Somebody asked about things that have genuinely really improved in recent years and the 23 replies will brighten your day

Have you heard of the term ‘enshittification’? It means, according to the Macquarie Dictionary, ‘the gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking’.

If you’ve ever used Twitter or Facebook, you’ll have experienced this, and it can also be applied to plenty of offline products and services too. But, happily, not everything has fallen prey to it. Over on the AskUK subreddit, user laredocronk asked this:

‘Enshittification feels like it’s everywhere. What’s managed to not just avoid it, but actually get better in recent years?’

And lots of people had thoughts on the things that have genuinely improved, like these:

1.

‘Passport renewals. Somewhere, in a secret basement 12 levels under Croydon, a Civil Servant devised and implemented a highly efficient system that could renew a passport online in less than 10 days. And it works.’
–AlmightyRobert

2.

‘Internet connectivity. Within a generation we’ve gone from an obscure military/academic technology linking a few public networks to a highly resilient, cheap, fast communication system such that most houses can access near real-time live streams from around the world for a couple of dozen pounds a month.’
–Regular_Zombie

3.

‘Contactless bus payments almost everywhere. So much better and quicker than having to have the right cash.’
–L9GTX

4.

‘Restaurants. Back in my youth your choices were pretty much curry house, local Chinese with bright red sweet and sour sauce, local Italian which was about as Italian as the go compare man or the ‘posh’ restaurant that was inevitably doing very classical French cuisine. The variety and quality now is just leagues apart.’
–Harrry-Otter

5.

‘Alcohol free beer/spirits. I tried quitting booze in 2015 and the options were terrible. The best was Brewdog’s Nanny State and even then that wasn’t the best.

‘Now? Most bars have an option that is at the very least drinkable. Guinness is spectacular. You can go to the supermarket and pick up a perfectly good four pack. Some of the craft stuff is amazing. Even Peroni and Heineken are decent options. And everywhere does them. I miss occasionally having a ‘pint’ as such, but everything else? Amazing.’
–rhyswynne

6.

‘Wikipedia. It’s solidly web 1.0 in a web 2.0 world, and that’s fine. It’s honestly magic that a page anyone can edit is mostly accurate.’
–dospc

7.

‘I think we’ll look back on the pandemic in particular and see MRNA vaccines as being one of the big things to come out of the early 21st century. The potential applications for MRNA technology is huge.

‘Actually, medicine in general. Sure, the NHS itself is chronically underinvested in, but the treatments they can doll out were outright fantasy 20 years ago. The fact we’ve gone from HIV being a five year death sentence to something you can pop a pill for and have a otherwise relatively normal life is insane.’
–pastafreakingmania

8.

‘Coffee. I remember a day where you’d be served Nescafé in some establishments.’
–iMac_Hunt

9.

‘Tunnock’s chocolate teacakes and chocolate wafers. I don’t think they’ve ever shrunk, ever!! Reliable.’
–atomicheart99

10.

‘Maps, in particular Google Maps. It’s an insanely powerful tool, especially when navigating a foreign city, planning public transport, looking for decent cafes etc. and the fact it’s FREE blows my mind. I can’t think of a more useful bit of software for a traveller and it just seems to get better and better. Yes, I know they get my data in return, but I’d happily pay good money for it (don’t tell them).’
–Programmer-Severe

11.

‘Marks and Sparks clothing. It really has improved significantly over the last couple of years (menswear, anyway – have women experienced the same?).’
–publiusnaso

12.

‘Photography. I’ve got one photo of my dad as a young man, and he’s wearing uniform (National Service). Two photos of my mum as a school kid taken with other kids. Me and my siblings growing up, photos taken during the yearly summer holiday and Christmas. Film and developing film cost a small fortune.

‘Now – incredible. Absolutely unbelievable. And the effects available for FREE! I could spend all day, everyday just looking at photos and videos sent by family and friends, direct to my little handheld phone’s screen!’
–Emergency-Nebula5005