part of the reason social apps get boring over time is that the original constraints that made them fun get removed as features are added.

just as a game with no rules is no fun.

twitter was more fun when the constraint was 140 chars. ig was more fun when it was just square photos, etc.

Values-Aligned Communities | citizen of Black Rock City

there are certain additons that def make the experience better (the above analogies were mostly illustrative), but there are tipping poinst:

stories & reels have diluted the photographic magic of ig: everything’s a promo now

long-form essays & long video will make twitter worse imo

You personally enjoy Twitter less since 280?

You personally enjoy Instagram less since they’ve added more features? (Stories, videos, multi-photo, non-square photos)

Agree, the vast majority bastardize their product to mine user attention for ad $ 
Reels are currently the best pattern for this and it's why we see them everywhere.

I beg to differ. Metrics that a social network choose to optimize shape users behavior much more than specific features. It is the way Twitter measure and incentivize engagement prompted the inundated cliche threads, not the thread feature itself.

This is so true.  Facebook stopped being fun when I could no longer throw sheep at my friends.