2025 WSC Weekly34期：为什么原本好用的APP经常感觉越用越烂？

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锁定每周WSC Weekly

在2025年世界学者杯第33期WSC Weekly栏目中，我们与小学者一起了解了空想性错觉如何从火星人脸之谜延伸到人类认知机制的核心，并在艺术、医学和人工智能领域产生重要影响。在上期的趣味Quiz中，你是否找到了正确答案？现在就让我们一起来揭晓吧！

点击查看上期话题

火星表面为什么能看到人脸？

Pareidolia: The Science of Seeing Faces in Random Objects

第33期Quiz答案揭晓：

Who is LEAST likely to see a face in the picture below?

谁最不可能在下图中看到脸孔？

A. A 1-year-old infant 一岁大的婴儿

B. A chimpanzee 黑猩猩

C. A patient with Alzheimer’s disease 阿兹海默症患者

D. A pet dog 宠物狗

E. An AI used for self-driving car 用于自动驾驶汽车的AI

正确答案：E

Key: E

2025年第34期

Weekly Intro

你是否感觉常用的应用越来越难用？这并非错觉，而是网络平台正在经历的系统性衰败。

本期Weekly将深入解析"平台衰退"现象，揭示其背后的三阶段发展规律与深层危害，一起来看看吧！

2025 No.34

为什么原本好用的APP经常感觉越用越烂？

Platform Decay: Why Online Platforms Keep Getting Worse

何为平台衰退？

如果你觉得自己常用的应用程序和网站变得越来越难用，你并不是唯一有这种感受的人。这种网络平台质量下降的现象被称为“平台衰退”（platform decay），也被戏称为“烂化”（enshittification），这是加拿大作家科里·多克托罗（Cory Doctorow）所普及的一个词。尽管这个词听起来颇具幽默感，但它描述的现象却十分严肃：在线平台会经历一个可预测的发展周期，从最初服务用户，逐渐转向剥削用户，最终沦为臃肿、操控性强、令人失望的产品。

If you feel that your favorite apps and websites have slowly become more frustrating to use, you are not alone.This decline in quality is part of a phenomenon known as platform decay, or enshittificationa, a term popularized by Canadian writer Cory Doctorow.Although the word is humorous, the pattern it captures is serious: it describes the predictable cycle through which online platforms gradually shift from serving their users to exploiting them, ultimately deteriorating into products that feel bloated, manipulative, and disappointing.

三阶段衰败之路

平台衰退通常经历三个阶段。在最初阶段，一个平台确实有用，专注于为用户提供最佳体验，从而吸引庞大的用户群体。一旦拥有数百万用户，平台的优先事项就会悄然改变，不再以用户体验为核心，而是逐步偏向为依赖平台的商家服务。例如，搜索引擎会让赞助内容优先展示，社交媒体开始推送付费内容，同时给普通用户的发布内容减流。在第三个阶段，当商家也对平台形成依赖后，平台的目标再次转变，这一次是从用户和商家身上尽可能榨取利润。最终的结果通常是一个平台变得几乎不可用，只提供最低限度的功能，以防止用户大规模离开。

Platform decay typically unfolds in three stages.In the beginning, a platform is genuinely useful. It focuses on giving users the best possible experience in order to attract a large audience.Once millions of people have joined, the platform subtly changes its priorities. Instead of maximizing value for users, it begins to optimize for the businesses that rely on it. Search engines start prioritizing sponsored content over meaningful results, and social media sites begin boosting paid posts while burying organic ones. Eventually, as those business customers become dependent on the platform, the platform shifts once more—this time to extract as much profit as possible from both users and businesses. At the end of this cycle, Doctorow argues, platforms become nearly unusable, offering just enough functionality to keep people from leaving en masse.

【2025 WSC Weekly】34期：为什么原本好用的APP经常感觉越用越烂？

用户锁定效应

现代互联网中处处可见平台衰退的例子。搜索引擎平台不再优先展示准确内容，而是用广告和低质量的搜索引擎结果页误导用户；社交网络平台从最初强调社群互动，变成被赞助内容和算法操控的信息流所主导；电商平台故意限制商家的可见性来收取费用，使搜索结果更像是一场“付费竞赛”，而不是质量竞争。

这些变化并非偶然，也不是技术故障，而是缺乏竞争的互联网公司在利润驱动下所做出的结构性选择。平台衰退效应之所以如此强大，其关键原因在于“用户锁定效应”：许多在线服务平台通过网络效应、社交关系以及专有文件格式、封闭生态系统等技术壁垒来困住用户。即便一个用户想要更换平台，他也很难说服自己的社交圈或客户群一同迁移。因此，平台深知大多数人其实没有实质性的替代选择，这让它们可以放心地增加广告、收集更多数据、降低便利性，而不必担心用户大量流失。

Examples of platform decay are visible across the modern internet. Search engines that once prioritized accuracy now overwhelm users with advertisements and low-quality, SEO-optimized pages. Social networks that initially emphasized community have become crowded with sponsored content and algorithmically manipulated feeds. Even e-commerce platforms now charge sellers for basic visibility, turning search results into pay-to-play spaces where quality matters less than marketing budgets.These changes are not glitches or accidents; they are integral to the economic incentives of companies that face little real competition.A major reason platform decay is so powerful is the issue of user lock-in. Many online services trap users through network effects, social connections, or technical barriers such as proprietary file formats and closed ecosystems. Even if an individual wants to leave, they often cannot persuade their entire social circle or customer base to migrate with them. As a result, platforms feel free to worsen the user experience because they know that most people lack meaningful alternatives. This structural dependence makes it easy for platforms to slowly add more ads, collect more data, and degrade convenience without provoking a mass exodus.

超越烦恼的深层危害

虽然平台衰退带来的问题常常仅被描述为“令人烦恼”，例如广告变多、界面混乱、内容质量下降，但更深层的危害远不止于此。由于在线服务已经成为我们注意力、记忆和知识的外部延伸，网络平台的衰退实际上削弱了我们的认知能力。人们越来越依赖搜索引擎来记住“信息在哪里”，而不是记住信息本身，这是一种互补记忆系统（transactive memory）。

当网络平台变得不可靠时，这个记忆系统也随之崩溃，让用户产生认知迷失。此外，我们的注意力也在受损。为了榨取广告收入而设计的界面，使人习惯于不断滑动、分心、切换任务。一些学者指出，注意力不仅是认知能力，更是一种道德能力，是同理心与深度思考的基础。因此，平台衰退可能不仅伤害我们如何思考，也会影响我们的身份认同。

Although platform decay is often described in terms of annoyance—more ads, lower relevance, confusing interfaces—the document suggests its harms run deeper.Because online services now serve as extensions of our attention, memory, and knowledge, their decline may weaken our cognitive abilities. Our reliance on search engines means we increasingly remember where to find information rather than the information itself, a form of “transactive memory.”When a platform decays and becomes less reliable, this external memory system collapses, leaving users mentally adrift. Attention is also at risk. Platforms redesigned around ad extraction train people to skim, scroll, and constantly switch tasks. Some scholars argue that attention is not just a cognitive skill but also a moral one, essential for empathy and deeper thought. In this sense, platform decay may damage not only how we think but also who we are.

政策与解决方案

多克托罗指出，政策选择在平台衰退中发挥了关键作用。当企业掌控市场、缺乏竞争压力时，它们必然会朝着用户剥削方向发展，因为那些微小、逐步的体验恶化往往既能提高收益，又不易被用户察觉。

这些微调被多克托罗称为“旋弄（twiddles）”。如果不加监管或竞争，这些微小的恶化会年复一年累积，直到平台彻底背离最初的模样。为了缓解平台衰退现象，有两个可能的解决方向。其一是恢复“端到端原则”，即确保平台提供的是真正符合用户需求的内容，而非广告商希望他们看到的内容。其二是保障真正的“退出权”，使用户能够自由迁移数据与社交关系，不必被“绑定”在某个产品上，从而增加市场竞争迫使平台改善服务，而不是通过困住用户来维持垄断。换言之，平台应靠服务质量而非技术壁垒来留住用户。

Policy choices play a central role in enabling platform decay. Doctorow argues that when companies grow too large and dominate a market, they naturally drift toward user exploitation because small, incremental degradations are profitable and easy to hide.He calls these tweaks “twiddles”—tiny adjustments that increase revenue at the expense of user experience. Without competition or regulation, platforms accumulate these twiddles year after year until they become unrecognizable from their original form. There are potential remedies: restoring the “end-to-end” principle, which ensures platforms show users what they actually request rather than what advertisers want them to see, and guaranteeing a genuine right to exit by making it possible to move data and social connections freely between platforms. In other words, platforms should improve by competing for users, not by trapping them.

Weekly关键词 Key Words

platform decay 平台衰败

Cory Doctorow 科里·多克托罗

所属话题

In Futurity, Someone Prophetic Sees

相关阅读

https://www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2025/10/21/g-s1-94264/a-theory-why-the-internet-is-going-down-the-toilet

https://magazine.muhlenberg.edu/as-platforms-decay-so-do-we/

Weekly FUN Quiz

相信现在你已经知道了平台衰退如何按照可预测的三阶段模式发展，并从简单的使用烦恼演变为威胁我们认知能力与注意力的深层问题了吧！那就快来参与本期Weekly FUN Quiz👇，告诉老师你的答案吧！

Quiz

Users complaining about platform decay would find which of the following solutions MOST useful?