Derek Thompson, writing for the Atlantic, paints a gloomy and, unfortunately, all too plausible picture of the state of social media:

If we’re graduating from the ”making delightful and cheap things” stage of the social media age to the ”making money” stage, make no mistake: Things will get less delightful. In order to be profitable, it is highly likely that Twitter can only get more annoying, Pandora can only get more interrupt-y, Tumblr can only get more cluttered, Facebook can only get more devious, and the app baubles on your iPhone can only get more expensive.