this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
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Fediverse

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The mastodon and lemmy content I’m seeing feels like 90% of it comes from people who are:

  • ~30 years old or older

  • tech enthusiasts/workers

  • linux users

There’s nothing wrong with that particular demographic or anything, but it doesn’t feel like a win to me if the entire fediverse is just one big monoculture.

I wonder what it is that is keeping more diverse users away? Is picking a server/federation too complicated? Or is it that they don’t see any content that they like?

Thoughts?

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[–] someacnt@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 year ago

Did you see the linux memes comments? It's full of windows users who are infuriating me.

[–] Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Speaking as a 23 year old windows user (though one that want to move to Linux eventually), the only one of those that I am is a tech enthusiast. From what I've hear Reddit started the same way, tech enthusiasts built it up and then everyone else noticed how good it was getting and moved in.

[–] meiti@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

It might be partially due to corrolation as well. People who don't like to be controlled by corporate overlords and be their products, tend to use/switch to open alternatives.

[–] Hackerman_uwu@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Closest I’ve felt to BBS since, well, BBS.

[–] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I don't mind a monoculture if it keeps morons away, that's a price worth paying. The reason I started using Reddit in 2009 was to escape the comment section of YouTube. Erik from Internet Comment Etiquette has been doing sterling work educating the Mongol Hoardes but they're still not ready.

[–] Andreas@feddit.dk 6 points 1 year ago

Older than 30 nope, tech enthusiast yes, Linux user sort of, because my self-hosting servers run Linux but my personal daily driver is Windows. Windows native art programs have a lot of responsiveness problems and other random issues when running on Linux, and it's annoying to have to boot up a separate OS to use specific programs.

Taking the extremely tech-unsavvy fanartist community as a reference, it's not that federation and choosing a server is that difficult, that's just a lame excuse. Their usual social media platforms do UI redesigns, A/B testing and introduce weird limitations all the time. They just learn to cope with it.

People who don't care about tech don't think about the websites they use at all. In their minds, websites are just omnipresent things that exist naturally, like the sun. They only care about whether the website is able to connect them to their friends and showcase their posts to other people. They will only pay attention to the website if it introduces a change that affects their daily usage of it negatively, just like how people don't consciously think about the sun unless it inconveniences them.

[–] Magiwarriorx@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Only 1 for 3 there myself, but I get the point.

One thing I have noticed is a big chunk of the memes posted earlier in June were very dated, ~2010-era Facebook style. Made me wonder if the crowd on here didn't at least initially skew older.

[–] Usanam@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] 001100010010@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago

I'm used to think I'm straight, but I saw one pic of sexy John Oliver and I start doubting.

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[–] xohshoo@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Only 2 of those 3 (age, linux)
If you ever had to configure your xorg.conf to not set your monitor on fire, the fediverse isn't very complicated

[–] myself@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Absolutely It's really nice how this affects the tech related serious communities but damn is it heartbreaking how bad the memes here are

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[–] MiddleWeigh@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm over 30, but I'm tech stupid compared to everyone else here, but I can follow, and understand the jist ftmp of the conversation. Not my area of expertise. I grown up with the internet though obviously so I do know my way around.

If anything i'm probably just more open to new experiences than the average person, and I like learning stuff.

But in general I agree with your observations, and it seems natural for early adopters of a platform.

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[–] CreeperODeath@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nah I'm a 19 year old tech nerd With a pinch of Linux enthusiast lol

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[–] mvirts@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

✅ ✅ ✅ - that's me :P

I had been on Lemmy before, but since there was much more activity on Reddit I didn't stick with it. Now that more communities are flourishing on the fediverse early adopters are jumping on, and if ethe growth is stable and communities have activity (not just subscribers or visitors) to rival other spaces, I think diversity will grow. It only takes a relatively small number of active users to create a strong community

[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

40-ish M. Potentially, we’re/they’re more likely to have been using 3rd party apps and felt frustration with the Reddit decision in the first place. Younger users (and maybe older, 50-60+) maybe just started off with the official Reddit app or Reddit is a smaller part of their “content diet” vs other platforms, so they don’t really see what the big deal is.

If true, it’d be kind of an interesting demographic shift, since the last time we probably saw something like that was with Facebook when younger people moved away from it when it became boomer territory, so maybe the opposite is happening with Reddit, with middle/older more tech-savvy users jumping ship, but I’ve no real evidence.

[–] delirium@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I'd rather agree about mastadon, but not about Lemmy. I've seen people from (I assume) ~20 up to 40+. For example, I'm around 27 and I have few friends who were using Lemmy for almost a year now, they're in their early 20s.

But yes it's mostly nerds.

[–] ArcticCircleSystem@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm 20, but if this is the case, and I've heard a lot of people saying Gen Z is not that good with technology though I haven't seen anything verifying that, then that's a bit terrifying, honestly. ~Strawberry

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[–] Oka@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago
  • 28 (fail)
  • Game Programmer (pass)
  • Windows user (fail)

Younger people and casual Reddit users never left Reddit. People who were ok with still using old.reddit didn't leave Reddit. When I first joined Lemmy.ml during the blackout, the website struggled to load, the communities were hard to find or non existent, and there wasn't much content (compared to Reddit).

Now that Reddit is dead to me, Lemmy has filled the doomscroll void. I do much less of it now. Also, Lemmy is growing in the right directions.

[–] Paradox@lemdro.id 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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[–] Stach@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hasnt internet started like that?

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[–] sheepyowl@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 year ago

For everything except the memes I agree. The memes are clearly not generated by 30+ year olds though, and there are a lot of memes. (all of those 196 communities)

[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Older tech nerdsn are the pioneers of new and open technologies like fediverse and smolnet, because they are smart enough and care enough about technological principles/philosophies to use them. As the services grow they begin to reach a phase where it attracts reactionary people who are looking actively for alternatives to mainstream services ru n by corporations. This tends to be fanatical people who think capitalism/global economic system bad, or the very vocally queer. Then if it manages to grow even further, say from an exodus of users from a competing service, the normal people finally come and attract more normal people with far more varying discussion interest besides conputer technogy, spewing debates on political/economic ideas, and being gay.

[–] _finger_@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

From what I see on Local we are

Trans Old Young Gay Straight Nerds Furries Porno addicts

[–] TommyCat@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

43 here. IT consultant. Have been on every social media platform since Myspace all the way back to Usenet if you want to consider that social media which is what is basically was. On the major platforms these days, I mostly lurk and DM with fam and friends along with small Discord groups. Since joining the fediverse, and more specifically Lemmy, I've been much more active commenting and posting then I've been in years. I actively encourage friends and fam to join, but the fact is the fediverse is young and isn't as user friendly. It has to reach a critical mass of ease of use and user adoption which is what's being driven up right now like all other platforms before it. The more people join, the more it will be streamlined, feeding back to usability so more people discover and join, etc. etc. This is how all platforms evolved except in the case of the fediverse, it isn't controlled by a single entity which has its pluses and minuses. I don't expect MetaThreadBook, Reddit, Twitter, et al to go anywhere anytime soon, but diversification and competition is always good. If we can reach critical mass with the fediverse, it will provide a good check against these monopolistic entities and hopefully result in better overall communities and interactions.

[–] Shikadi@wirebase.org 5 points 1 year ago

I'm 28, Linux user, tech worker, pretty much called me out

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