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?
A minor point: We need to take care to distinguish #NetworkEffects versus #SwitchingCosts.
A “network effect” 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 “switching cost” 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.
Sherri W (SyntaxSeed)
bignose