Innovation starts at a small level, with a group of users or a new app enabling new forms of behavior, like publishing a new kind of content or creating new communities. For a time, digital culture feels organic and exciting, different from what came before it. But then those new behaviors and features are adopted by larger companies, by copying, by business pressure, or by mergers and acquisitions. Users jump on board with newfound excitement about their old apps, but the newness fades as the innovations are monetized to death. Any joy in the new forms of expression is ruthlessly exploited,
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