inevitable

When we say that any time in the past was better, perhaps we are erring on the side of idealizing the past, but when it comes to the Internet the phrase becomes more relevant. We have normalized online experiences to degrade with fewer features, more ads, new subscriptions… The only thing missing was the AI ​​garbage to finish finishing it off. It seems like nothing can stop the shittification of the internet. Nothing less Norway. A day in the life of a “shitter”. This is how it is titled the video that the Norwegian Consumer Council has published to report a situation. It shows a man who makes holes in his socks, saws the leg of the table so that it is limp, dries some markers with a hairdryer… He defines himself as a shitter: “What I do is take things that are perfectly fine and make them worse,” he says. The video is very funny and is part of a campaign against a not so funny problem: the degradation of digital services. The organization has developed a complete report in which they describe the problem and propose a plan to address it. Shitification. It is a term coined by writer Cory Doctorow and declared word of the year by Macquarie Dictionary in 2024. The definition is as follows: The progressive deterioration of a service or product caused by a decrease in the quality of the service provided, especially in the case of an online platform, and as a consequence of the search for profits We are not talking about natural degradation, but something deliberate that responds to an economic objective. A clear case has been that of Netflix, which not only chased shared accountsbut eliminated functions such as the possibility of casting from the mobile phone to the television. Not to mention the ads on payment planssomething that has spread to practically all streaming services. Theard everywhere at once. But this phenomenon reaches all types of services, not just streaming. We see it in the form of more ads on apps like Instagram (many of them of scamsby the way), It happened to me with the security camera app I had at home and there are even those who bought a connected refrigerator for thousands of euros so that they could start ads appear on the screen. Of course, companies offer you a solution to remove annoying ads: ✨pay a subscription✨. The phases of shitification. It is not something that happens overnight, but first they attract you with an attractive service, that works well and offers advantages. Once they have a solid user base – when they have caught us – the party begins. A good example was Uber, which in its beginnings offered very low prices to present itself as a more attractive alternative to taxis and now it’s more expensive. Generative AI makes it worse. According to the Norwegian report, far from solving the problem, AI is making it even worse. He junk content made with AI It is the most visible face, but they cite many more examples, such as Google AI Summarieswhich are often inaccurate and weaken the information ecosystem. There are also the AI-based advertising algorithms that make more ads reach us, platforms that are forcefully integrating AI everywhere, sometimes taking advantage of it to raise prices. Norway’s proposal. The use of this type of practices is widespread and its advance seems unstoppable, but Norway proposes three lines of action to reverse it: Give power back to users: that we can decide which operating system to install on our devices, that interoperability is mandatory, protect “de-shit” tools such as ad blockers and alternative recommendation algorithms. Stop depending on big technology: force them to “open the doors” and use open standards, finance and promote free software, using public administration as a lever. Apply the law: Norway proposes raising sanctions even further and tightening controls. The European Digital Markets Act has already taken steps in this direction, such as USB-C on iPhone or the sideloading on iOS. However, managing to end this degradation completely seems like a titanic task. Norway has sent letters to fourteen countries, including the United States, asking them to take action. Image | YouTube In Xataka | Thanks to AI we can now stop reading and writing as much as we used to. According to science, it is the worst for Alzheimer’s