There used to be millions of webpages out there, all created by individuals. Now, there's one webpage: Facebook. So if Facebook goes out of business, or if Facebook no longer wants to host it (for political or profit reasons), the entire web disappears. This is not what the web is supposed to be. It's supposed to be a WEB, not a POINT. We didn't call it the World Wide POINT.
There were about 100,000 in 1997 [1], so not millions, and many of those were company websites. I don't wholly disagree with your basic point but the reality is that the average person never had a website/blog/etc. (And the real push for individual content creation was probably more like the early 2000s with Web 2.0/Read-Write web.) It wouldn't surprise me if there were more individual presence on the web outside of Facebook/Twitter today than there was in the 90s--even if a smaller percentage of the total content.
I still maintain that Google killing Reader to make room for Buzz and Google+ is what really killed the best of the old web. Even though RSS readers only ever had purchase with a minority of internet users, they clicked with the most "influencery" people who would go on to share what they read. IMO, that sort of serendipity and discovery is what Facebook and other service try to replicate now through their algorithmic curation. They're trying to mimic the natural virality that content used to take, but it's forced and, consequently, lacks the same kind of whimsy since too many people are too good at gaming it out. It's all structured to try to sell us something.
RSS readers still exist, but Reader's ubiquity and its social features are really what seemed to tie the web together into a cultural force. At least among my circle of people.
At least among journalists/analysts/other "influencers" in that vein, I'd say that Twitter is probably what's come closest to replacing RSS. If I'm being honest, I have an RSS reader that I sometimes use but mostly I figure if there's something especially interesting out there, I'll read about it.
Yeah I've noticed the same. It doesn't feel the same though since Twitter feels like a much more hostile environment to put thoughts out. Twitter seems to prioritize your take on what you're sharing moreso than the content you're sharing. This leads to endless arguments based on just reading headlines and importing baggage into the article that isn't there.
