Enshittification of The Internet

Is it just me, or is everything getting worse especially the free or cheapest tier of every service? There’s a term for this: enshittification. It’s what happens when companies slowly degrade the quality of their offerings to squeeze out as much profit as possible. And it’s happening everywhere.

The Airline Industry: Flying Less, Paying More

Remember when a window seat was free? When exit row seats weren’t considered a luxury? When meals were included and your first bag didn’t cost extra? Flying used to be about getting from point A to B safely and comfortably. Now, it feels like paying extra for every bit of convenience.

The last time I booked a flight, I saw it all. Every seat came with a price tag—yes, even middle and aisle seats. And now, just sitting closer to the front of the plane costs more... not for extra legroom, not for premium service—just because it’s slightly more convenient. It’s absurd.

On a 17-hour Emirates flight—a supposedly premium airline—I arrived at my seat only to find it stained and unusable. I stepped aside to avoid blocking the aisle, sat in a nearby (empty) exit row seat while I waited and eventually realized no one was assigned to it, so I stayed. A flight attendant approached and asked me to sit somewhere else. I explained the situation and she said she’d need to find me a seat at the “same price point.” I was shocked. I was still in economy, still without a window and sitting in a seat no one paid for but I was being told I didn’t “qualify” for it.

Eventually, her manager allowed me to stay. But the whole interaction left me wondering: when did customer service become about what we paid, not what we need? When did human decency get replaced with price tags?

Subscriptions: The Business of Slowly Taking More

Subscription models can be great. They offer consistent revenue for businesses and convenience for users. But when greed takes over, loyalty becomes a liability.

Instead of rewarding long-term customers, many companies slowly take away features from cheaper plans and place them behind higher paywalls. They repackage the same service, call it a “premium upgrade” and hope you won’t notice that what used to be standard is now considered “exclusive.”

Year-over-year growth isn’t just about new customers anymore, it’s about extracting more from the ones they already have. And the result? A slow, painful erosion of value.

Dynamic Pricing: Rewarding Demand with Price Gouging

Welcome to the world of dynamic pricing: where the exact same service costs more just because more people happen to want it right now.

I got excited about a Backstreet Boys concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas. I’ve been a fan since childhood and when I heard tickets were starting at $80, I jumped to sign up for the presale. I was only a couple minutes late but by the time I got through Ticketmaster’s virtual line, the same ticket was going for over $1,000. For the same seat.

That’s not a rare glitch. That’s the algorithm at work.

A few days later, prices dropped back to $300–500. Still high, but not jaw-dropping. What hurt was knowing that the band’s biggest fans were the ones most likely to get scammed by this system. And there’s no appealing it. It’s not just concerts, either. Airlines, hotel rooms, even Uber rides use the same logic: your excitement or urgency becomes their pricing opportunity.

Take FIFA, for example. They introduced dynamic pricing for World Cup tickets for the first time ever. Games in the U.S. cost more than in Canada and a match in Los Angeles is priced higher than a match in Boston. And if you bought your ticket through FIFA, the only way to resell it is through their own marketplace where they take a percentage every time that same ticket is sold. So FIFA doesn’t just profit once, they profit every time a seat gets resold.

At what point did an organization like FIFA decide this wasn’t about fans anymore? Tickets in Qatar were reasonably priced. Now, you can’t get a decent World Cup seat for under $600.

The Dirty Little Secret of Cancellations

Here’s something not enough people know about: the best deals come when you’re ready to walk away.

If you’ve ever tried to cancel a subscription, you’ve probably seen the guilt-trippy “Are you sure?” screens, the sudden offer with a discount, the “last chance” button flashing at the end. Most companies will offer you better pricing than what you’re already paying only if you try to cancel. That’s how much they want to keep you.

So do yourself a favor: go through the cancellation flow of a service you’re paying for. You might find a sweeter deal at the end of that rabbit hole. (Just note: this trick doesn’t work with Apple’s built-in subscription settings.)

The Bigger Picture: When Loyalty Gets Punished

I get it, businesses want to grow. But when growth comes at the cost of trust and decency, everyone loses. How did we end up in a world where loyalty is punished? Where “doing the right thing for the customer” is seen as a threat to profit margins?

Are we now in an age where success is only measured by how much you can squeeze out of your users? Has capitalism become so inflated that basic human empathy gets cut from the budget?

Honestly, I don’t know where this ends but I do know we need to start asking better questions.

Takeaway

Let this be your reminder:

• Cancel subscriptions you’re not using.

• Think twice before accepting the first price you see.

The reality is, most businesses don’t care about you, they care about your money. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy their services but it does mean you should protect your attention, your money and your loyalty. Because if you don’t, no one else will.