The point is that someone wanted to make it, and then made it. It doesn’t have to have billions of users to have been fun to make, or even to have reasons for existing. Pixelfed needs a few people to want to use it to keep existing. Instagram needs all of you + your data. And once it inevitably does something people are unhappy with, Pixelfed will be there. And once the service people will somehow find themselves on after Instagram does the same, Pixelfed will probably still be there, then. As long as one person is interested in running an instance/updating the software/either of those two, it will keep existing. People used to, and still do, post pics on their website. What’s the point of that? People who have friends on Instagram will stay on Instagram. People who have friends on Pixelfed/Fedi as a whole, will probably keep using Fedi. It’s not an all or nothing game.
I wonder if a lot of it is also just tech fatigue. It might just be me, but I’m more interested in getting better versions of things we already have explored thoroughly. Better software. Better repairability. Better longevity. When I saw the whole Vision Pro announcement my thoughts were… “Huh neat”. And that’s it. It takes a lot more than “huh neat” for me to even consider it at this point. And obviously the price point. I don’t think I know a single person who thinks this is worth it. There is no way I could even come close to affording this especially at launch. None of this helps the tech fatigue. I mean hell I wish my microwave had less tech than it does, and I already select it based on how little touchscreen and weird buttons it has. And it’s spreadding. The amount of touch based controls in cars scare the crap out of me. Think about how much this stuff distracts you. Or observe someone who’s driving one of these things. Beep boop here, some notification there, and perfectly reasonable options for a normal car to have locked behind some kind of paywall… And now they’re coming for my fridge. And my oven. I mean I could also just be getting older. There’s that. And I’m not even in my 30s 😭