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Google fucked a whole generation with Chromebooks, and now they're fucking the next generation with AI
(slrpnk.net)
this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2025
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Enshittification
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What is enshittification?
The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source
The lifecycle of Big Internet
We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.
Embrace, extend and extinguish
We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.
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How old do you think GenX is?! We had the first home computers, learned the PC as it hit the market.
Not OP, but wanted to chime in.
I get the sentiment Some Gen Xers did grow up with home computers. However, I suspect those people are outliers due to both the cost and general user friendlyness. In the late 90s it seemed like everyone had a home computer, even the normies. This let their kids grow up messing around
It almost seems like we're heading back in this direction, where normies have moved on to phones and tablets because they "just work". I don't think the average kid will grow up as immersed in computers as I did unless their parents are intentionally about making that introduction. I bought my kid a used Thinkpad for Christmas last year. Most of his peers have tablets or just stick to their smartphone.
You didnt learn anything hitting the market unless you were well off, significantly.
Not true at all. Most of my friends had less money than we did and we all had a home computer. Obviously not $4,000 IBMs, but we had Atari, VIC-20, TI, Commodore 64, etc. The rich kid had an Apple ][.
Computers like the Commodore 64 and TRS-80 weren't that expensive.
Granted, the original IBM PC was pricy, but it was also targeted at business users.
I was thinking of my own experiences, but that's why I said "often." I personally find that older people who use tech are honestly much better than other generations when it comes to it. My grandma has been into tech from the jump and she blows my mom out of the water when it comes to tech skill. But I find that the ones who were not interested have a hard time catching up. Mostly because it all happened so fast