Customizable Websites Rant

I didn't know what category to put this as, considering none of them felt too fitting. Being on here made me realize how FUN customizing your profile on a website is and I'm so confused as to why we left that behind and made it considered an archaic past time? I mean, customizing your page literally taught kids and teenagers how to do basic coding and analyze strings of code to manipulate it how they wanted, it helped them express themselves, and it made conversation a bit easier due to the fact their interests are literally ALL UP IN YOUR FACE! I remember being on DeviantArt at like eight or nine and spending HOURS obsessing over my page as well as my friends pages, which is basically what I've heard from people who were around for MySpace and Friendster. So if it was so common and everyone (or at least most users) loved these features.. why did social media founders diminish, hell, DISPOSE of them?

I've heard multiple theories, one of which being that social networking began expanding to mobile devices that of which just weren't very compatible with customized layouts. Now, I do think this might make some sense, considering people HAVE certainly been using their phones more than computers from the late 2010's as of now. But then why didn't they just.. make phone layouts more accustomed to these features? The easy answer to this is.. that would cost money that is just extremely unnecessary when the main goal for these companies is just to get as much data from you as possible, therefore, focusing more on the content that you produce than your personal enjoyment. 

DeviantArt is the biggest sell out that comes to mind, also the most heartbreaking, considering I basically grew up there. DeviantArt used to be a place where artists of all different levels of talent could come together and share art. Sounds like a no-brainer website idea, right? How about transitioning the ENTIRE website, made SPECIFICALLY for artists, into an AI art cesspool that practically KILLED the charm of the social site? Now it encourages the use of AI, has an entire section to showcase AI "artists", and circling full circle, there's no more custom pages either. My point of this paragraph is that these networks do not give two shits about their users or their happiness level whilst being on their websites. DeviantArt is making more money due to greedy Elon clones just trying to advertise themselves, therefore, buying memberships and other verifications, Instagram never HAD to worry about that, Facebook killed MySpace and never gave two fucks about custom pages, and Twitter sucks now all together but also never gave two shits.

In conclusion, social networks are run on greed and filth, hence why we can no longer put silly little zombie or eddsworld stamps on our pages. Unfortunately, I do not see a comeback for said stamps or page layouts any time soon, considering corporate greed is at a high for some reason currently.