Internet enshittification

Two years ago, a Canadian writer named Cory Doctorow coined the phrase “enshittification” to describe the decay of online platforms. The word immediately set the Internet ablaze, as it captured the growing malaise regarding how almost everything about the web seemed to be getting worse.

“It’s my theory explaining how the Internet was colonized by platforms, why all those platforms are degrading so quickly and thoroughly, why it matters, and what we can do about it… We’re all living through a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit. It’s frustrating. It’s demoralizing. It’s even terrifying.”

Doctorow believes there are four basic forces that might constrain companies from getting worse: competition, regulation, self-help, and tech workers. One by one, he says, these constraints have been eroded as large corporations squeeze the Internet and its denizens for dollars.

Ars Technica covered several areas of enshittification:

Smart TVs
Google’s voice assistant
The Portable Document Format (PDFs)
Televised sports
Google search
Email AI tools (Google again)
Windows
Web discourse

2,800 words: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/as-internet-enshittification-marches-on-here-are-some-of-the-worst-offenders/.

But! Good news from Fix the News:

Poland repeals its last anti-LGBT+ resolutions. In 2019 and 2020, over 100 local authorities around Poland adopted sometimes-thinly-veiled anti-LGBT+ resolutions, declaring themselves free of “LGBT ideology” or pledging to “protect children from moral corruption.” Last week, the last of those declarations was revoked after the EU threatened to deny those regions funding, marking the end of Poland’s so-called ‘LGBT-free zones.’ Human Rights Watch.

Also, an image from my collection:

Murders are down nationwide

In 2024, murders fell by at least 14% across the U.S., according to analyses by the data firm AH Datalytics and the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank. Official data from the FBI goes only through 2023 but shows similar drops. Early analyses from AH Datalytics suggest the drop will be even bigger in 2025.

In Detroit, for instance, city officials say the number of homicides is at its lowest since 1965, and Police Chief Todd Bettison says that has led to a huge difference for his officers.

“They’re not drinking from a fire hose,” he says….

Crime analysts have zeroed in on what they say is a primary driver of the rise and subsequent decline: the COVID-19 pandemic.

900 words: https://www.npr.org/2025/06/30/nx-s1-5448852/murders-down-nationwide-covid. And Baltimore (https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/07/04/baltimore-gun-violence-homicides/, 1,000 words):

As of July 1, 68 people in Baltimore had died by homicide this year, the fewest during the first six months of the year in more than five decades. It marks a nearly 23 percent decrease compared with the first half of 2024. Shootings where nobody was killed have also fallen by nearly 20 percent compared with the same time period last year. The falling statistics, mirroring a national drop in violent crime, follow years of similar declines.

Government spending makes a difference:

All of a sudden, there were a lot of young people — who are more likely to commit crimes than older people — at home, with little to do. And, Roman says, a vital support system was ripped away: public services. Between March and May of 2020, the country’s local government workforce shrank by nearly 10%.

And good news from Fix the News:

Global progress on trachoma elimination is one of the best things you’ve never heard about. The number of people afflicted worldwide has fallen from 2.8 million in 2016 to 1.2 million in 2025. The pool of those at risk is shrinking fast too, falling from 192 million in 2015 to 102 million in 2025. In the last 12 months alone, seven countries have eliminated the disease altogether. It’s one of the most amazing global health stories on Earth, and you will not find it anywhere except deep inside technical WHO reports.

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/30/nx-s1-5448852/murders-down-nationwide-covid

Best ways to spot a liar

Also, the worst ways:

Study after study has found that attempts – even by trained police officers – to read lies from body language and facial expressions are more often little better than chance…

“There are no consistent signs that always arise alongside deception,” says Ormerod, who is based at the University of Sussex. “I giggle nervously, others become more serious, some make eye contact, some avoid it.”… The existing protocols are also prone to bias, he says – officers were more likely to find suspicious signs in certain ethnic groups, for instance. “The current method actually prevents deception detection,” he says.

Better:

Shift the focus away from the subtle mannerisms to the words people are actually saying, gently probing the right pressure points to make the liar’s front crumble.

Ormerod and his colleague Coral Dando at the University of Wolverhampton identified a series of conversational principles that should increase your chances of uncovering deceit:

Use open questions. This forces the liar to expand on their tale until they become entrapped in their own web of deceit.

Employ the element of surprise. Investigators should try to increase the liar’s “cognitive load” – such as by asking them unanticipated questions that might be slightly confusing, or asking them to report an event backwards in time – techniques that make it harder for them to maintain their façade.

Watch for small, verifiable details. If a passenger says they are at the University of Oxford, ask them to tell you about their journey to work.

Ironically, liars turn out to be better lie detectors. Geoffrey Bird at University College London and colleagues recently set up a game in which subjects had to reveal true or false statements about themselves. They were also asked to judge each other’s credibility. It turned out that people who were better at telling fibs could also detect others’ tall tales, perhaps because they recognised the tricks.

Observe changes in confidence. Watch carefully to see how a potential liar’s style changes when they are challenged: a liar may be just as verbose when they feel in charge of a conversation, but their comfort zone is limited and they may clam up if they feel like they are losing control.

The aim is a casual conversation rather than an intense interrogation. Under this gentle pressure, however, the liar will give themselves away by contradicting their own story, or by becoming obviously evasive or erratic in their responses.

About 1,700 words: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150906-the-best-and-worst-ways-to-spot-a-liar.

And good news from Fix the News:

New York’s six month old congestion pricing scheme has produced perhaps the fastest ever environmental improvement of any policy in US history… and it’s also making money.Congestion pricing revenue is on track to reach $500 million this year, “allowing upgrades to the subway, the purchase of several hundred new electric buses and improvements to regional rail.” Guardian

Stray cat becomes guide dog trainer

This unemployed stray cat had no idea he was about to land a full-time job as a dog trainer when he walked into a building looking for shelter… When Sylvester first walked into the Leamington Guide Dogs facility he didn’t even bring a resume… He specializes in “Cat distraction training,” a critical component of guide dog training.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Bm6kMsljmxE. One minute 20 seconds. If you want to use the timing slider to skip forward or backward, click this symbol

after starting the video to pop it into a separate video window, or this icon for full screen:

And good news from Fix the News:

Assam slashes child marriage by 81% in two years. Child marriage in the northeastern Indian state, home to over 30 million people, dropped by 81% between 2021 and 2024, following a statewide crackdown that included thousands of arrests, community outreach, and expanded education for girls. Authorities are now aiming for full elimination by 2026. The shift marks one of India’s sharpest ever reductions in child marriage, tackling a practice long considered socially entrenched. India Today