Well, not to get into an entire history of the internet, but centralization is actually a relatively recent phenomenon tied to "Web 2.0" and the rise of smartph

Well, not to get into an entire history of the internet, but centralization is actually a relatively recent phenomenon tied to "Web 2.0" and the rise of smartphones. Email and Usenet are more similar to Mastodon than Twitter. Centralization is a short term win-win, because it's easier for users, and it creates a critical mass of users to monetize. However, as we're seeing, centralization has its limits. The drive for ever-increasing profits and the impossibility of content moderation at scale is driving more and more people away from the monoliths. Sometimes people just jump ship to another centralized platform (Friendster > MySpace > Facebook > Instagram), but a lot of people seem to be peacing out of this cycle in favor of smaller communities (Mastodon, Discord, private Slacks, etc).