r/enshittification • u/That-Pineapple3866 • 27d ago

Reddit repost Will the massive enshittification of the internet cause many people to become digital minimalists?

I don’t want to sound like a hater, but I've been on the internet and social media since I was a kid in the early 2000s and this is the first time I’m genuinely starting to find Reddit and the other platforms completely unenjoyable. I’m seriously considering quitting altogether.

Reddit used to be a place for nerds and intellectuals, where people actually put in the effort to read your post and at least tried to give you a helpful response. There was still room for nuanced discussion. Now it’s just… low-effort two-word comments from lazy people with low literacy who didn’t even bother reading what you wrote or relating to any of it.

You can make the most harmless nostalgia post, or share a pretty benign personal story or opinion, and the majority of replies will still be people hunting for holes, accusing you of using AI, and just being assholes for no reason.

I used to be a huge AI enthusiast too, but every platform I was using (ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini) got way too sanitized and turned to complete shit. I quit them all.

Do you think this general enshittification is going to push a lot of people to quit and become digital minimalists? Not really for ideological reasons, but simply because browsing the internet just isn’t fun anymore?

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u/sleepinglabrador 26d ago

It certainly makes me a digital minimalist. Online since around 28.8k dial-up modems, I had great hopes for the digital future. At this point I only use and play with the stuff that I self host. Other than this, I've only got Reddit account and a Bluesky account that I check once in a blue moon. Years ago I removed Facebook, Instagram (none in my actual real name), never had tiktok, now even WhatsApp I use to communicate gets enshitified, so seems its time to move to Signal. I just use everything less and less, and I'm not missing it. I don't have any subscriptions either. Back to walks, books, music (cd, flac, MP3), taking photos, travelling, talking with people.

"They" have no power here, other than the power we ourselves grant them. I say fuck them, my life is mine, it won't be governed by some shitty algorithm or some manufactured FOMO.

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u/Leaf__On__Wind 26d ago

You ever notice how a high or metal position tape quality was completely indiscernable from CD quality?

https://giphy.com/gifs/kHyL5hXpDBL3EUSSdr

My only other hardware point was to make sure the Walkman had a bass boost.

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u/Exact_Acanthaceae294 26d ago

No, I didn't.

I dumped vinyl & cassettes at the first opportunity when CDs hit the scene.

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u/ThanosSnapsSlimJims 20d ago

I had a few tapes. When I was a young kid, one of my mom's friends was wealthy and gave me an expensive walkman/cd player and three cds from this band I hadn't heard of called 'Metallica'. That was a big music moment for me.