LRN No.20: gloomy enshittification, glorious progress
Plus: read by the author and only the author
Whether it’s the NHS, Google or the people who govern us, we’ve pretty much accepted that things are getting worse and worse, instead of better and better. We pay more for things that are smaller and lower quality. We post letters and get on trains with no idea when or even if they will arrive. If we ask for help, we are met with robots that feel designed to make us give up and go away.
Last year, the writer Cory Doctorow coined the term “enshittification” to refer to the decline of digital platforms like Facebook. In February he suggested a broader usage - and that humanity may entered the “enshittocene” age.
For me, the enshittocene began on 10th January 2016; David Bowie died, and all the news has been steadfastly worse ever since.
One evening last week, my husband and I were trying to think of things that were improving instead of declining. It was not easy. So I went online to ask whatever people were left on the platform formally known as Twitter/useful to ask for suggestions of things that are getting better and better.
And it was delightful.
Television. Crisps. Beyonce. Vegan food. Solar panels. Cancer treatment. Electric cars. Fewer people living in extreme poverty. The ready availability of loaded fries on takeaway apps. Cycling infrastructure. Chocolate. Giant Sequoias.
Two takeaways from this:
Enshittification is likely to be a state of mind, as much as a state of humanity. There has been so much bad news that we take it for granted that everything must be in decline. But the good stuff exists, if we choose to seek it out.
Twitter is not yet totally enshittified.
Audiobooks are also getting better and better. I’m currently listening to Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger, and loving both the book and the read.
I find it really hard to enjoy anything read by actors (aside from Tara Westover’s Educated, which is an extraordinary book and performance). When it comes to non-fiction, I want to hear writers reading their own words, telling me not just what they want me to know but how they intended for it to sound inside my head. (I can still hear Rory Stewart channelling Liz Truss, months after I finished Politics on the Edge.)
Other things that have caught my eyes and ears:
Went on a proper guided tour of Highgate cemetery, and strongly recommend it. From the £11m mausoleum to the crypt raided by body snatchers, I loved it, and so did my kids - who admittedly have grown up with dark tastes
Was underwhelmed by Scoop. Found it very hard to care very much about whatever the stakes were. The biggest revelation from the Prince Andrew interview was that you’re unlikely to be blessed with much intelligence if the only requirement for your job is having the right mum. This may have been an exclusive, but it wasn’t a scoop
Am trying to get the most of out a free Disney+ subscription before it expires. Since the last LRN I have cried all the water out of my body watching All of Us Strangers, delighted in the dark and absurd Poor Things and lamented my failure to be a rock star watching The Beatles: Get Back. All other Disney+ tips gratefully received - leave a comment or an email to let me know what to watch next