Enshittification More Than a Century Ago
Last Sunday I spoke to my in-laws about cars and how repairing old ones was better than buying new ones. It was mentioned that many spares or replacement parts are no longer original, they're made cheaply to likely break (down) within a few years. In general, new cars have a very short "shelf life" and very high maintenance costs. The same is true for home appliances and most electronics. I gave 5 examples of electronic products from the 90s that we still regularly use in 2026. They work fine.
One of them, shown on the side, is a Samsung sound system made in the early or mid 90s. I use it right now to play CDs from the 1990s.
Recently, in Geminispace/Gopherspace, this subject was brought up again. At least two people spoke about washing machines. One of them said: "My washing machine is ages old, has three knobs and still washes my clothes perfectly clean. But I'm a little worried, because it's *really* old and I don't know if it could flood my whole kitchen, if it really breaks. So I don't know when I really have to buy a new one. But here's the thing that makes me really angry: I've looked at Amazon for some time for a new washing machine. But *all* of them now have a *big* computer inside, where you need a study to operate it correctly. Yes, they all look very nice and modern, like an UFO or something, but of course they'll break 3 days after the 2 years warranty. And then you let come the "technician", who says without having a real look at it: "The computer needs to be replaced". Cost: 90% of the original cost of the new machine! So it's mainly electronic waste."
A response to that called it the "enshittification of washing machines". To quote: "This reminded me of a short essay by Robert Benchley written in 1920, called "Open Bookcases". For convenience, I just copied it to my Gopher burrow [2]. The complaints of fab and of Robert Benchley are surprisingly similar, only the dates differ, and of course, the subject. Tomorrow's profits are what it is all about, and certainly not the actual needs of the customer."
To quote the above "essay by Robert Benchley" (New York World, March 15, 1920): "Things have come to a pretty pass when a man can't buy a bookcase that hasn't got glass doors on it. What are we becoming—a nation of weaklings? All over New York City I have been—trying to get something in which to keep books. And what am I shown? Curio cabinets, inclosed whatnots, museum cases in which to display fragments from the neolithic age, and glass-faced sarcophagi for dead butterflies. [...] Then the ideal procedure for a real book lover would be to keep his books in the original box, snugly packed in excelsior, with the lid nailed down. Then they would be nice and clean. And the sun couldn't get at them and ruin the bindings. Faugh! (Try saying that. It doesn't work out at all as you think it's going to. And it makes you feel very silly for having tried it.) Why, in the elder days bookcases with glass doors were owned only by people who filled them with ten volumes of a pictorial history of the Civil War (including some swell steel engravings), "Walks and Talks with John L. Stoddard" and "Daily Thoughts for Daily Needs," done in robin's egg blue with a watered silk bookmark dangling out. A set of Sir Walter Scott always helps fill out a bookcase with glass doors. It looks well from the front and shows that you know good literature when you see it. And you don't have to keep opening and shutting the doors to get it out, for you never want to get it out."
Is enshittification more than a century old? █
Image source: Makeovers