The term enshitification has been floating around a lot lately — and honestly, it’s one of those rare internet words that just nails a feeling. It was originally coined by writer Cory Doctorow, who coined the term in 2023 to describe how once-great platforms slowly rot over time as they chase profit and power. In his words: first, they’re good to users; then, they start squeezing users to please business customers; and finally, they screw over everyone just to keep shareholders happy. He wrote this excellent article about it.
Since then, the word has taken on a life of its own — used more broadly to describe anything that somehow feels worse now than it did a few years ago. The internet. Your favorite app. The news. Customer service. Basically, modern life.
It’s a word that captures that creeping sense we all have that everything kind of sucks now. Everything is a subscription or full of ads and social media is setting the world on fire while shoving AI slop into our faces. What actually breaks me is that that AI slop is sometimes actually really fucking funny.
Remember when the internet was about connecting with friends, not doomscrolling through algorithmic noise? Now every platform seems to justify its massive AI investment by forcing “smart” features no one asked for — and then charging us more for them. Monthly…for whatever reason. Meanwhile, the world is full of matcha-protein-latte entrepreneurs trying to sell you some drop-shipped gadget to fix a problem you didn’t have, just to cover the cost of the get-rich-quick course that told them to do this instead of finding a profession that makes them actually useful.
The problem is clear — so how do we opt out?
Just Google “enshitification of X.” And you will find something that agrees with your hunch. But complaining only gets us so far. The more interesting question is: how do we opt out?
Because even though enshitification hits hard in so many areas, we don’t have to enshitify our lives. That is easy to forget since our brains are wired to fixate on what’s broken, not what’s working (Negativity Bias). The more we focus on the shit, the more we feed it.
That’s part of why enshitification keeps rolling on — it thrives on our attention.
And maybe that’s also why we don’t yet have a widespread good word for doing the opposite. For the act of opting out of the nonsense. Any ideas? Maybe Un-Enshitification (super catchy) or Rehumanisation (which sounds like repopulating the planet after a mass extinction).
Whatever we call it, that’s what I want to explore — not to slam AI, modern tech, or social media, but to find the gems that still do great shit.
Appreciate what already works
Opting out starts with appreciation — the quiet rebellion of using things well.
Take smartphones. For 99% of people, the real innovation peak hit somewhere between 2018 and 2020. Cameras are great. Screens are sharp. Everything since then has been incremental improvement dressed up as the “best phone we ever made”.
The trade-off? Incremental value improvements for the same (or mostly even higher purchase price) mean diminishing returns. Diminishing returns feel like enshitification because you’re paying more for less impact.
The truth is your phone can easily last 7–10 years if you don’t crush it, drown it, or stuff it with unnecessary apps. Repairs are getting easier and cheaper too.
Swapping your battery instead of buying a new phone sounds wrong, but actually makes sense if you think about it. You’ll still use it for the exact same tasks, at roughly the same speed, but one option costs you a small repair fee and the other costs a thousand bucks. In both cases, you’re scrolling the same feeds, texting the same people, taking the same photos. The difference is that in one scenario, you’ve kept your money.
And if what you already own really can’t be fixed — buy used. There’s zero shame in it; often you’ll end up with something better made anyway. Refurbished phones are fantastic — Clothes? Even better. Some brands like Patagonia have entire programs built around repair and resale. That’s real sustainability.
Opting out begins there – realizing that satisfaction isn’t in getting the “new,” it’s in making the “old” feel new again.
Create instead of consume
Opting out doesn’t mean working harder — it means getting creative again.
We’ve been trained to think convenience is king, but real joy often comes from making something yourself. Instead of paying a monthly subscription for a habit tracker just so it stops showing you ads for scammy mobile games, build your own version with Apple Shortcuts or a simple spreadsheet.
Yeah, it takes a bit of tinkering, but it’s fun. You get to shape something for you — not for investors, not for data collection, just for personal usefulness. And once it works, that little rush of “I made this” hits harder than any app notification ever could.
That’s creativity as resistance. And if there is something you can’t create yourself, look further than the number one spot on the App Store and check if you can find something with a lifetime plan and/or from an independent developer.
This area is a rabbit hole for many more posts though. So, come back here sometimes.
Re-embrace inconvenience
Modern life worships convenience. But sometimes the inconvenient option brings the most joy.
Film photography is the perfect example. On paper, digital cameras obliterate film — faster, cheaper, flawless. Yet analog shooters love the slowness: picking a moment carefully, adjusting settings, waiting to see what develops. That’s attention and care, not inconvenience.
You don’t need a film camera to get the point. The same mindset applies anywhere: cook something instead of ordering in, read a book instead doomscrolling. Fix the thing instead of replacing it.
Doing something slower, not the most productive way or with more friction than needed can be exactly what you need. After all, hiking (the noun) isn’t about teleporting somewhere – it is about hiking (the verb).
The takeaway
Choosing not to enshitify your life doesn’t make you anti-tech or amish— it just means you remember what progress is for.
We can’t stop the world from enshitifying, but we can choose not to join in. We can maintain, repair, create, and care. We can pay attention to what’s good instead of giving in to what’s bad.
So my first step toward all this is starting this blog — second, actually. The first was buying an analog camera even though I have no idea what I’m doing.
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