The term enshittification, famously coined by Cory Doctorow to describe big platforms' exploitative strategies, also applies to the user experience for some physical products with digital connectivity. When companies use digital control over products to extract data from users and charge them for ongoing use of and access to features, they unlock new revenue streams. But they may also threaten the norms of ownership and the customer relationship. When technology journalist Cory Doctorow coined a new term to describe how the consumer experience on platforms such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google has degraded over time, his observations resonated so widely that the American Dialect Society named enshittification its word of the year in 2023. Doctorow argued that platform operators follow a predictable pattern: At the outset, they create a compelling user experience to build an installed base and establish high switching costs. Next, they exploit those users in order to gain revenue for...
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