The people running the majority of internet services have used a combination of monopolies and a cartel-like commitment to growth-at-all-costs thinking to make war with the user, turning the customer into something between a lab rat and an unpaid intern, with the goal to juice as much value from the interaction as possible. To be clear, tech has always had an avaricious streak, and it would be naive to suggest otherwise, but this moment feels different. I’m stunned by the extremes tech companies are going to extract value from customers, but also by the insidious way they’ve gradually degraded their products.
↫ Ed Zitron
This is the reality we’re all living in, and it’s obvious from any casual computer use, or talking to anyone who uses computers, just how absolutely dreadful using the mainstream platforms and services has become. Google Search has become useless, DuckDuckGo is being overrun with “AI”-generated slop, Windows is the operating system equivalent of this, Apple doesn’t even know how to make a settings application anymore, iOS is yelling at you about all the Apple subscriptions you don’t have yet, Android is adding “AI” to its damn file manager, and the web is unusable without aggressive ad blocking. And all of this is not only eating up our computers’ resources, it’s also actively accelerating the destruction of our planet, just so lazy people can generate terrible images where people have six fingers.
I’m becoming more and more extreme in my complete and utter dismissal of the major tech companies, and I’m putting more and more effort into taking back control ovewr the digital aspects of my life wherever possible. Not using Windows or macOS has improved the user experience of my PCs and laptops by incredible amounts, and moving from Google’s Android to GrapheneOS has made my smartphone feel more like it’s actually mine than ever before. Using technology products and services made by people who actually care and have morals and values that don’t revolve around unending greed is having a hugely positive impact on my life, and I’m at the point now where I’d rather not have a smartphone or computer than be forced to use trashware like Windows, macOS, or iOS.
The backlash against shitty technology companies and their abusive practices is definitely growing, and while it hasn’t exploded into the mainstream just yet, I think we’re only a few more shitty iOS updates and useless Android “AI” features away from a more general uprising against the major technology platforms. There’s a reason laws like the DMA are so overwhelmingy popular, and I feel like this is only the beginning.
That’s an oversimplification. For example, for whatever reason, when I experimented with a locally hosted copy of Stable Diffusion, it took about 125W of my RTX 3060’s 170W maximum as reported by nvidia-smi and, though I haven’t confirmed, the fan certainly sounds like it’s generating more heat when I play games on it instead.
Now if your argument is against the ridiculous waste of using chatbots to search the web, or the doomscrolling-esque addictive nature of prompting Stable Diffusion and seeing what comes out, those are harder to dispute.
“Google Search has become useless, DuckDuckGo is being overrun with “AI”-generated slop, Windows is the operating system equivalent of this, Apple doesn’t even know how to make a settings application anymore, iOS is yelling at you about all the Apple subscriptions you don’t have yet, Android is adding “AI” to its damn file manager”
One of these is not like the others
While I generally agree with the points being made here, I tend to dislike all the complaining about tech companies treating us like “something between a lab rat and an unpaid intern” when we use services that they provide for free. That is, I think it is a fairly explicit and obvious contract that WE are responsible for the decision to BE the product instead of paying for one.
If you do not like Google Search and DuckDuckGo, there are excellent paid alternatives. I highly recommend kagi.com
If we are not willing to pay for services that behave the way we want, we should acknowledge the truth that we are paying in other ways and be more accountable for that.
Now, when we DO pay for a product then I completely agree. I find both Windows and macOS incredibly hostile to their own customers in various ways. It is why I have been primarily a Linux user for so many years.
Part of the problem is we used to like tech, up to a point we were euphoric about it. GNU/Linux, new Windows, new iPhone, new dumb phone, free Gmail, new CPU, motherboard, LCD, SSD … Those days are long gone. Companies behind it are still using those products to force shit on us, shit nobody really asked for, so we all are in a bit of a pickle.
Completely agree, well said. Or maybe we’re just getting old and grumpy. Things were so much better in my day!
Most people don’t care. For example, they will happily use iOS despite the fact it misses basic things such as sideloading and the fact Apple sets capricious rules for its App Store. Again, people don’t care.
Computers don’t belong to us computer nerds anymore, If Apple locked app installation back in the MacOS Classic or MacOS X days, there would be severe backlash and market failure, because back then computers were still primarily the domain of computer nerds. Those days are long gone, a product like iOS can be a massive market success even if nerds who care about sideloading won’t touch it with a 100-foot bargepole.
Even if the move to shove AI text generators on every product fails, it would be because the mainstream rejects it, not us nerds, so it will be an isolated win that wouldn’t transfer to other issues the mainstream doesn’t care about.
Cory Doctorow’s enshittification theory is not only a succinct description of a pervasive phenomena, it’s also got practical recommendations for what to do about it. Any tech monopoly (or cartel) will behave this way, so they need to be broken up, or regulated until they are unable to do so.
Doctorow talks about how we went through a long period of time where Milton Friedman economics delusionally said monopolies were good, we stopped using AntiTrust powers and that led to this. Doctorow detailed how tech companies made the argument that they needed to be free to disrupt without oversight or regulation (or taxes) and governments bought it.
Ed Zitron’s Rot Economy says Doctorow is wrong to not notice this wider economic trend, but I guess he didn’t read Doctorow very much? Ed Zitron says that just calling things out as the Rot Economy and raising awareness is the entire solution. I just don’t think it goes far enough.
It is only helpful in getting more of the public to understand the general Tech companies enshittification process only because it increases pressure on governments to regulate big tech and break up monopolies.
In the meantime, getting more techies to self-host (for both themselves and for their friends and families), and to divest themselves from reliance on Big Tech makes it more viable for everyone.
Directly financially supporting Open Source efforts (like DivestOS), or advocacy groups (like the FSF or EFF) or preferentially buying from open source vendors (even if they are more expensive than the cheapest windows/chromebook) is something non-techies can do. How about funding great websites like osnews that help inform people? Thanks!
I use almost no online services and i am happier than the people around me who are dependant on them and think life without it is impossible or some kind of feat of strength. We are all free to ignore…