I think it’s axiomatic that an order of magnitude more time will be spent on consuming content than producing it. Why would you spend hours every day crafting a deeply insightful blog if literally no one ever read it? As an author or other content producer, you want people to consume your work. Therefore, the equilibrium between content and consumption must settle on dramatically more consumption than production.
I think this handily explains why the “personal website for every human” utopia never came to pass.
(Yes, I know some people will produce great content purely for the joy of doing it, and don’t care if anyone consumes it. I think that’s an edge case, not the operandus of every living person)
P.S. You’re completely right about the $5-7/mo hosting. I used to run a server in my home, but discovered I was spending more on electricity than the cost of leasing a small VPS. Centralizing has fantastic economies of scale.
I think this handily explains why the “personal website for every human” utopia never came to pass.
(Yes, I know some people will produce great content purely for the joy of doing it, and don’t care if anyone consumes it. I think that’s an edge case, not the operandus of every living person)
P.S. You’re completely right about the $5-7/mo hosting. I used to run a server in my home, but discovered I was spending more on electricity than the cost of leasing a small VPS. Centralizing has fantastic economies of scale.