This is definitely the largest problem for social media companies in my mind. No matter what they do to generate revenue they will be vilified by the average us

This is definitely the largest problem for social media companies in my mind. No matter what they do to generate revenue they will be vilified by the average user. Nobody wants to pay for anything so the natural course of action is to use ads, then everyone complains about ads and leaves or uses the service less. The other course of action is to sell data about users, but that will piss off users even worse. One alternative I can think of that would not drive away users would be to charge the largest companies that use the services to promote their products. Perhaps charge Oreo for the right to make posts to their social media account on Facebook or Instagram.