Enshittification by Cory Doctorrow
I don’t have much to say about a book that literally changed my mindset on what the internet is. Okay, maybe I do. Maybe that’s why I’m writing as of the moment. It is just a terrific book, and was a great way to start off non-fiction for this year. It was quite big however; I do remember it being about 800 ebook pages, but that’s probably an overestimate because I have the font all cranked up on my Kobo due to my deteriorating eyesight.
My favorite aspect of this book were the case studies and how they were so well represented. Not only does Doctorrow have a very livid and entertaining tone, but the information spread throughout its pages were a clear indication of how much effort had gone to conduct the required reading and research for such a relevant topic. It made my eyes (more like brain, really) see the truth of large multinational companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon. A few other companies were covered as well, I remember. I’d learnt a harsh and vicious truth about companies whose products I use everyday and am now not very enthusiastic over such a statement.
Doctorrow also covered a plethora of sectors ranging from the automobile industry and all the way to whatever companies make automatic ‘smart’ rocking cradles. He also discussed issues in the printer industry, and even dared to touch the publishing industry which almost became The Big Four instead of The Big Five; he sure doesn’t care about companies now, and he has highlighted a very ugly truth of the modern corporate world: the merger. God, mergers are just awful. Ruin competition, puts pressure on labor unionization, and makes in some cases companies more powerful than world governments.
There is some swearing in the book, so if you find that awkward and distracting, I do recommend to tread your way through the book carefully. The writing style, as I’d admitted before, was entertaining, but sometimes it leaned a bit more on entertainment/amusment than literary which is something I don’t appreciate much. But I give that a pass. It keeps you interested in topics as far as from economics to sociology and computer science (he talked about transistor chips, right?).
Do be advised, however, that the book sheds light on ugly truths. It’s all negativity till around the third quarter or somewhere where Doctorrow discusses possible solutions. I was a bit taken back at all the cruelty in display in its first pages. It really got my head into the game and removed that drowsiness to digital activism that these large corporations previously mentioned have instilled in all of us. I think I might need to go open-source. That’s how much this single book has impacted me.
So, yes, go read this when you have the time. Maybe on a week-long vacation. It is, after all, quite a long book and does use deftly words and ravels around complex muli-millennium topics.
name & author: Enshittification by Cory Doctorrow rating: ★★★★★ line: A life-changing read for anyone as chronically online as me; for the youth to understand truly how terrible and unfair the corporate world is, and the old to revisit unsettling truths. finished: on January 25th