Enshittification

Doctorow coined the word in 2022 for a pattern he kept seeing. A platform is generous to its users while it builds an audience. Once those users are locked in, value shifts to the businesses paying for access. Then the platform squeezes those businesses too and keeps whatever remains. Reach that used to be free becomes an ad product, and the feed fills up with things nobody asked to see.

The American Dialect Society made it word of the year for 2023. For creators it puts a name on a real planning problem, which is the argument for owning an email list and keeping a second home for your audience.