RE: https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/116645422729683493
I think a lot about how we've arrived at this post capitalist, neoliberal hellscape & I think an uncomfortable truth is that WE users, consumers & customers of the world have blatantly failed to abandon products & services that suck now. There seems to be no degree to which things can be enshitified that will cause enough users to flee such that companies fail.
No matter how harmful & dull Facebook gets we don't want to lose access to that Friends' chat thread or the ability to sell our crap on Marketplace.
No matter now many ads or AI popups our SAAS provider shoves in our face we won't migrate our data to another option.
No matter how many breakdowns our car has, we buy the same make next time because "I've always been a Dodge driver ". Ditto for mobile phone, shoes, TVs, appliances, & more.
No matter how gross & malicious Twitter becomes, companies are still posting & advertising there. It's still many governments' main social media channel.
No matter how OBVIOUS it was that Threads & BlueSky would turn into the same manipulative algorithm, people just wanted an easy switch.
No matter how degraded mainstream media is, people won't go out of their comfort zone to go to independent media.
WHY??
Do we not have the energy & bandwidth to be active & discerning consumers anymore?
Are we too tired, lazy or stressed to do the work this requires?
Are we too locked-in via network effects or data mobility difficulties?
Do we just THINK it's too hard? Are we too attached to comforts to drop something even when it's getting drastically bad?
I don't think the corporations, governments & billionaires are going to solve this for us. We have to get way, way pickier & willing to go without the products & services we *used* to love.
@syntaxseed Network effects are a hell of a drug.
"Identity" is an even bigger drug. Once "Dodge driver" becomes part of your identity (as dumb as that sounds), yeah, you can't leave without leaving a part of yourself.
Though how much of that is actually *new* in this century is an open question...
One of the most beautiful things about capitalism is that you can vote with your wallet; it works, and there are countless examples. But it does often mean you need to be willing to be honest about what is a necessity and what is a luxury. Because everything you consider a necessity is a means of controlling you; everything you consider a luxury is something you can give up, which which therefore can't be used to control you.
@syntaxseed network effects for me
I switched to Mastodon from Twitter but I didn't need specific people
I stay on Facebook primary because of local Kayaking groups
Facebook killed the old forums
If I left Facebook I couldn't find people to go kayaking with.
I could host a forum or mailing list and try to persuade people to use it - but I would need to persuade a decent percentage of the few hundred people to migrate.
A minor point: We need to take care to distinguish #NetworkEffects versus #SwitchingCosts.
A ânetwork effectâ is often good for the people affected (more people in the system makes it more appealing to join that system) and we typically want that effect.
A âswitching costâ is typically bad for the people affected: Anyone already in the system, must give up something when they try to leave.
We need to *lower* the hostile switching costs, and retain the beneficial network effect.
So, yes @syntaxseed the platform users tend to be locked in by switching costs: If they try to leave, the platform refuses to allow an alternative system that would let those people continue sharing and communicating with their friends still on the platform.
Nothing technically prevents that kind of interoperability. What prevents it is terrible laws, in recent decades, that make it criminal to implement such a helpful interface.
https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/
So: We must remove those bad laws.
@syntaxseed Iâm with you, Sherri. But I honestly think that the answers are
- No, we donât
- Yes, we are
- Yes, we are
- Yes we do, and yes we are
âWeâ in all of these being society at large.
Switching is hard. And being a discerning consumer is also expensive and for many, free/cheap is all they can do.
The big platforms are exploiting all of this.
I keep telling some family members to get off of X and they say âbut itâs where I get my news and my funniesâ and it drives me crazy!
Sherri W (SyntaxSeed)
Larry Garfield
AKingsbury
Edward L Platt
SeanBurlington đ đď¸
bignose
Ross Wintle