The internet used to feel like constant progress. Now search is full of ads, feeds feel random, and subscriptions cost more while offering less. Journalist Edward Zitron argues this is not a glitch. It’s the end result of the current tech model.
After 2008, years of cheap money allowed tech companies to chase growth without caring about profits. Services felt amazing because they were subsidized. Cheap rides, free storage, content without ads. Users got used to quality that was never sustainable.
When cheap money ended, the model broke. Markets demanded profits, but platforms were already saturated. With no room to grow users, companies started extracting more value from the ones they already had. Product quality declined by design.
Writer Cory Doctorow calls this process enshittification. Platforms first serve users, then advertisers, then shareholders. Each step makes the product worse.
Zitron sees AI not as a breakthrough, but as a tool that fits this phase. It replaces people with cheap content, boosts metrics, and helps justify valuations. User experience becomes secondary.
The result is simple. Tech giants now extract rent from the infrastructure we depend on. Until incentives change or systems break, the internet keeps getting worse.
