in consumerism.
The only thing enshittification benefits is stakeholders, and turning everything from something you own and can repair into things that you subscribe to and are legally banned from messing with is not good, to put it mildly.
It's how I went from the free to paid version of Pandora ten years ago. It went from 5-6 songs in a row, then an ad, to one song then two ads, the same ads over and over. But I wanted music and the monthly price wasn't bad.
Anywho, I can definitely see why people are turning toward analog things. Things that aren't just physical but are "dumb" in the technological sense that they don't have computer chips. They can't be turned off by the corporation at a whim. They are owned, pure and simple, by you. Or borrowed in physical, simple form and returned to the owner/system, like a friend or library, because owning that much shit is ANOTHER problem in consumerism.
January 20, 2026
Cory Doctorow has such a sassy, fun, engaging writing voice (and a literal one, since he's reading the audiobook), that this was a total pleasure, even if I'd already heard a lot about enshittification from his pluralism.net blog, podcasts / interviews and even his Berlin event that happened two years ago, in January, too.
I still found a bunch of new info that made me absolutely MAD and also some inspiration for the worldbuilding of a short story I'm working on, set in the near future. I actually was at a party last Saturday where someone said that something was enshittified and I found it hilarious to discover it in the wild. I also really appreciated that he brings a hopeful bent to the book and there's a lot of 'call to action', 'here's what you / we can do' sort of stuff, because this type of non-fiction can just drive you MAD with anger and make you (me) feel hopeless. Happy I read this!
19/31 reads in January.
I still found a bunch of new info that made me absolutely MAD and also some inspiration for the worldbuilding of a short story I'm working on, set in the near future. I actually was at a party last Saturday where someone said that something was enshittified and I found it hilarious to discover it in the wild. I also really appreciated that he brings a hopeful bent to the book and there's a lot of 'call to action', 'here's what you / we can do' sort of stuff, because this type of non-fiction can just drive you MAD with anger and make you (me) feel hopeless. Happy I read this!
19/31 reads in January.
January 10, 2026
If you're wondering, why things are getting crappy by the day, Doctorow spells it out for you in Enshittification. He explains and exemplifies it in three stages with Twitter, Uber, Google, Amazon,.. and then he rinses and repeats hundred more times. In between lines he makes a point of millennia-old liberal property laws being reversed that these applications/platforms gradually own everything and the customer is cornered to consent in small modifications along the way ending up only being a forever subscriber. That is, the user can only lease out but not own books, phones, cars, appliances as those could be bricked with a new upgrade that wasn't paid for or a minor change missed in the EULA. Doctorow borrows the term Technofeudalism from Varoufakis to further explain how platform owners exploit both the users and the providers, and then eventually exploit everyone around for their profit. Doctorow's solutions against the platform cartels are systemic actions like mass grassroot movements, unions, class actions, supporting organizations like EFF that Doctorow himself has been working for a quarter century. his response may sound personal but not at all as enshittification is strictly business.
November 4, 2025
More like enfurification!
Does a great job at breaking down how (mainly) tech companies eventually end up taking advantage of their positions of power to screw over their employees, business customers, and the rest of us. I especially appreciated that Doctorow didn’t just come with complaints but also ideas for how to address the issue.
Does a great job at breaking down how (mainly) tech companies eventually end up taking advantage of their positions of power to screw over their employees, business customers, and the rest of us. I especially appreciated that Doctorow didn’t just come with complaints but also ideas for how to address the issue.
November 21, 2025
Listened on audio. The smug and self-righteous tone was so off-putting and really overshadowed the content.
July 10, 2025
[ Disclaimer: This review is based on a digital galley and may not reflect changes that will be made before publication. ]
Overall, Doctorow's argument is spot on. The book expands on his initial writing on enshittification and offers plenty of examples of the process in action. Doctorow makes sense of the nagging frustration that today's tech—from social media, to artificial intelligence, to search, to commerce platforms—engenders.
He also offers fairly concrete ideas for preventing enshittification on a policy level while fighting back on the judicial level. Thinking about practical, if politically risky, solutions is one of Doctorow's strengths.
As with many books in the "books based on blog posts" subgenre of criticism, this book has a lot of filler. I have a pretty high tolerance for padding, but the wordy prose and constant references to previous pages got old.
Finally, the book concludes on an odd note. Doctorow references Audre Lorde and one of her most well-known quotes: "For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." While he acknowledges that "Audre Lorde is far smarter than I am about nearly everything," he goes on to say this idea is "manifestly wrong." This is such an odd and unnecessary inclusion.
First, all of Doctorow's policy proposals can be put in the Not the Master's Tools bucket.
Second, what's the point of even including this paragraph? It adds nothing to his conclusion aside from namedropping a Black lesbian feminist who would have faced brutal online harassment even on Doctorow's "old good internet," no enshittification needed.
Third, just a few paragraphs later, he quotes Martin Luther King, Jr. as a way to set up his punchy ending. This only serves to make the Lorde reference feel more tokenized than it already did. Thus, the conclusion reads as though Doctorow got to the end of the book before realizing he should check some DEI boxes.
This book offers an important framework for rethinking the tech industry and the policies we use to regulate it. It's a shame it ended in such a weird place.
Overall, Doctorow's argument is spot on. The book expands on his initial writing on enshittification and offers plenty of examples of the process in action. Doctorow makes sense of the nagging frustration that today's tech—from social media, to artificial intelligence, to search, to commerce platforms—engenders.
He also offers fairly concrete ideas for preventing enshittification on a policy level while fighting back on the judicial level. Thinking about practical, if politically risky, solutions is one of Doctorow's strengths.
As with many books in the "books based on blog posts" subgenre of criticism, this book has a lot of filler. I have a pretty high tolerance for padding, but the wordy prose and constant references to previous pages got old.
Finally, the book concludes on an odd note. Doctorow references Audre Lorde and one of her most well-known quotes: "For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." While he acknowledges that "Audre Lorde is far smarter than I am about nearly everything," he goes on to say this idea is "manifestly wrong." This is such an odd and unnecessary inclusion.
First, all of Doctorow's policy proposals can be put in the Not the Master's Tools bucket.
Second, what's the point of even including this paragraph? It adds nothing to his conclusion aside from namedropping a Black lesbian feminist who would have faced brutal online harassment even on Doctorow's "old good internet," no enshittification needed.
Third, just a few paragraphs later, he quotes Martin Luther King, Jr. as a way to set up his punchy ending. This only serves to make the Lorde reference feel more tokenized than it already did. Thus, the conclusion reads as though Doctorow got to the end of the book before realizing he should check some DEI boxes.
This book offers an important framework for rethinking the tech industry and the policies we use to regulate it. It's a shame it ended in such a weird place.
February 28, 2026
As one can tell from the attention-grabbing title, this book is intended to raise awareness about the harms caused by big tech monopolies, and then to gin up support for the anti-trust movement that could reign in their abuses. Yes, it’s often snarky and vulgar, but he makes a pretty solid case overall.
Doctorow contends that internet platforms (which are really just middlemen between producers and consumers, but now extract most of the value for themselves, essentially by charging rents) generally follow this natural history:
“1. First, platforms are good to their users.
2. Then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers.
3. Next, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves.
4. Finally, they have become a giant pile of shit.”
He then provides detailed case studies showing how this pattern was followed by Facebook, Amazon, iPhone, and Twitter. Of course there have been many, many others as well.
Here’s one example: once Google achieved dominance of the web search market (with 90% of all searches) they no longer needed to improve their search function because they had no real competition. Instead, they realized that they could make even more money by deliberately making their search algorithm worse. If users had to do more searches to find what they were looking for, then Google could show them even more ads thus increasing their ad revenue. So that’s exactly what they did. What a streaming pile of…
Doctorow reminds us that since the invention of property rights, when you purchased an item you obtained rights of ownership—you could use it, modify it, fix it, sell it, whatever. If you bought a book you could give it to a friend when you finished it. If you bought a car and it needed repairs, you could fix it using whatever parts you could find. If you bought a printer you could buy replacement ink cartridges from a manufacturer that made them cheaper. Well, no longer. Thanks to big tech companies pushing for copyright laws that treat little bits of software code as intellectual property, all these previous rights of ownership are now voided. You can “purchase” kindle books or movies from Amazon, but if you ever leave (or get kicked off) their platform, all that media you “own” disappears. Manufacturers of cars and phones make it illegal for other companies to make more affordable parts for repairing their products. And it’s illegal for companies to make cheaper ink cartridges to fit your printer because a tiny piece of copyrighted software code is necessary to make it work.
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Reading this book will probably make you angry. It should. But that’s the first step to fixing this monopolistic nonsense.
Doctorow contends that internet platforms (which are really just middlemen between producers and consumers, but now extract most of the value for themselves, essentially by charging rents) generally follow this natural history:
“1. First, platforms are good to their users.
2. Then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers.
3. Next, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves.
4. Finally, they have become a giant pile of shit.”
He then provides detailed case studies showing how this pattern was followed by Facebook, Amazon, iPhone, and Twitter. Of course there have been many, many others as well.
Here’s one example: once Google achieved dominance of the web search market (with 90% of all searches) they no longer needed to improve their search function because they had no real competition. Instead, they realized that they could make even more money by deliberately making their search algorithm worse. If users had to do more searches to find what they were looking for, then Google could show them even more ads thus increasing their ad revenue. So that’s exactly what they did. What a streaming pile of…
Doctorow reminds us that since the invention of property rights, when you purchased an item you obtained rights of ownership—you could use it, modify it, fix it, sell it, whatever. If you bought a book you could give it to a friend when you finished it. If you bought a car and it needed repairs, you could fix it using whatever parts you could find. If you bought a printer you could buy replacement ink cartridges from a manufacturer that made them cheaper. Well, no longer. Thanks to big tech companies pushing for copyright laws that treat little bits of software code as intellectual property, all these previous rights of ownership are now voided. You can “purchase” kindle books or movies from Amazon, but if you ever leave (or get kicked off) their platform, all that media you “own” disappears. Manufacturers of cars and phones make it illegal for other companies to make more affordable parts for repairing their products. And it’s illegal for companies to make cheaper ink cartridges to fit your printer because a tiny piece of copyrighted software code is necessary to make it work.
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Reading this book will probably make you angry. It should. But that’s the first step to fixing this monopolistic nonsense.
November 28, 2025
The title of this book reminds me of the new recipe I tried for a Moroccan soup last night and what happened this morning.
As a critic of the techno monopolies Cory Doctorow cannot be underestimated, and the publication of this book is no exception.
Doctorow hammers Meta, amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Uber, and several other monopolists for their questionable, unethical, and sometimes downright illegal business practices in his writings.
The perspective of this book is that the behaviour of the giants has made the Internet and general computing worse over the past twenty or so years.
And I believe he has a point.
But this book may not be the best exposition of his critique as it goes over a lot of old, well-told stories, has some curious sidebars, some tiresome repetition, and confusing technical discussions.
I noticed that some reviewers saw what I saw and blame it on Doctorow tacking together his blog posts.
I raced to the end.
In Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labour Markets and How We’ll Win Them Back, authored by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow we get an earlier and — I think — more cogent analysis of similar themes.
One of things I try to do in these situations is read the acknowledgements closely and "follow" (on X or threads or bluesky or mastodon) some of the authorities the author cites. Books often are about old things (sometimes only months old, but still old). If I know some reliable commentators I can follow them on current updates to some of the nagging issues.
In this sense, Doctorow has been helpful.
There is one thing I can add that’s irrefutable: this time of year, when Black Friday is on the horizon, amazon starts sending out millions of notices to customers telling them that Black Friday “specials” are on the way.
This has a stinky impact on business and it goes on for weeks.
As a retailer myself, I really wish they’d cut it out.
One further note: I never thought I’d ever hear the name “Crad Kilodney” again. The fellow used to haunt the street corners of my youth hustling his cornball short stories in Toronto. Upon researching his name I learn that he worked in publishing and once had an affair with Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen.
Apparently Kilodney was one of Doctorow’s inspirations
I also learn that Columbia scholar Tim Wu and Doctorow went to the same alternative school in Toronto.
I learn something new (and strange) every day.
As a critic of the techno monopolies Cory Doctorow cannot be underestimated, and the publication of this book is no exception.
Doctorow hammers Meta, amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Uber, and several other monopolists for their questionable, unethical, and sometimes downright illegal business practices in his writings.
The perspective of this book is that the behaviour of the giants has made the Internet and general computing worse over the past twenty or so years.
And I believe he has a point.
But this book may not be the best exposition of his critique as it goes over a lot of old, well-told stories, has some curious sidebars, some tiresome repetition, and confusing technical discussions.
I noticed that some reviewers saw what I saw and blame it on Doctorow tacking together his blog posts.
I raced to the end.
In Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labour Markets and How We’ll Win Them Back, authored by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow we get an earlier and — I think — more cogent analysis of similar themes.
One of things I try to do in these situations is read the acknowledgements closely and "follow" (on X or threads or bluesky or mastodon) some of the authorities the author cites. Books often are about old things (sometimes only months old, but still old). If I know some reliable commentators I can follow them on current updates to some of the nagging issues.
In this sense, Doctorow has been helpful.
There is one thing I can add that’s irrefutable: this time of year, when Black Friday is on the horizon, amazon starts sending out millions of notices to customers telling them that Black Friday “specials” are on the way.
This has a stinky impact on business and it goes on for weeks.
As a retailer myself, I really wish they’d cut it out.
One further note: I never thought I’d ever hear the name “Crad Kilodney” again. The fellow used to haunt the street corners of my youth hustling his cornball short stories in Toronto. Upon researching his name I learn that he worked in publishing and once had an affair with Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen.
Apparently Kilodney was one of Doctorow’s inspirations
I also learn that Columbia scholar Tim Wu and Doctorow went to the same alternative school in Toronto.
I learn something new (and strange) every day.
October 11, 2025
If you live in our time, then you are already well-aware of what this covers without it being presented to you in a condescending manner.
Read
December 9, 2025We've all noticed this strange paradox wherein the most powerful tech behemoths seem not to produce anything, yet they crushingly hold all the power. Uber doesn't do any of the driving; yet the drivers who do the actual work earn a pittance, engineered to be below statutory minimum wage, while the customers are charged exorbitantly. Amazon didn't use to do its own production of goods; yet it hoovered up a lot of profit as the intermediary between producers and one-click consumers, to the demise of actual small, local stores with physical storefronts. AirBnb doesn't construct any new homes, yet it has succeeded in changing the makeup of several international cities, as temporary AirBnbs have affected housing affordability and long-term rental stock for local residents. Just by virtue of being the middleman providing connectivity between consumer and actual provider, these tech companies have gained a lot of say over our lives and economies.
Cory Doctorow, the phenomenal scifi author and Internet expert and activist, aims to explain this bewildering phenomenon of the rise of power of the middlemen in this book. Mr. Doctorow coined the term enshittification, which has since entered common palaver as a catchphrase encapsulating the general dissatisfaction with our world as influenced by tech or tech products. He aims to go deeper, however, with the term to mean a deep-diving analysis into how tech platforms, these intermediaries of connectivity, aimed to accumulate so much might and profit unto themselves at the expense of both the customers and the providers that they serve to connect with each other. Cory goes into a few examples of these, such as Facebook being a terrible experience for end users and advertisers alike, Amazon locking in and strongarming the prices and offerings for both customers and producers alike, and Uber and Doordash being such miserable experiences with price-gouging fees for both customers and deliverers/drivers alike. In particular, he looks at things like the downfall of antitrust laws and the weakening of the might of regulators against monopolizing industries, as primary contributors to the status of industry behemoths as being too big to fail despite providing unsatisfying services to both consumers and producers. He explains a little why users stay on these platforms despite their accumulation of grievances about the way both customers and producers are treated-- things like network effects and the fact that all of one's friends, social relations, customers and professional contacts are entwined with the gigantic platform.
And the treatment received from these platforms are severe, to say the least. We are all aware of the common stories of the dehumanizing plight of warehouse workers and drivers who have to pee in bottles. We are similarly aware of ways that platforms aim to circumvent labor laws, such as deputizing their workers/ drivers as 'self-employed independent contractors' to sidestep demands for minimum wage and pledged benefits. Uber and Doordash also do more shady things, such as withholding tips (Doordash) or paying drivers the lowest amount they would take, then enticing them back with stories of other drivers earning the lottery dream(giant teddy bear win) of a much higher amount, thus keeping them always on the edge of staying on (Uber). Cory Doctorow is able to connect all these phenomena cohesively. Worse still, he shows that worse treatment is being trialed out. These include chickenisation, wherein the aspiring producer or worker/deliverer/driver is ordered to buy specific set of tools or training from the employing platform, which sets him to a pathway of debt and lock-in to the platform, which at the same time has autocratic dictatorial control over his or her wages. There's also technofeudalism, wherein services and provisions of the platform that we increasingly depend on for our way of life, can no longer be purchased according to the rules of capitalism but rented without end from the platform, as we are turned on to survival on subscription mode. If these are all things that interest or concern the reader, then I recommend this book because Cory Doctorow has a lot of brilliant things to say and synthesize in this book. If one is wary for future generations of life in subscription mode, where essentials are rented forever not owned, and people create value only for platform corporations to gobble up that value then singlehandedly decide what it's worth-- the littlest amount that could be-- then it's worth reading and sharing this book.
Cory Doctorow, the phenomenal scifi author and Internet expert and activist, aims to explain this bewildering phenomenon of the rise of power of the middlemen in this book. Mr. Doctorow coined the term enshittification, which has since entered common palaver as a catchphrase encapsulating the general dissatisfaction with our world as influenced by tech or tech products. He aims to go deeper, however, with the term to mean a deep-diving analysis into how tech platforms, these intermediaries of connectivity, aimed to accumulate so much might and profit unto themselves at the expense of both the customers and the providers that they serve to connect with each other. Cory goes into a few examples of these, such as Facebook being a terrible experience for end users and advertisers alike, Amazon locking in and strongarming the prices and offerings for both customers and producers alike, and Uber and Doordash being such miserable experiences with price-gouging fees for both customers and deliverers/drivers alike. In particular, he looks at things like the downfall of antitrust laws and the weakening of the might of regulators against monopolizing industries, as primary contributors to the status of industry behemoths as being too big to fail despite providing unsatisfying services to both consumers and producers. He explains a little why users stay on these platforms despite their accumulation of grievances about the way both customers and producers are treated-- things like network effects and the fact that all of one's friends, social relations, customers and professional contacts are entwined with the gigantic platform.
And the treatment received from these platforms are severe, to say the least. We are all aware of the common stories of the dehumanizing plight of warehouse workers and drivers who have to pee in bottles. We are similarly aware of ways that platforms aim to circumvent labor laws, such as deputizing their workers/ drivers as 'self-employed independent contractors' to sidestep demands for minimum wage and pledged benefits. Uber and Doordash also do more shady things, such as withholding tips (Doordash) or paying drivers the lowest amount they would take, then enticing them back with stories of other drivers earning the lottery dream(giant teddy bear win) of a much higher amount, thus keeping them always on the edge of staying on (Uber). Cory Doctorow is able to connect all these phenomena cohesively. Worse still, he shows that worse treatment is being trialed out. These include chickenisation, wherein the aspiring producer or worker/deliverer/driver is ordered to buy specific set of tools or training from the employing platform, which sets him to a pathway of debt and lock-in to the platform, which at the same time has autocratic dictatorial control over his or her wages. There's also technofeudalism, wherein services and provisions of the platform that we increasingly depend on for our way of life, can no longer be purchased according to the rules of capitalism but rented without end from the platform, as we are turned on to survival on subscription mode. If these are all things that interest or concern the reader, then I recommend this book because Cory Doctorow has a lot of brilliant things to say and synthesize in this book. If one is wary for future generations of life in subscription mode, where essentials are rented forever not owned, and people create value only for platform corporations to gobble up that value then singlehandedly decide what it's worth-- the littlest amount that could be-- then it's worth reading and sharing this book.
February 1, 2026
[31 Jan 2026]
Most of the big tech companies -- Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple -- started with a good idea. A desire to provide a product or service that would improve their customers lives. But as they prospered and expanded and consolidated, the service or product faltered and lost it's way. Shareholder profit became paramount. Monopoly and exploitation became the modus operandi. Users and employees suffer.
Enshittification explains how this happened and why. And how we can reverse it.
This is a really good book. Doctorow explains things really clearly and completely. And succinctly.
He also has hope that things can be reversed. Primarily because, as he says, it's already starting in Europe. And may continue in the U.S. at the state level. I'm not sure I share his hope but we'll see.
Strongly recommended.
Most of the big tech companies -- Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple -- started with a good idea. A desire to provide a product or service that would improve their customers lives. But as they prospered and expanded and consolidated, the service or product faltered and lost it's way. Shareholder profit became paramount. Monopoly and exploitation became the modus operandi. Users and employees suffer.
Enshittification explains how this happened and why. And how we can reverse it.
This is a really good book. Doctorow explains things really clearly and completely. And succinctly.
He also has hope that things can be reversed. Primarily because, as he says, it's already starting in Europe. And may continue in the U.S. at the state level. I'm not sure I share his hope but we'll see.
Strongly recommended.
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