> Many of the hobbyist sites running on sites like vbulletin or invision are gone; we use subreddits for those now. And people don't even bother with those, mor

> Many of the hobbyist sites running on sites like vbulletin or invision are gone; we use subreddits for those now. And people don't even bother with those, more and more people just post meme gifs in the comments of reels, sitting there scrolling through with their thumbs rather than contributing something new and unique. Gen Z's rampant tech illiterate is likely a cause not a consequence of this. Most of the independent forums were probably run by teens and college students. They aged out of it, shut their forums down and weren't replaced by a new generation. Then Reddit filled the void to become a profitable corporation that will probably exit via IPO in the near future. Another cause of this is the collapse of the middle class due to wage growth failing to keep up with inflation. If you can't even afford housing, health care, transportation and food then you're going to be obsessed with "side hustles" to try and make some extra money rather than actually living. Running a forum or writing a freeware game because you actually believe in it is a luxury that people can no longer afford in this "booming" (if you're a millionaire or work a McJob) economy.