so you like to run around and force all your contacts onto a new better messenger du jour? Messaging is by definition a social activity, so unless you sever most connections and just message yourself, you do end up using whatsapp, telegram, shit some of my family still uses skype! so all this well-meaning advice "just use..." is ridiculous in practice.

Well said.

Pondering why your refactoring of "Network Effects" has a lot of truth;

The supposed property that the attractive influence of a network is proportional to its size, rather like gravitational agglomeration, turns out to be largely false in practice.

My observation is that people don't join a network because "all their friends" are on it. That's a myth. But they do find it hard to leave because one or two highly weighted friends (family, parents living abroad etc) are on it.

You could probably say "network effects is just marketing" too. I think the idea of "organic growth" is also largely a myth. Massive amounts of marketing hype and billion dollar influence operations herd the masses, and also default settings and bundling. It's hard to avoid Google, Facebook or Twitter when your phone and browser come pre-configured with them.