I think we're headed for a real reckoning in the next few years as people really realize that a lot of the features they've come to expect from social media are completely unsustainable without massive injections of VC and ad money (unlimited photo and video hosting) or are designed to manipulate the user and keep them on the site for longer to view more ads (most search and discovery options, most of the "number go up" type feedback mechanisms). A lot of the worst of social media isn't inherent to social media, it's an artifact of the funding and monetization method that we've wound up with, but the things that cause that "worst of social media" are often very compelling for people and asking them to move to a site that doesn't do those things is difficult! Like, we often get feedback that DW feels slow and is hard for a new person to get into, because it doesn't have the dopamine-button instant reward mechanisms of likes and reposts, and I am deeply sympathetic (I, too, am massively susceptible to the dopamine-button instant reward mechanism of likes and reposts) but have been very, very reluctant to add those kinds of dopamine-button mechanisms to DW because of how much they warp the behavior of the service as a whole. I don't know if there even is an ethical way to design them and I've been brainstorming on it for the entire time DW has existed! And sure, some of those dopamine-button mechanisms can be both beneficial and harmful at the same time, and people definitely notice that they're not there and it's a lot of the reason DW isn't as "sticky" to people who find themselves just drifting away and using other services instead so it would probably be 'better' for us to add them just in terms of retention factor, but I just keep wrestling and wrestling and wrestling with the ethics of it and not coming up with any good solutions.

The next few years are going to be really interesting as we start to see the consequences of all the easy VC money that was sloshing around in the system starting to dry up and the legal, regulatory, and social backlash against "big tech" gaining momentum, that's for sure.