Enshittification
Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It
by Cory Doctorow
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Pub Date Oct 07 2025 | Archive Date Nov 07 2025
Description
Enshittification: it’s not just you—the internet sucks now. Here’s why, and here’s how we can disenshittify it.
We’re living through the Enshittocene, the Great Enshittening, a time in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit. It’s frustrating. Demoralizing. Even terrifying.
Enshittification identifies the problem and proposes a solution.
When Cory Doctorow coined the term enshittification, he was not just finding a funner way to say “things are getting worse.” He was making a specific diagnosis about the state of the digital world and how it is affecting all of our lives (and not for the better).
The once-glorious internet was colonized by platforms that made all-but-magical promises to their users—and, at least initially, seemed to deliver on them. But once users were locked in, the platforms turned on them to make their business customers happy. Then the platforms turned to abusing their business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. In the end, the platforms die.
Doctorow’s argument clearly resonated. Once named, it became obvious that enshittification is everywhere, so much so that the American Dialect Society named it its 2023 Word of the Year, and was cited as an inspiration for the 2025 season of Black Mirror.
Here, now, in Enshittification the book, Doctorow moves the conversation beyond the overwhelming sense of our inevitably enshittified fate. He shows us the specific decisions that led us here, who made them, and—most important—how they can be undone.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
"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 The Data Detective
"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, economist and former Minister of Finance of Greece
"Doctorow, a genuine tech hero, has encapsulated much of what's going wrong with the Internet as much of it serves to take advantage of the people who use it. He also suggests how the spirit of the original Internet might be bright back. Great book for those of us hoping to make things better for everyone." —Craig Newmark, Craigslist founder
"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. I hope everyone will read this magnificent book." —James Gleick, author of Chaos and The Information
"With his hallmark clarity and energy, Cory Doctorow takes us on a tour of how our digital world was wrecked by the avarice of tech monopolies that innovate new ways to disregard, abuse, and suck dry their users. And as the forces of enshittification accelerate and consume everything—hello, AI—we must heed Cory’s no bullshit account of how to fight back and take power from the shittiest people alive." —Jathan Sadowski, author of The Mechanic and the Luddite
"I spent 20 years trying to explain how monopoly power plus shareholder power was strip-mining the core infrastructure of our world. Then Cory Doctorow distilled the process into a single glorious term, while providing reams of brilliant new analysis. Watching Cory think through a gnarly problem is like watching Jackie Chan fight through a phalanx of staff-wielding thugs. Fast, furious, perfect. Cory is one of the most original and important thinkers of our time." —Barry Lynn, author of Liberty from All Masters
“I always love Cory’s shit, but Enshittification is not only a smart, funny, and refreshingly furious screed on how tech has betrayed us all—but also a bracing, daringly optimistic plan for how we can free ourselves from awfulness.” —John Hodgman
"Cory Doctorow spells out why our experience online keeps getting worse—and what we can do to turn this around. Enshittification is an essential read to understand today's digital economy." —Rohit Chopra, Former Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Former Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780374619329 |
| PRICE | $30.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 352 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Monica S, Librarian
If you read one nonfiction book this year, make it this one. If you, like me, want to know why using the internet feels more frustrating and more baffling than it did before, (I'm 30) then read this book. If you enjoy Cory Doctorow's fiction and are wanting to get into his non-fiction work, start here. I learned a lot about how the business of the internet actually hurts its users. A thing it really, REALLY, shouldn't be doing. It also gave me things to say to people about why digital rights are important for all of us. It's been a minute since a book has lit a fire under me like this. Read this if you know the internet and its infrastructure are important but aren't sure why. Read this book if you want the internet to be better for everyone.
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