Every now and then I’m introduced to a word or a concept which is so on point that I wonder how on earth I got by without it. There’s a lightbulb moment. It reshapes, ever so slightly, the way I understand the world around me. For this particular lightbulb moment, I’m indebted to fellow pandemonialist Dave Pitt – those of you with a tender disposition or an aversion to industrial language may choose to look away now – for first bringing up the word ‘enshittification’ in conversation over the summer. And yes, we do have those kind of conversations.
This phrase was popularised by Cory Doctorow, a Canadian, to describe the way in which services and products which we rely on get worse over time. It’s not an accident, he says. Rather, it’s a deliberate policy on the part of the organisations and corporations which aim to squeeze as much profit as possible from what they do by cutting and cutting at costs. We see the results of this all around us: water companies which pour sewage into our rivers (could there be a more literal example of enshittification??) because it’s cheaper than investing in infrastructure; train operators who increase fares to restrict passenger numbers rather than increasing capacity to meet demand; social media platforms which promote division (when they’re not feeding us a stream of adverts) rather than keeping us in touch with our friends.
Dealing with ever-worsening services is incredibly stressful, which I think goes some way to explaining why so many people are increasingly frustrated and angry. It never used to be this difficult/expensive to get from A to B; we can remember a time when our rivers and beaches were relatively clean; Facebook and Twitter were once useable platforms where we could share what we were up to without being bombarded by hateful nonsense and endless ads. And so on. We find ourselves living in a world where we know things are getting worse, but we don’t necessarily have the vocabulary to frame an explanation of how and why this is happening – until someone like Cory Doctorow (and by extension, my mate Dave Pitt) comes along.
[As an aside, FWIW. I think Doctorow’s concept offers a handy way of explaining the flags-on-lampposts nonsense. It’s both a symptom of enshittification – people know things are worse, and they know they’re not happy with them, and they’re encouraged (by social media algorithms and the far right grifters whose hatred those algorithms promote) to see flags up lampposts as an answer – and it’s also a cause of further enshittification, because this emboldens the ugly racists who’ve always been lurking in the shadows, making life demonstrably worse. In our region, in the past few weeks, there have been two racially aggravated rapes, various racial assaults, and the appearance of white supremacist graffiti. None of which makes life better for anyone.]
Why have I been thinking about enshittification? And why am I bending your ear about it rather than talking about something more uplifting? (spoiler alert: that’s on its way) In part it’s because – like you – I’m affected by expensive and unreliable public transport, sewage in rivers, and a tsunami of adverts when I want to chat with friends – and in part it’s because I spent this past week wrestling with a courier company who repeatedly failed to deliver the books they were supposed to deliver. It’s a familiar story. The books are on their way. Oh, we couldn’t find you. You weren’t in. Our driver was abducted by aliens. Jupiter was in Leo, we’ll aim for the next working day. Sigh.
So, having banged on about enshittification, I’d now like to sing the praises of all those people who go the extra mile to un-shittify things, whether that’s volunteer litter pickers keeping their communities clean, folk looking after their neighbours, people running foodbanks, or workers in vital but unlauded jobs. You all make the world a better place. Thank you. Personally, I’d like to give a big shout out (as the kids say) to Sharon Noble of Bell & Bain printers for taking time out of her day to harangue/sweettalk/embarrass the courier company into finally delivering the books. Without her, they’d still be in the back of a van or the corner of a warehouse somewhere, and my life would be considerably more enshittified.
The books? I thought you’d never ask. The parcels I was waiting for contain the second print run of my poetry collection ‘snapshots from the fall of home’, which is now back in stock just in time for Hallowe’en/Bonfire Night/ Xmas, depending on what takes your fancy. To celebrate that – and to add our own small contribution to the un-shittification of our part of the world – I’ll be doing a gig with fellow pandemonialist Emma Purshouse, whose stunningly brilliant collection ‘Unsung’ has just been published by Offa’s Press (spoiler alert no.2 – it’s an incredible collection). We’ll both be at KTeas Cakes in Wolverhampton city centre on Saturday 8th November. The gig starts at 3pm, and it’s free to get in, but you may eat your own body weight in KTeas delicious cakes. Be warned. Oh, and there’ll be copies of our books for sale, too. It’s going to be amazing. Come along!
P.S. Thanks to Wikipedia (a precious resource which we really need to safeguard) you can read more about enshittification here.
