Yes, Your Mastodon Instance Will Also Shut Down
One month ago: Mastodon and the Fediverse Have an Issue: Liability for Content (Even in Other Instances) and Costs
Few people run a one-person instance in the Fediverse. The vast majority rely on some other person - or persons - because maintaining an instance is a lot of work, set aside costs. Keeping it updated/patched and preventing breakage (or fixing breakage) is a big job. I know. I tried.
See, me as a person (individual), not this site, had some presence in the Fediverse since it started. That stopped 3.5 years ago. All the instances I was on (3 of them) shut down. All of them! None lasted. One day they just said bye. They just did. The administration team - usually one person - got sick and tired of being someone else's babysitter.
Fosstodon is no exception. They say that "Fosstodon is NOT Shutting Down". They meant (a few months ago)... not yet. See, it's not them who get to decide on it. They're out. Whoever inherits "the slack" (or chore) gets to decide.
My experience with all social control media - the Fediverse included - has not been positive and a lot can be classified - in retrospect - "a waste of time". I nowadays get to avoid a lot of the drama and the "cancel culture" by not being there at all.
People who look for constant "engagement" (surrogate for addiction) might find it a useful "outlet" - kind of like a "smoke break" at work. Typically once they quit they finally realise what a dumb thing it all was.
Regarding people hosting their own, they still need to connect to others and most will eventually burn out, seeing how much technical work it takes - moderation aside - to keep the thing going for a decade. The code in use is likely to become abandonware (with holes) within a few years. █