The Cycle of Decay
Following Doctorow's model, the Enshittification of Bereavement proceeds in three stages:
- Stage 1: Attraction. The platform offers free, high-quality memorial pages to attract users during a vulnerable time ("Create a forever home for Mom").
- Stage 2: Lock-in. Once the community and content are established, the platform makes it difficult to export data ("Your memories live here").
- Stage 3: Extraction. The platform introduces paywalls, limits storage, or injects ads for funeral services directly into the memorial feed ("Upgrade to Premium to keep Mom online").
Field Note: While enshittification is annoying for social media, it is traumatic for bereavement. When a memorial site goes behind a paywall, it feels less like a business decision and more like a ransom note for the memory of the dead.