Carl T. Bergstrom

I like Cory Doctorow's @doctorow analysis of how social media giants fall.

In short: in the process of *enshittification* (get on it, New Palgrave), network externalities allow the platforms to capture almost all of the surplus and sell it to advertisers etc, leaving users nearly indifferent about leaving the platform.

When a shock hits the system, the switching cascade can be rapid because no one has a good reason to stay around anyway.

https://doctorow.medium.com/social-quitting-1ce85b67b456

Social Quitting

Forthcoming in the January, 2023 issue of Locus Magazine.

Medium
Nov 29, 2022 at 2:34amWeb
Show threadPaul GowderNov 29, 2022
@ct_bergstrom @doctorow memo to business geniuses: equilibria have to be robust to shocks
Show threadCarlos ScheideggerNov 29, 2022
@ct_bergstrom @doctorow what’s the best independent source you know of for exactly how traffic has changed for Facebook and Twitter? Qualitatively it certainly feels like that (and fuck Musk, id be leaving Twitter even if it were growing). I know it’s hard to know for sure, but I’m curious about independent estimates of (eg) monthly active users, time spent per day, etc. do you know any?
Show threadJake MannixNov 29, 2022
@ct_bergstrom @doctorow yes this enshittification phase change is basically predictable as a corollary to "network effects imply social network monopolies win". c.f. https://scribe.rip/the-trust-thermocline-explains-how-companies-suddenly-lose-customers-and-employees-2657c9535e6a
The Trust Thermocline Explains How Companies “Suddenly” Lose Customers And Employees

Show threadPseudospectreNov 29, 2022
@ct_bergstrom @doctorow makes more sense for Facebook than Twitter for me, the latter wasn't so bad I'd leave if it got marginally worse, Facebook really did test the limits of usability though
Show threadParisWritersNov 29, 2022

@ct_bergstrom @doctorow

Is anyone tracking the accounts that had previously been banned (for disinformation, incitement to murder, Holocaust denial, violent overthrow, etc) so that we can see exactly who Elon Must decided to put on Twitter?

Maybe a public twitter list?

Show threadPeter ButlerNov 29, 2022

@ParisWriters @ct_bergstrom @doctorow I've seen this today. It only includes usernames, so hard to tell, but a lot of right-wing handles, obv.

https://gist.github.com/travisbrown/c966666ad583f760a568e805f36274d4

From:

https://med-mastodon.com/@ZAGrrl/109428412729533167

Show threadParisWritersDec 1, 2022

@peterbutler @ct_bergstrom @doctorow

Thanks!

Show threadMicah WarrenNov 29, 2022
@ct_bergstrom @doctorow Yes we’re talking about saturating the shittiness constraint equations
Show threadMartin Vermeer FCDNov 29, 2022
@micah @ct_bergstrom @doctorow With amstex you can enclose those function names in \text{...} to get them upright. And LaTeX in general would get you upright parentheses (...). There is also a way to make the | as tall as the {...}, but I forgot 😁
Show threadMicah WarrenNov 29, 2022
@martinvermeer @ct_bergstrom @doctorow Yeah, I use Scientific Workplace which is an WYSIWYG LaTeX editor that allows me to type something up like this up quickly without any squinting, cause, well, iiiii'm breezy!
Show threadMartin Vermeer FCDNov 29, 2022
@micah @ct_bergstrom @doctorow Ah. I have heard good things about Scientific Workplace. Still, structural editing is a state of mind. SWP doesn't know that Shittiness is a function name, or that those (...) surround the argument list... you have to tell it so. Well, it still looks better than Word 😁
Show threadJEGNov 29, 2022
@ct_bergstrom @doctorow It makes social networks look a lot like Ponzi schemes.
Show threadSimon HarveyNov 29, 2022
@ct_bergstrom thanks for sharing. I enjoyed the read. But Cory Doctorow is @pluralistic.
Show threadMartin Vermeer FCDNov 29, 2022
@ct_bergstrom @doctorow What it doesn't point out (at least explicitly) is the significance of having accounts in both camps - which is how people react to doubt about the viability/durability of the old one. There are even scripts for dual-posting. When enough people have done that, it becomes easier to drop the old one like a stone when the unthinkable happens.