Over the last five years or so, I’ve noticed many websites I’ve used slowly get worse. I gave up on my over 100 day Duolingo streak due to the implementation of ‘lives,’ which prevents you from continuing a lesson after making five mistakes. Quizlet, once one of my favorite study tools, now hides the flashcards I created behind a paywall. Spotify is completely unusable without premium, as every song is interrupted by at least two minutes of ads and you cannot even choose what song you want to listen to on mobile. X (formerly Twitter), has also followed this trend. Since its acquisition by Elon Musk in 2022, the site has sacrificed usability for profits. Posts by accounts with X premium are both boosted and monetized, encouraging and emphasizing ragebait, which is monetized.

All of these websites have been plagued with “enshittification,” a term negatively dubbed by the internet for a company which sacrifices its user base for profits. This phenomenon has only become more common as more and more companies corner their market and become basically monopolies.

The impact on the consumer is obvious and something almost everyone has dealt with. Websites which have previously been great begin to make weird changes which hurt the interface and ads become plastered across the site. Websites which in most cases rake in millions or billions of dollars are becoming more and more hostile to the user, as profits are prioritized over the consumers who helped build these platforms.

Enshittification is becoming more prevalent and annoying, however there is a small way to fight back: log off of these websites. Although it may be hard as companies have cornered their markets in most cases, there are alternatives out there. If companies watch new competitors rise and their old base steadily decline, they’ll be forced to once again think about the consumer. Instead of Spotify, use YouTube Music. The site still has a good amount of ads, but it’s way more usable without a subscription. Switch from X to BlueSky. Switch from Quizlet and Duolingo to Anki. For every site experiencing enshittification, there’s a smaller site which, although with flaws and kinks, still values its users and doesn’t actively inconvenience those who don’t spend $9.99 or whatever a month. 

Enshittification, even if we don’t like it, is here to stay. Tech companies prioritize a cash cow over consumer convenience and that’s not going to change, however we can still put pressure on these companies and elevate smaller businesses which have their consumers in mind.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Ryan Sharp at [email protected].