Re: This is the second Reg article today which references wheresyoured.at
My thoughts exactly - thankfully the text is easily extracted. I've made an effort to validate it by skimming parts of the article, and it seems valid enough. Done by Gemini Flash 1.5.
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This article argues that the tech industry has entered a state of "Rot Economy," where the relentless pursuit of growth at all costs has led to the degradation of user experience across virtually all digital platforms. The author contends that this isn't a deliberate, Machiavellian plan, but the consequence of countless short-sighted decisions prioritizing short-term financial gains over user needs.
Specific examples are given, including Spotify's redesign prioritizing video content over its core music function, Sonos's app update removing accessibility features, and Meta's frequent, disruptive redesigns of Facebook and Instagram. The author highlights the pervasive nature of this issue, citing manipulative design choices, excessive advertising, microtransactions, and constant notifications as contributing factors to a degraded user experience that negatively impacts users' psychological and social well-being.
The author also draws a distinction between their theory of "Rot Economy" and Cory Doctorow's "Enshittification," arguing that the Rot Economy reflects a broader, more fundamental issue of growth-at-all-costs capitalism impacting the entire digital ecosystem, not just specific platform strategies. This relentless pursuit of growth, driven by figures like Jack Welch and Milton Friedman's neoliberal philosophy, leads to the prioritization of metrics over user satisfaction and ethical considerations.
The author uses a detailed anecdote involving purchasing a budget laptop to illustrate how this affects even low-cost devices, which come pre-loaded with a slow, ad-laden operating system and forced into specific ecosystem usage. This highlights how widespread and impactful the problem is across different socioeconomic groups. This negative user experience is compounded by the rise of manipulative algorithms, AI-generated content, and widespread scams and disinformation.
The author concludes by calling for greater awareness and accountability, urging readers to recognize the widespread nature and psychological harms inflicted by this system. They name and criticize several prominent tech CEOs (Sam Altman, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, and Mark Zuckerberg) for their roles in contributing to and profiting from this system. Finally, they call for a collective effort to resist and challenge the status quo, emphasizing the importance of public acknowledgment and discourse as a catalyst for change.