Why does it feel like we're at a point where every social media + other digital media are making shitty decisions and falling apart?

VoidCrow@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 931 points –

I mean there's Reddit ofc, as well as Twitter in its entirety, Discord is implementing some dumb updates, there are issues with Tumblr as well as everything to do with Meta, and I'm sure there are plenty more (and I haven't even touched other digital media, for example the Sims). Why is it all happening in the span of about a couple months?

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Because of capitalism, no seriously these decisions are based on money and growth. But both of these things are relatively finite. You can't keep have exponential growth year after year. Eventually you will plateau but there isnt a mechanism in capitalism to accept that. So companies start forcing monetary gain.

This is the root of it. Reddit is not profitable (like twitter) and between my experience of Reddit over the years and stuff spez said in recent interviews, and the whole blackout situation recently, it's obvious that profit is the main driver for the business. It's funny referring to Reddit as a business, but that is now its primary purpose and descriptor.

I imagine the past few years have had a knock-on effect on social media businesses including Reddit, just as it has for the energy, food etc industries. What are the margins per user for ads served? It's got to be razor thin these days especially when Reddit employs thousands of people doing who knows what. I know they had to hold off their IPO due to the market and recently laid off some staff, they are clearly in bad shape as a business.