Enshittification: The Concept Explaining Cultural and Artistic Decline

Writer Cory Doctorow coined the term 'enshittification' in late 2022 to describe the progressive degradation of online platforms, where they first treat users well, then abuse them to improve relations with business clients, and finally abuse those clients to extract all value, leading to the platform's death. The American Dialect Society named it Word of the Year 2024. Art historian Christian Caliandro, writing on Artribune, argues that enshittification extends beyond digital platforms to the broader media, artistic, and cultural ecosystem. He links it to a 'deresponsibility' and cognitive degradation affecting collective psyche, where complexity and critical analysis are lost. Caliandro suggests that the process is inherent from the start, comparing it to drug dealing with initial free doses. The alternative is either surrender to enshittification or reconstruction of art, politics, journalism, and civic values on solid foundations. Caliandro teaches contemporary art history at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze and is a member of the scientific committee of Symbola Foundation.