this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2024
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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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YT is filling up with the very heavily A/B tested content mills.
One thing that is assured to get a click from a small girl is Elsa. One thing that's sure to get a click from a small boy is Spiderman. Consequently, you get enormous swaths of content that are just people in Spiderman and Elsa costumes doing weird or innocuous things on camera. As the format has evolved, more click-baity content gets folded in. Being pregnant, getting vaccine shots, and covering each other with peanut butter all grab kids interest, so the people in the Elsa and Spiderman costumes run around with fake pregnancy bellies and oversized syringe needles and giant tubs of peanut butter to rub each other with.
It's perverse and it has no conceivable cinematic value, but it can be used to grab a small kid's attention for hours on end. So its the perfect tool for monetizing latchkey kids.