[PaulHoule]

One area of non-progress in the last 20 years is "chat" applications, which seem to disrupt themselves on a regular basis.

It seems the cycle is something like this:

   (1) Something comes out that is really cool,  like AOL, Skype, or MySpace

   (2) Thanks to network effects this service doesn't adapt to competition

   (3) ... until it is too late.  Now Facebook is cool and Zoom is cool.

Now there is Facebook instant messenger which is hard to tell apart from AOL instant messenger, ICQ, Skype, Skype for Business, Paltalk.

If the industry had settled in on a standard, there might have been innovation in chat clients. Instead we keep getting the same chat client as 20 years ago except now it is tied to Facebook and the other is tied to AOL.

Social platforms might burn out naturally. For instance, young people were attracted to Facebook when young people where there exclusively but when it became a way to update your grandma about what you are doing, kids switched to other platforms, which Facebook bought.

Facebook badly wants to make a social network aimed at the under-14 set because they think they can escape the obsolescence treadmill this way.