Amazon does not make any profit from their books. They are able to sell them cheaply because they sell them at a loss. They weren’t even profitable for a long time and maintained thanks to investors. Basically, Bezos sold the idea of the future of his store’s worth. And it worked.
Not really. They never wanted a large instance and didn’t want to become a Reddit replacement. I see them more like a federated Tildes, honestly.
It’s available in the UK as well. They don’t follow EU privacy laws.
Same. 30s, healthcare, no linux. Not even tech savvy at all, but I can follow directions well enough.
Like all social media, you have to curate it. I follow hashtags for cats, books, writing, fandoms, etc. The rage is minimum then because my homepage doesn’t have politics or news. I actually do follow a couple of news sources, but their stuff is surrounded by an ocean of fun things so it’s not nearly as bad.
Roleplaying in AOL chatrooms. I remember joining this group who roleplayed as vampires and hanging out in the “local tavern.” I was only 9 and in hindsight half of what people were doing was hooking up, but it made me love writing.
Later on, I really enjoyed LiveJournal and staying up way too late reading fanfiction with my friends on AIM/MSN messenger.
Early Google. When AskJeeves fizzled away but SEO and ads hadn’t taken over.
Sure, but in that previous time period, they didn’t make a profit but were able to destroy the brick and mortar bookstore. So I guess it would be more honest to say they demolished the bookselling industry and now can argue for whatever deals they want because the only other bookstores are weakened.