Marketing
March 16, 2026
Unshittification, digital detox, and brands in the era of authenticity
“We have the feeling of living an infinite reproduction of posts”
Talking about social networks requires acknowledging a certain weariness. We are less enchanted by the promise of infinite connection and more suspicious of feeds that seem to compete for attention by insistence. Furthermore, we perceive a drop in quality in what we are seeing.
A survey cited by Meio & Mensagem, from a Toluna poll of about 800 Brazilians, conducted in December 2025, showed that 27% of respondents intend to reduce social media time in 2026, with Instagram appearing as the main target of this reduction. The data doesn’t explain everything, but it helps to name a diffuse feeling: for part of the audience, the experience has become noisier, less rewarding, and more exhausting.
This fatigue has a useful explanation in the work of Cory Doctorow. In “Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It”, he describes the process of platform degradation in stages: in the beginning, they are good for attracting users. Then, they adjust the product to favor commercial clients. Finally, they start to extract value from all sides, with loss of quality and increased friction. It is not just a metaphor. It is a lens to understand why so many people feel that the content on these platforms has gotten worse.
Added to this is the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the construction of these contents. AI has been a fundamental tool for creating agility and improving the productivity of those who use it, but much of the content produced has not passed through human scrutiny. In addition to a commoditization, we have the feeling of living an infinite reproduction of posts. That feeling of “everything is the same”.
It is in this context that the idea of “unshittification” appears as a reaction, an attempt to cleanse the digital experience , reduce excesses and recover relevance in everyday use. The expression has been treated as a trend for 2026 in market readings in Brazil, associated with simpler, more authentic experiences that are less saturated by repetitive stimuli. But a word of caution: “unshittification” is not a decree, nor an automatic product shift. It is, rather, a cultural shift that pressures platforms and brands to review incentives and that coexists with individual responses, such as digital detox.
Digital detox, in turn, is usually defined as the decision to establish a period of disconnection or intentional reduction in the use of screens and networks, reorienting attention to activities outside the digital environment. It works like a thermometer: when many people start seeking breaks, it’s because the experience has become draining. Nevertheless, detox is an individual strategy and does not alone solve the gears that degrade the ecosystem. However, it shows a real movement of people in their relationship with the content received in their feeds.
Trademarks
And here comes the most uncomfortable and central point for reflection: brands are not mere bystanders in this environment. They participate in the incentive economy that fuels degradation when they practice “digital pamphleteering,” that is, the excess of advertising, high volume of publications, repetition, generic aesthetics, slogans, interruption disguised as content. The side effect is evident: the more content is produced to occupy space and push conversion at any cost, the more the feed resembles an advertisement corridor and the less the audience finds value. The consequence is not just user irritation, it is loss of qualified attention, increased indifference, and an environment where even good messages have to shout to be noticed.
This dynamic expands Doctorow’s own described cycle. Platforms, pressured by monetization, increase the delivery of advertising and low-relevance content, but with high engagement. Brands, pressured by the desire for quick results, increase volume and repetition. People, pressured by saturation, seek digital detox. In other words: “unshittification” does not just mean fewer ads or “more authenticity” as a slogan, it means reconfiguring the relationship between user interest, product design, and communication practices.
For brands, this implies swapping the logic of flyers for editorial logic. Planning content, bringing more authenticity, reducing redundancy, increasing utility, declaring intention (to inform, entertain, serve) and accepting that trust is built. It is evident that all of this can be done with the help of AI, but care must be taken not to make the tool the endpoint.
If 2026 is indeed making room for “unshittification”, it will depend less on a trend and more on choices: by platforms, brands, and also by the culture that rewards or penalizes pamphleteering. The debate, at its core, is simple to state and difficult to execute: in a saturated ecosystem, those who insist on occupying space without offering value contribute to deterioration and pay for it with the most expensive asset of our time: attention.
| To access the references of this text click here |
