Are permanent social identities becoming a design assumption?

I've been thinking about something while building software.

Almost every modern social platform shares the same ideas:

• Permanent profiles.

• Followers.

• Public popularity metrics.

• Infinite content history.

• Algorithms optimized for engagement.

We've become so used to these patterns that they feel inevitable.

But are they?

I'm curious whether these are actually user needs or simply conventions we've inherited from previous platforms.

If you were designing a social platform from scratch today, which of these would you keep, and which would you remove?

I'd love to hear from other builders who have thought about alternative social designs.