More Enshittend Still

  

What is the follow on modern superlative for greater more egregious enshittification?

While there is no single official linguistic superlative, the most prominent follow-on terms used by tech critics, internet subcultures, and Cory Doctorow himself to describe a greater, more egregious state of enshittification fall into a few distinct categories:

1. The Author's Expansion: "The Great Enshittening"

When referring to the systemic, macro-level evolution of this phenomenon across the entire internet, Cory Doctorow himself uses "The Great Enshittening." While "enshittification" describes the mechanical process a single platform undergoes, "The Great Enshittening" is the era or ultimate state of a fully degraded, corporate-monopolized digital world. [1, 2, 3]

2. The Theoretical Peak: "Peak Enshittification"

In tech policy and platform analysis, the extreme, terminal phase of the cycle is called "Peak Enshittification." According to Doctorow's framework, this occurs in Stage 3. At this point, the platform has locked in both its users and business clients so completely that it stops trying to please either. It actively "twiddles" every parameter to suck out the remaining financial surplus entirely for its shareholders, leaving behind a completely hollowed-out, ad-riddled product. [1, 2, 3]

3. The Digital Desolation: "Digital Scrapie" or "AI Dead Internet"

When enshittification is combined with modern generative AI, the resulting hyper-egregious state is often referred to as "Digital Scrapie." This occurs when an enshittified platform begins training its algorithms on low-quality, AI-generated slop instead of human-curated content. The system enters a terminal feedback loop of exponential decay, effectively breaking the usability of the platform beyond repair. [1, 2]

4. Community Portmanteaus: "Enshrinkishitflation"

For day-to-day products where the deterioration becomes aggressively worse on all fronts simultaneously, internet users on Reddit's r/words have coined the ultimate modern mashup: "Enshrinkishitflation." This combines: [1]

Shrinkflation: Getting less product for your money.
Greedflation: Artificially hiked corporate pricing.
Enshittification: The intentional, structural drop in overall user experience and quality. [1, 2]

If you are looking to describe a specific type of platform failure—whether it's AI-driven decay, complete lock-in, or economic squeezing—let me know and I can help you find the exact piece of modern tech jargon that fits!