Enshittification
Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It
Will be published approx. on 13. October 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-83674-375-0 (ISBN)
Description
*** Longlist for the FT and Schroder Business Book of the Year 2025 ***
** Named word of the year in US, UK and Australia **
*'Enshittification' will be the most talked about tech book of the year.*
"Enshittification" is Doctorow's word to describe the decay of online platforms. It captures the feeling of a world that is ever worsening.
Enshittification is not a technical glitch. It is a technique that every platform - from X to TikTok, Amazon to Apple, has adopted. First they lure users onto their platforms, then attract businesses who might profit from this newly formed public, and then finally squeeze both for their own profit. Tech giants lure users in with convenience and then degrade their services over time, draining profit at the cost of user experience. In the meantime our public squares have turned somewhere between the mall and a dumpster fire, that is unfit to deal with the problems of our times.
What is to be done? Like a surgeon, Doctorow sets out the symptoms, the diagnosis and the cure to these metastasizing platforms. We need to question the monopolies that dominate so much of our online lives, we must demand regulation and our privacy back, allow for interoperability, and win tech workers' rights.
** Named word of the year in US, UK and Australia **
*'Enshittification' will be the most talked about tech book of the year.*
"Enshittification" is Doctorow's word to describe the decay of online platforms. It captures the feeling of a world that is ever worsening.
Enshittification is not a technical glitch. It is a technique that every platform - from X to TikTok, Amazon to Apple, has adopted. First they lure users onto their platforms, then attract businesses who might profit from this newly formed public, and then finally squeeze both for their own profit. Tech giants lure users in with convenience and then degrade their services over time, draining profit at the cost of user experience. In the meantime our public squares have turned somewhere between the mall and a dumpster fire, that is unfit to deal with the problems of our times.
What is to be done? Like a surgeon, Doctorow sets out the symptoms, the diagnosis and the cure to these metastasizing platforms. We need to question the monopolies that dominate so much of our online lives, we must demand regulation and our privacy back, allow for interoperability, and win tech workers' rights.
Reviews / Votes
Punchy, pungent and utterly compelling - a book that will change the way you see the world, and just might change the world itself. You simply must read it. -- Tim Harford, author of <i>The Data Detective</i> Big Tech does not just plunder your data. It does not merely rob you of your privacy. It does something far, far worse than that. You know it. You feel it. But you won't be able to put your finger on it until you have read Cory Doctorow's Enshittification. Once you do, you will know and, more importantly, you will stand a better chance of resisting -- Yanis Varoufakis, author of <i>Technofeudalism</i> Remember when the internet was young and alive, vibrant and accessible and free? Cory Doctorow does, and he knows what's gone wrong - and he sees a way forward. This is a magnificent book -- James Gleick, author of <i>Chaos and The Information</i> With his hallmark clarity and energy, Cory Doctorow lays out how tech monopolies innovated ways to disregard, abuse, and suck dry their users. We must heed Doctorow's no-bullshit account of how to fight back -- Jathan Sadowski, author of <i>The Mechanic and the Luddite</i> Enshittification explains the exploitation that changed the internet and our lives. Doctorow gave us the word to describe how these companies immiserate humanity on a planetary scale * Edward Snowden * The steady decline of the technology you use every day isn't just in your imagination-and in Enshittification, Cory Doctorow explains how we got here. Witty, incisive, and urgently relevant, this book reveals how we can reclaim our digital lives from the forces that have degraded them. -- Molly White, editor of <i>Web3 Is Going Just Great</i> and <i>Citation Needed</i> The book of the autumn. -- Janan Ganesh * The Financial Times * You could not ask for a clearer, more ambitious or better-written business book than this one. * The Financial Times * Consistently acute -- Keith Miller * Times Literary Supplement *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Weight
400 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83674-375-0 (9781836743750)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently THE INTERNET CON, CHOKEHOLD CAPITALISM, and HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM, nonfiction about monopoly and conspiracy; IN REAL LIFE, a graphic novel; and the picture book POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER. He is also the author of numerous novels and YA titles, most recently In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate, is a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University, a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina's School of Library and Information Science and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group.