It should be pretty obvious, but…

When social media started out, it was simply a feed of what you followed. FB, Twitter, Reddit, everything — they showed you a chronological list of everything that the people/groups you followed posted.

It was glorious.

But it wasn’t making money. These platforms were all funded by investors in hopes that they would someday make money.

And now they are — through ads and sponsored content that no one asked for or wants, via algorithms designed for one thing: profit.

It’s zero surprise to me that social media platforms have become the garbage that they are now.

I’ve moved on from all but a couple platforms (HN, Board Game Geek, and Bogleheads — arguably not social media platforms in the same vein as the others mentioned, because they aren’t trying to monetize, except BGG which monetizes via traditional banner ads, which I’ll take 10/10 over “content ads”).

But I have zero interest in returning to anything that injects their sponsored content in the middle of feeds.

If social media platforms can’t figure out a way to monetize without injecting this garbage, I’ll stick to these others.