Enshittification

A great read. Really clearly explains why and how products and services have gotten progressively worse for the consumer and society over the past several decades. Not just the obvious offenders such as Amazon, X (nee Twitter), Google and Facebook, but also the type of products that have no good reason to be 'smart'.

Cory Doctorow does a fantastic job explaining the policies and decisions that have led us to this point, as well as what needs to happen to tackle it. He doesn't focus on individualistic actions (many of those reading will already be taking action) but what wider societal, regulatory and legislative actions need to be taken to tackle this ever expanding enshittification.

There are plenty of reviews of this book so go read one of those instead.

This book helps to explain why almost everything on the internet---and, more generally, our capitalist world---is getting worse. There are things that can be done about it but I'm not sure that there is the political will in the world to make it happen.