Showing all posts about trends
Enshittification, word of 2024, a book by Cory Doctorow 2025
11 August 2025
Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It, by Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and author Cory Doctorow, will be published in October 2025.
Doctorow coined the word enshittification in 2022. Long story short, the neologism describes how online platforms go from being useful to useless, on account of the greed of their owners.
Facebook and Instagram are good examples of enshittification at work. Once both social networks were populated by content created by members. As time has passed though, much of what appears on these platforms is effectively advertising.
Enshittification was named the 2024 word of the year by Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary.
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Reasons to leave Substack, how to leave Substack
5 August 2025
The question is — before giving any thought to some of the objectionable content they host — what are you doing there in the first place? Why would you allow your brand to be assimilated by another?
American economist Paul Krugman’s decision to set up shop on Substack, after he stopped writing for The New York Times, plain baffles me. With a profile as impressive as his, Krugman could just as easily started publishing from his own website, with a ready made audience.
He didn’t need to go to a third party publishing platform. Certainly Substack publishes writer’s posts as email newsletters, but if someone wants to syndicate their work by newsletter, there are other options. Writers can earn money through Substack, some do very well apparently, but high profile writers have a number of ways of generating revenue through their own, self-hosted, websites.
You Should Probably Leave Substack goes through some of the options available to writers who want to leave Substack (and preferably publish from their own website).
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blogs, publishing, self publishing, trends, writing
The dark patterns of online sellers to get more of your money
4 August 2025
An all too long list of what NSW Fair Trading, the consumer protection regulator in New South Wales, Australia, describes as dark patterns encountered by consumers when transacting with goods and service providers online.
Sometimes vendors will add extra, usually unwanted, items to an order. Or a business will make it difficult to cancel subscriptions by using confusing language. Sometimes a seller might suggest stocks are low of whatever a buyer is viewing, encouraging them to buy before it’s “too late”.
One thing that especially ticks me off when looking at something I might want to buy is a pop-up, that blocks the screen, offering, say, a five-percent discount on the item. If an order is placed immediately. And I haven’t even worked out if the product is suitable yet.
They’re like those blogs that spawn a pop-up seconds after opening a post, urging readers to sign-up for a newsletter, before you’ve had the chance to read a single word.
Another insidious ploy is confirm shaming, where a shopper is goaded into making a decision by potentially embarrassing them. For instance, an option to decline buying a guide to keeping fit might say, “no thanks, I’m not interested in keeping fit.” The list goes on. It’s a jungle out there.
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Had a website since the 90’s? You’re an internet person
4 August 2025
Kris Howard writing at Web Goddess:
I’m not sure if this is a generational thing, or just different cultures and social norms. Rodd’s theory is that we are Internet People — those who grew up with the dawn of the modern Internet and have strong feelings about keeping information free and decentralised — and that not everyone working in tech is an Internet Person.
The excerpt is from a post Kris wrote marking her tenth anniversary using WordPress, although she’s been online far longer. But I like the positive context in which the term internet person is used.
Because usage is not always complimentary. But people who have had a website since the turn of the century, or prior, can adopt this term, own it.
An internet person’s values are of course similar to indie web principles. While in some senses I am considered part of the indie web, I don’t always feel that way, given I somewhat predate the movement. Internet person it is then.
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blogs, history, IndieWeb, trends
Apple to join the foldable smartphone fold in late 2026
24 July 2025
This according to Bloomberg writer, Mark Gurman, that is. The proposed devices resemble a small iPad or tablet when opened out.
It’s often said Apple might not do things first, but they do them best (usually). Doubtless they will apply their know-how to the region of the device where the fold crease is, since this where a lot of foldables see problems.
And while we’re at it, can we use the term foldable in the same way as wearable?
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smartphones, technology, trends
Personal websites are the place for comments, not social media channels
22 July 2025
Ava, writing at Ava’s blog:
It’s a bit of a meh look that one of the biggest Indieweb personalities (that I think does an amazing job!) with her own Bearblog and website is not sharing this discussion on them, but on social media instead, limiting its reach to those users. At least POSSE was an option. And that leads me back to what I said above — what’s the point of going here if people are also resorting to Twitter but with different look, but without the numbers and archive built up over years?
Ava’s post is in response to a question posed by xandra, asking what the Indie Web needs the most now. But the matter of hosting discussions with blog posts is something I’ve been grappling with.
It doesn’t seem right that anyone reading one of my website posts has to go elsewhere to make a comment, when that should be happening right here. Because I was thinking, why do I need multiple social media pages, so that all bases are covered should someone not be on this social, but on that social? And what if a person wishing to comment on a post doesn’t have any Fediverse presence?
After years of having post comments switched off, I recently re-enabled them. The reply-guys and spammers arrived within minutes of course, but my CMS has tools to help filter a lot of this junk out. Plus, I still approve all comments before they go public. Bringing comments back achieved two aims, in theory. For one, all discussion is centralised (mostly) on my website, and not spread across multiple social media platforms.
Two: people who don’t have social media presences can still take part in any discussion, because all they have to do is type out a comment. No membership of anything, expect an email address, is needed. Yes, that sets the bar low for junk, but in filters I trust.
One of the things I enjoy about leaving a comment on other people’s posts — though I’m hardly a prolific commenter, because overworked introvert — is including my website on the reply form, where the option is available.
To my mind, it’s always been about the website, not some “outpost” page on a social media platform. I’m not saying everyone should shun social media, because it’s a great place for chit-chat, and having conversations that are only hosted on someone’s socials page.
Of course, to somewhat contradict my argument, I recently federated disassociated, meaning posts go out to the likes of Mastodon, and people can reply there if they want. But then again, those comments ping back to the post in question, so any discussion would be seen in full here.
POSSE is great, but when it comes to discussion on blog posts, let’s also remember KISS: Keep It Simple Sayang. Yes, sayang, because I don’t like calling smart people stupid.
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blogs, IndieWeb, Small Web, trends
The near demise, and comeback, of Medium, an online publishing platform
17 July 2025
Tony Stubblebine, CEO of online publishing platform Medium, writing at Medium:
I’m gonna write the wonky post of Medium’s turnaround. I’m not sure if a company is allowed to be this blunt about how bad things were. But it’s very much of the Medium ethos that if something interesting happened to you, then you should write it up and share it. So hopefully this will give some inside info about what happens to a startup in distress, and one way to approach a financial, brand, product, and community turnaround.
Like many online writers I signed up for Medium — which is similar to Substack — a couple of years after its 2012 founding. A few people I knew were publishing there, and I was curious to see what it was about. I’m yet to post anything though.
But Stubblebine’s account of Medium’s ups and downs is, at times, astonishing. Particularly the amounts of money, both as investments, and in debt, that are involved. Of course, there will be plenty of people who’ll call those sums a pittance, but speaking as a boot-strapping independent online publisher, they are incredible.
The lure of publishing your work on a platform such as Medium, lies in the opportunity to be paid for it. And no doubt, some writers posting on Medium do well.
For my part, the prospect of publishing there (or on similar platforms) is tempting, but doing so just isn’t in my DNA. I’ve never liked the idea of assimilating my brand into someone else’s, something I’ve said before. Anything you do on a third-party publishing platform is doable on your own website/blog, if you are prepared to persevere.
That’s not to say I wouldn’t ever post there, and for someone like me, a platform such as Medium might be comparable to a social media channel.
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blogs, publishing, self publishing, trends, writing
HR departments relying more on AI tools to screen job applicants
5 July 2025
Danielle Abril, writing for MSN:
Increasingly, job candidates are running into virtual recruiters for screenings. The conversational agents, built on large language models, help recruiting firms and hiring companies respond to every applicant, conduct interviews around-the-clock and find the best candidate in increasingly large talent pools. People who have experienced AI interviews have mixed reviews: surprisingly good or cold and confusing.
Pity the HR departments. It’s hard work having to draw up policies about procedures, and procedures about policies. All of that work leaves no time for their core function: recruiting staff, and managing human resources. By the way, I the find the use of the word resource a particularly odious HR practice. People are people, not resources. Instead of saying “we need to bring in a resource”, try saying “we need to hire a person for this role.”
Anyway, to reduce workloads, and ostensibly speed-up the recruiting process, some HR departments are using AI tools to screen “first-round” candidates for a role. I assume once a “second-round” list (or should that be pool?) of candidates is arrived at, an HR person becomes involved in the process.
No doubt there are large numbers of applicants for advertised roles, and some sort of screening is necessary to shortlist suitable candidates. To ease the burden though, HR staff could use AI tools to write up policies and procedures instead, so they can focus on the human side of the equation.
They could even take advantage of AI note taking apps, further reducing pressure on their time.
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artificial intelligence, technology, trends, work
AI note takers standing in for online meeting attendees
5 July 2025
Lisa Bonos and Danielle Abril, writing for The Washington Post:
Clifton Sellers attended a Zoom meeting last month where robots outnumbered humans. He counted six people on the call including himself, Sellers recounted in an interview. The 10 others attending were note-taking apps powered by artificial intelligence that had joined to record, transcribe and summarize the meeting.
AI note takers attend online meetings so you don’t have to. They will record the entire meeting, and prepare a summary afterwards. Sounds convenient. Some people though have raised concerns about meeting participants not really participating in meetings, and there they might have a point.
Others are worried that note taking apps are recording the entire conversation. But if it’s a work meeting, and not a private conversation about, say, a highly sensitive matter, is that a major concern? Surely online meeting apps also record, and store, the entire contents of a meeting, even if all participants are fully present? There’s also the point such apps might spill the tea elsewhere.
It’s been a while since I was in a workplace-based situation, but I would’ve relished the opportunity to have an AI note taker stand in for me at meetings. That way I could — you know — do some actual work instead. This sounds like one to AI, I say.
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artificial intelligence, technology, trends, work
Living like it is 1993 for a week, no digital technology allowed
3 July 2025
Nathan Drescher, writing for Android Authority:
For one week, I lived without modern technology unless it was absolutely necessary for work and emergencies. I carried a Discman, scribbled in a paper planner, and made phone calls instead of texting. It was chaotic at first, but oddly calming by the time it was all over.
It can be argued 1993 was pretty much the last pre-digital era year. The internet was around, but was hardly mainstream. Digital phones had just arrived in Australia, though were confined to a select few users. And that was about it. But really, I think 1993 can be left in the past, hopefully as a pleasant memory. Same goes for those (cumbersome) Discmans.
I’m all for screen-free time, digital detoxing for a few hours here and there, but otherwise often feel I belong precisely in the time I presently live in, for all its flaws. No golden age thinking here. You won’t catch me feeling sorry about the demise of the landline phone, nor feeling nostalgic for their absence. Besides, I’d much rather text, or email someone, than call them.
I could go for a paper planner if pressed, I suppose. But websites (and blogs) weren’t quite with us in 1993, though they weren’t far away, and they would be something I could not live without.
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