Content Marketers have an important job. We feed the search engine (and now the AI) what it needs to provide users what they need. We’re the engine feeders, the gas pump attendants, the coal shovelers. We are the ones shaping what people see on search engines.

With that being said, there’s an ethical burden to this job. If what we feed the search engine is what someone used to make health care decisions, financial investments, and recipe choices, then we better be marketing responsibly.

I wish I could say that all marketers understand the burden of responsibility this job comes with, but no matter what there will always be an Ozymandias; people who are willing to destroy the lives of people to fulfill their own plans.

In 2023 the American Dialect Society selected Enshittification as the word of the year, and in 2024 Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary chose the same word. 

Enshittification was coined by Cory Doctorow in a 2022 article called Social Quitting, published shortly after Elon Musk bought Twitter and a year after Zuckerberg's famously bad Metaverse reveal.

In Social Quitting, Cory Doctorow talks about what led to the mass exodus that was occurring at the time. His theory is that social media platforms had become so bad that the social value was lost. 

“When switching costs are high, services can be changed in ways that you dislike without losing your business. The higher the switching costs, the more a company can abuse you, because it knows that as bad as they’ve made things for you, you’d have to endure worse if you left.” - Cory Doctorow

I’m going to be called a boomer for this; social media used to be better. Back in my day feeds were chronological. While in college I would eat my breakfast and scroll until I reached a post I had already seen then leave for school. It was more like a newspaper than an endless wall.

It was something you could catch up on.

Now, feeds are stuffed with algorithm slop:

How did the internet get so bad?

When every successful platform starts, it’s novel. 

A new way to:

Platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, all started with a novel concept that attracted people to join their ecosystems, and it was nice! 

In a move that’s antithetical to the idea of social media, platforms began to cater to businesses more than users. More advertisements, less human interaction, UI that’s designed to confuse, and an algorithm that’s meant to keep people online for as long as possible.

These design choices are not user-centric. They are designed to open more opportunities for advertisers, but the platforms can get away with it because the platform has become entrenched in people’s lives.

Great question!

Google, unquestionably the largest search engine, has gone through its own rounds of enshittification. We monitor changes in the Google algorithm daily. We spend our time optimizing for that algorithm, but even still Google has made some questionable moves regarding what appears first on a search page. Ads and AI now take precedence over organic results.

In early 2024 a study found that the quality of content on 7,392 product queries were low quality or considered spammy. This study focused on product searches, but other people, myself included, have noticed a degradation in helpful search results.

Some blame Google for updating the algorithm that seemed to make Reddit posts more valuable in 2024. Others blame SEOs for being content goblins that create low-quality content that only exists to rank–no matter the cost.

People who want to grow their business through SEO & content—our clients—are suffering due to these changes. Poor or unethical choices seem to rank well, but end up harming users while good quality content is harder to find.

At this point, the entire internet seems to be enshittified.

So what do we do about it?

When I explain what I do for work I tell people that I do the typical SEO stuff; keyword research, write content, audit page structure, etc. However, that’s not all that I do.

I also say that we work to make the internet more usable. Eightfold’s content team prioritizes readers over all else, and I genuinely believe that’s the only way to “fix” the internet. 

It would be nice if social media platforms sucked less and were more usable, but as content writers and SEOs, it’s our goal to steward the internet in a user-friendly direction. In a direction that helps users rather than takes advantage of them.

So, how do we do it?

The average American adult reads at a 7th-8th grade level. As content writers, it’s our goal to meet readers where they’re at. It doesn’t matter if we’re writing a white paper about grease recycling, a resource about anxiety, or a guide to the best hotshot trailers, we’re writing to reach readers.

That means writing at a 7th or 8th-grade level. Words should be small and sentences concise, but not dumbed down. Users are distracted as the internet is designed to distract them. They’re being pushed around at a million miles a minute and they need simple, direct answers.

No one likes opening up a webpage titled “What You Need to Work From Home” only to scroll through useless information about what working from home is.

There is SEO value to having in-depth writing that covers the entire topic, but it’s not helpful for the user to bury answers far down the page.

Content that fights enshittification answers questions quickly.

A hard truth for anyone who writes long-form content:

People don’t read sites. They scan them. This isn’t new information or something that happened due to shortened attention spans. Even in 1997, people didn't read websites. They scanned them.

That’s why we try our hardest to make sure people can find the information they’re looking for and get to know our clients.

What a novel concept.

Our content team writes for a range of industries:

That last one is particularly important to get right. We do the research, and when we can’t find proper sources, we ask a professional or leave out the potentially false information completely.

There are a lot of lies on the internet. Content writers need to do their research and find the correct information. There’s no use in getting views if you get it wrong.

Google AI Overview has come a long way from suggesting glue on pizza. However, as this becomes a more useful tool, I’ve developed a specific fear:

If everyone uses AI to inform their writing, everyone will be saying the same thing, then AI will learn from that content and spit out the same stuff. Will everything become homogenous and boring?

Facts are facts, but there is so much more to content writing:

This idea of using AI generated from existing (well-ranking) content to generate well-ranking content that will then feed the AI brings us writers to a complicated question. What sets us apart from the content goblin mills?

One of the core values we use as a guidepost while creating content is that we are people-focused partners to all our clients. Everything we do is people first. From topic ideation to final publishing—we consider who our client is, who their audience is, and what they need to hear.

Eightfold’s content team has a focus on creating content that is original and not just regurgitated from AI. We also don’t use AI as a crutch, but we use it as a tool.

There’s a good chance that social media will never get better. Some compare their rise and eventual downfall to malls — the biggest hang out spot that eventually turned into a husk of a building.

While social media platforms will come and go, the internet isn’t going anywhere. That’s why it’s important to create content and sites that meaningfully meet users where they’re at, deliver useful information, and create joy for the reader. 

Content that is written for humans is a breath of fresh air. No more scrolling through padded pages, getting caught in endless loops, or ads taking up 55% of the screen real estate.

Reject enshittification. Write for humans. Make their experience meaningful. Don’t bow to your robot overlords.