Enshittification

Enshittification: tech critic Cory Doctorow's term for how platforms progressively degrade as they chase growth and profits.

The term basically means: a platform starts out great for users, then slowly becomes terrible as it prioritizes money over everything else.

Think about how this plays out for your studio on social media:

Phase 1 (Please customers): Instagram is free, organic reach is great, you can easily connect with your community. The platform needs users, so it makes the experience good for them.

Phase 2 (Double cross customers, please advertisers): Algorithm changes kill organic reach. Now studios have to pay to reach their own followers. The platform has the users locked in, so now it squeezes them to please advertisers.

Phase 3 (Double cross everyone, please shareholders): The feed becomes a mess of ads and recommended content. Even paid reach gets worse as the platform extracts maximum profit. Both users and advertisers get a degraded experience, but the stock price goes up.

Seth Godin notes (and has been noting for a long time) that "owning your own stuff" is exactly why email lists, websites, and direct relationships are so valuable. Those are assets you control. No algorithm change can take away your email list or make your website invisible overnight.

This is why building your email list and maintaining your website matter so much. Social platforms will always do what's best for their shareholders, not what's best for your business.

Build on ground you own.