I don't think the direction is that clear. 15 years ago how many people were even giving thought to running their own email servers or have their own websites?

I don't think the direction is that clear. 15 years ago how many people were even giving thought to running their own email servers or have their own websites? I would bet there are more people considering their own websites (or have their own websites already) even if they still make use of Facebook. There a number of these large platforms, like Facebook, but their existence is in no way guaranteed. I don't know understand the pessimism in this thread, especially amongst the builders of this era.