Cognitive Scaffold

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MENTAL MODEL · M3164

Enshittification

Enshittification
BusinessHigh supportEconomics
Included
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Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-28

CORE DEFINITION

Enshittification, also known as platform decay, is a process in which two-sided online products and services decline in quality over time. Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers, and finally degrade their services to both users and business customers to maximise short-term profits for shareholders.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

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Reduce cognitive load

Enshittification, also known as platform decay, is a process in which two-sided online products and services decline in quality over time. Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers, and finally degrade their services to both users and business customers to maximise short-term profits for shareholders.

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The platform lifecycle inevitably declines: first, it pleases users (high quality at a loss) → after locking in users, it degrades the user experience to please merchants → finally, it exploits both users and merchants to please shareholders, causing quality to collapse to 'garbage' until death. It is a mechanism of layer-by-layer extraction from both sides under monopoly (entropy increase).

MINIMUM ACTION

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Source support: Explicit

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    en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EnshittificationZH · Explicit
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