Why is Lemmy obsessed with the word "enshittification"?
I see it referenced constantly here, not quite as much on Reddit.
I know what it means, but just wondering why such the popularity over on this side of the fence?
It’s a word that has become popular in general in the last year-ish. But if you hear it more here. It is likely because it is a term used to describe the dynamic that pushed people from Reddit and other platforms to Lemmy. So you will here it more here, since pretty much everyone here has been personally affected by it.
Basically we are a self selecting group of people who chose to leave (or minimize use of) big tech platforms. And are therefore much more likely to be aware of the problems with those platforms.
Language is magic. Some electrical impulses cause a bunch of electrochemical reactions in a complicated pile of meat to make air vibrate, and at a distance another complicated pile of meat turns the waves into a similar series of electrical impulses.
Of all the unlikely stuff to happen to make use.. that's still just wild...
And that, everybody, is literally not the correct usage of "enshittification".
Jk, but for real though, it's not a direct synonym for "degraded" or "gets worse". It's more specific than that.
Plus, "literally" now literally has an alternative definition in the dictionary meaning "figuratively". So y'know, maybe get over the needless linguistic prescriptivism.
The problem is that when a word means one thing and it's anonym at the same time, it does make it hard to tell which one they're using. Usually it's easy to tell, but not always. It's not about prescriptivism, rather utility. I'm fine with language changing, but I hate losing useful words.
I think it's happening more and more in the tech industry - one theory I heard was that rising interest rates meant companies couldn't just take out loans that were practically free money, so they're cracking down on monetizing every nook and cranny.
Reddit was no exception. Many of us left this thing we once loved because of it, and came here. So on top of industry trends, there's a huge selection bias among us Lemmings.
I’m new here but I’m here precisely because of the enshittification of Reddit.
Honestly though, now that I think about it, a huge chunk of my digital experience has been enshittified. Technology and software that used to wow me still wows me at the surface but frustrates me at my core. Some UI elements and design seem outright hostile.
Maybe I’m just misremembering the past or was more patient back then. Reddit certainly has enshittified though.
I mean at least when it comes to design it was shit in the past cause either it was being done by people who didn't know much about design or it was something new and people didn't know what would be a good design for it. Now it's shit cause making it shit in certain ways let's companies make more money.