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‘Enshittification’ Is Officially the Biggest Word of the Year (gizmodo.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by lemmydev2@infosec.pub to c/pulse_of_truth@infosec.pub

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That rage you feel as you deal with every single piece of tech in your life? It’s caused by enshittification and the dictionaries are taking notice.

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[–] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 27 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

It's also the most misused and ill understood word of 2024. At least half of the people here on Lemmy are using it wrong.

This Australian dictionary didn't need, nor should they have, created their own definition as the guy who coined it had already defined it.

"It’s a three stage process: First, platforms are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die."

The key here is that it's not just the users of platforms or services who have problems but ultimately the very businesses doing business with the service or platform, the supposed real customers, who end up having problems.

You don't have to trust my ignorant ass on this either, you can go directly to the source.

[–] Umbrias@beehaw.org 9 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Enshittification names the problem and proposes a solution. It’s not just a way to say ‘things are getting worse’ (though of course, it’s fine with me if you want to use it that way. It’s an English word. We don’t have der Rat für Englisch Rechtschreibung. English is a free for all. Go nuts, meine Kerle).

Also, as a note, enshittification being a process it can still be pretty clear when you are in the midst of it, rather than just valid to use at the end. this is most likely where you see most of the "misusage" of the term. regardless, the rot is absolutely visible to people, and a dictionary's job is to catalgue woros as they are used.

[–] The_Terrible_Humbaba 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

a dictionary’s job is to catalgue woros as they are used.

Sure, because language is a living thing that evolves over times, but I still don't like how this is thrown around any time a word is misused. This is also one of the problems that might have reached or be reaching a tipping point with communication becoming so fast and widespread with the internet.

At the end of the day, the point of language is to communicate concepts and ideas to other people, but the faster words change the more often you have miscommunication; and also the harder it becomes to talk about certain topics or communicate concepts because the word used to define it changes, like in this case.

To give another example: the word "libertarian" was originally associated with socialism but was co-opted by capitalists, so now if you say you are libertarian most people will assume you mean libertarian capitalist; because of this a lot of people began using the world "anarchist" instead, but that has also shifted to be synonymous with "chaos". This means it is a lot harder to talk about these ideas and concepts because the words used to describe them have been given completely different meanings.

And speaking of language, I want to share this article by Orwell that perhaps not many have seen.:

Excerpt:

It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.

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