Gregory's ServerWe need a word for real-life enshittification caused by online culture. Like being unable to find an organisation’s info because they’ve Instagram but no website. Or panicked people being sent a videolink to download to their phone when they ring for an ambulance. Or being excluded from residents' association news if you're not on Facebook. Or having cash payment refused. Or staff in the business you’re physically standing in telling you to find the answer to your question on their website.
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@petealexharris Great example of replacing something entirely without taking account of the fact that the thing that's being removed is not yet redundant for all people in all situations. @CiaraNi enjoying reading this thread, it's like off-person/online. I was grateful yesterday to have an experience that would break big companies enshittified minds though. Charity shopping (op shop/thrifting) for a final Christmas present book, specific genre, went straight to the perfect book in *that* shop that always comes good. Got to the counter and she says her tills out and card machines out, cash only please.... @CiaraNi ...Now, me, already being deep in the system have only brought a phone to pay with and can't get cash out via a phone swipe uh oh. She checks the price and says "take it for free bring the money later". Yes to humanity!!!! Now she's made a perfect gamble there, either I don't come back and she's made someone's Christmas, or I come back with the money, plus a tip donation for the charity. A computer system would never say yes to this. @EmmaBirkett Nice example of the kind of interactions we're removing from daily culture. 'Computer says no' versus 'Human using social judgment says 'yes, here's a way to do this by social agreement'. @CiaraNi I've come up with a word for this. To learn what it is, subscribe to my newsletter and be one of my first ten Patrons to ring the bell! @Extelec I understand 'enshittification' to have a specific meaning related to the way platforms and products are designed with more customer-friendly origins, then descend and decay once they have consumers in their grip, but yes, it feels the same in real life when the technical products are deployed badly and unnecessarily. @CiaraNi But the same applies IRL too, Banks closing branches, Companies where there is no way to talk to a human. Microsoft/Google/Whoever using their monopoly to force you into using their software, Supermarkets forcing you to hand over personal information for price reductions, printers/cars/tosters/etc only working with online accounts. "Enshitification" works for these processes too outside of pure programming as it's the same process. @CiaraNi Meta spending billions of dollars but failing to create a virtual reality environment while it is refusing to help real people who lost their Instagram accounts to real hackers, because the company fuses to have a real customer service. @CiaraNi The last one literally happened a week or two ago at Walgreens, a pharmacy tech told me a vaccination form would be on the website. Amusingly, the website didn't have it either. @MySideIsHumanity A great and infuriating example of how often we run into these online loops these days -you can only do X in this online manner, but you need Y to do it, but Y doesn't exist or has an error or is not designed fit for purpose.  @CiaraNi Just an aside: I've stopped patronizing most businesses that will only take card payments. There's a lovely little gelato place that opened up in my town, and they have a big sign up that says NO CASH. It's their choice, of course, not to accept legal tender -- and it's my choice not to go there any more.    |
@CiaraNi
The tech company I work for is pretty good but there's one inconvenient internet-centric thing: the office I work in literally does not have a phone number. There's no "reception desk" or anything like that.
Which is fine until an official form for e.g. travel visa applications, tax or whatever has a mandatory field for employer's phone number.