Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and what we can do about it

Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and what we can do about it

  • Kongar@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    4·
    4 months ago

    I disagree. I’m old and Pepperidge farm remembers :)

    Back in the day, there was “no way I’m sticking my credit card numbers into the internet.” People were MORE likely to give out credit card numbers over the phone, or write them down on a piece of paper ripped out of a magazine and mail it. Crazy, I know, but true.

    Amazon was cool because it became the first big digital store. You could order all kinds of quality stuff, from the comfort of your house, CHEAPLY, and then they shipped it to your doorstep. If you joined prime - they delivered in two days. Full stop. Oh - it didn’t make it there in two days? Here’s compensation.

    Let’s compare that to today:

    1. quality? No - now it’s endless cheap crap from resellers an middleman vultures
    2. from the comfort of your own home? Everyone can do that today
    3. cheap? Nope - amazon is now almost always either more expensive or the same exact price as buying from the manufacturer directly.
    4. Shipped to your doorstep in two days? Amazon falls down on this all the time now. Sometimes the thing shows up in hours if it’s stored locally, other times it takes weeks.

    Amazon lost its way. We ditched our decades old membership and shopping habits. We save more money, stuff gets delivered faster, we don’t worry about getting knockoff crap, and cutting Amazon out of our lives has been a total non issue. (Surprisingly - I thought it would be much more inconvenient than it’s been)