Time is a flat circle and so are narratives about new social media platforms being safe havens for earnestness and authenticity. The newest victim of this cycle? TikTok. Kottke nails it again with the linked post, but had already done once before in 2016:

Blogs, Flickr, Twitter, Vine, and Instagram all started off as places to be yourself, but as they became more mainstream and their communities developed behavioral norms, the output became more crafted and refined. Users flooded in and optimized for what worked best on each platform. Blogs became more newsy and less personal, Flickr shifted toward professional-style photography, Vine got funnier, and Twitter’s users turned toward carefully crafted cultural commentary and link sharing. Editing worked its way in between the making and sharing steps.

Nothing has changed but the names. You can just copy and paste the articles for every newly heralded platform. And when the next platform gets big, the same editing and crafting and overthinking will suck the life from that one, as well.