Fascinating @pluralistic is developing his theory of #enshittification into a general theory of the rise and eventual collapse of power based on network effects.

Short version: Network effects make switching costly. User are trapped and become sitting ducks for ever-increasing exploitation. As long as the cost of switching is larger than the costs of being exploited, nominally free users rationally decide grin and bear it. But when the costs of being exploited becomes to onerous, it starts to look attractive to buckle the costs of switching. Particularly if the burden of exploitation rises for lot of people in parallel.

This, so the general theory, not only applies to social media, but also to other systems with strong network effects, such as the dollar system.

I'm sure economists could turn this into a formula to predict the point where networks suddenly crumble.

https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/26/i-dont-want/#your-greenback-dollar