Norway Officially Explains Why Every App You Own Now Actively Hates You

The Norwegian Consumer Council has officially released a video tackling the internet phenomenon known as enshittification, and if you thought that was just a word your nephew used when he lost at Fortnite, think again. It is a real, high level economic term used by people with fancy degrees to describe why every app on your phone currently feels like it was designed by a committee of people who actively hate you.

For those who missed the memo, enshittification is the natural lifecycle of a digital platform. First, the app is great and gives you free stuff to lure you in. Then, it starts charging you and annoying you to please the investors. Finally, it becomes a digital wasteland of ads for weight loss gummies and AI generated videos of hamsters cooking lasagna. The Norwegians, being a sensible people who gave us Vikings and high quality sweaters, have finally had enough of this downward spiral into the digital abyss.

The video serves as a sort of public service announcement for anyone who has noticed that their favorite social media site now feels like a high pressure sales pitch from a guy in a mall kiosk. It explains how platforms go from being helpful tools to being digital vampires that suck away your data, your patience, and your will to live, all in the name of shareholder value. It is essentially a polite, Nordic way of saying that the internet has become a dumpster fire, but with better lighting and more targeted advertising.

What is truly impressive is that a government body actually used the term enshittification in a professional capacity. Somewhere in Oslo, there is a bureaucrat who had to sign off on a budget for a video about things getting progressively worse. It is the kind of honesty we need in the modern age. Usually, when a company ruins a perfectly good service, they call it a pivot or a brand evolution. The Norwegians are just calling it what it is: a slow motion car crash made of code and corporate greed.

The council highlights the trap we all fall into. We are stuck in these digital ecosystems because that is where our friends are, or because we have five years of photos stored there. The platforms know this. They know you are not going to leave just because they added three unskippable ads for a mobile game you will never play. They have us in a hostage situation where the ransom is our sanity, and the only way out is to move to a cabin in the woods and communicate via carrier pigeon.

Ultimately, the video is a call to action for better regulations and more consumer rights. It is a reminder that we do not have to accept that everything we love online will eventually turn into a pile of garbage. Until then, we can at least take comfort in the fact that the Norwegians are on the case, bravely fighting the good fight against the enshittification of the universe. Just try not to think about the fact that you probably watched the video on a platform that is currently halfway through its own journey into the toilet.