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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[–] ZagTheRaccoon@reddthat.com 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

aka: early tech adopters!

these folk are always the ones trying new things, especially anti-corporate things. They aren't keeping people away. this is just how the bleeding edge of new technology. The communities natural grow out over time as more people show up and start to outnumber them. But it's thanks to them that niche new stuff gets supported in the first place while it builds up it's audience (and reduces the friction to joining)

[–] pythoneer@programming.dev 7 points 1 year ago

In reddit's early days, it was exactly like this. I remember that it felt like a Linux user forum, but with some conspiracy theorists. I actually feel that lemmy is a little more diverse than that.

[–] CrunchyBoy@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Younger folks have been raised on apps and other polished devices with oodles of effort put into UX design.

Older folks grew up learning DOS commands, memorizing the IRQ of their sound card, and other clunky shenanigans.

In their current state Lemmy, Mastodon and other services are too complicated for most young folks to bother with. Not all, but most, especially the filthy casuals.

[–] Addition@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the answer. I'm 26 and most of my peers didn't really use the internet beyond the occasional usage of the school library computers until Apple released the first iPhone. By that time places like Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit were up and running.

That's all their experience with the internet is. Polished experiences through dedicated apps on extremely popular platforms. Now those people have had kids and all those kids know is the same thing. It's all apps on phones and tablets.

Lemmy: A) Is too complicated in it's current form for those types of people to effectively understand and use.

B) Lemmy is currently emulating a type of early internet experience that only nostalgic older millennials nerds crave. General users tend to prefer bigger platforms.

[–] 001100010010@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Lemmy is nostalgic? Lemmy is novelty for me. Looks and feels so modern. Simplistic, yet modern. Am I weird?

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[–] Dark_Blade@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I mean, Reddit killed off ‘polished UX’ and that’s what drove me here. All the great 3PAs are on the Fediverse, after all!

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

I'm 26, probably among the oldest of gen z. I love lemmy. The quality is higher here because the community is smaller. There are much less reports than there used to be on reddit.

[–] Dackel@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah Im like one of the youngest with an age of 14.But thats okay because lemmy is just awesome for me.

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

My Soundblaster used IRQ 7. Why do I still know this.

[–] blackluster117@possumpat.io 2 points 1 year ago

Because when the great reset happens and VHS is hot shit again, you'll be ready.

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[–] Ghostc1212@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I'm Gen Z, don't use Linux, don't know the first thing about programming (I know how to use file explorer though), and never intend to learn, and I'm here because I don't wanna use the official Reddit app and because I'm convinced that the Fediverse is likely to become big in the future and I wanna be able to say I was here when it all began.

[–] GreenCrush@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

This is me as well. gen z, hate that trillion dollar corporations run our social media. The fediverse is the future.

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[–] Coeus@coeus.sbs 9 points 1 year ago

I'm 36. I'm tired of everybody taking my money. I'm tired of corporations. I'm here to get away from that.

[–] ProgrammingSocks@pawb.social 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Maybe I'm am outlier but I'm 21 and here.

[–] Nerd02@lemmy.basedcount.com 2 points 1 year ago

Same. And I'm also not a Linux user, I'm a Windows normie. Though I definitely do work in tech.

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

The Fediverse is the Linux of the social media world. Normal people don't know it exists, but it will shape the inner workings of the platform(s) that will be popular in the future.

[–] illah@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

My take on this is not that this is the default early adopter demographic (bereal, TikTok, etc…cmon old dudes don’t act like we are “leading the charge”). But, there’s a good chunk of older tech oriented folks that see a glimmer of hope in the fediverse bringing back some bits of the “old web” imo.

While most of the people like me don’t love meta or Twitter it was kinda good enough, but Reddit was kind of a last straw. I was there when all these companies were born and at the time we were all teen and 20-something early adopters (believe it or not even Facebook used to be cool!) and we’ve watched them all slowly degrade. Very young folks prob don’t care as they don’t really use any of these services, but us old nerds want to avoid the pitfalls of the Web 2.0 era.

Web3 and the crypto-decentralization efforts were really ham fisted…I think most experienced techies saw through all the BS and recognized how wildly inefficient it all was, not to mention outright scammy in many cases. Fediverse is unproven but I think it has potential, and I think many of us older techies feel that way.

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[–] silencioso@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
  • ~30 years old or older
  • tech enthusiasts/workers
  • linux users
  • hates Elon Musk
  • hates capitalism
  • loves free software but somehow hates free markets
[–] obinice@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Woah now, who said people over 30 are old? 😮

Anyway, your average internet user in 2023 wants to sign in to a platform with ease (preferably using one tap sign in with their Facebook/Google/whatever account).

They also want that one platform to have everything, in an easy to access and digest format, without having to learn complex rules about how a system works.

The days of needing to understand a bunch of stuff to use the latest social media service are gone, and if we build a website/service that requires us to know and understand more complex stuff, and add more barriers to entry, and MOST IMPORTANTLY if we split it up in to a thousand little corners instead of having it all in one place? People will shy away.

Another issue is consistency. People, myself included, want consistency and accountability. I want the people running the platform to be publicly known figures/companies that are accountable for the platform and how they run it, but with this fediverse stuff, it can be run by any anonymous person, who could be doing anything with the private data in our account back ends. And that could be the case hundreds of times over, with all sorts of groups, from all around the world.

There's no accountability, no way to ensure they're meeting requirements of our laws. It's all very untrustworthy and wild west.

That's fine for some people, but the majority of normal users? They want security, they want safety, they want simple ease of use.

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[–] Yaztromo@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

I started back in the Wild West BBS days on the 80s; graduated to USENET in the 90s, website forums in the Web 1.0 days, /., Reddit, and now Lemmy. Yeah, I’ve been around. Been “Yaztromo” all that time too.

I don’t mind that “Eternal September” hasn’t infected this space yet — that’s a feature, not a bug!

[–] khoi@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 year ago

Hmm, not sure. But I’m in my 20s and I love to advocate for privacy and decentralization.

[–] MoogleMaestro@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Young people don't even understand that the internet isn't only the 5 websites that have existed since before they were born lol

That's probably a big part of it. We kind of designed the internet to become an information super oligarchy, even if it wasn't intentional.

I'm 33 for the record so I guess I'm an older tech nerd. Nice. 😎

[–] wolfcatreader@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Trash culture, TikTok and the likes. The gen z folx I know don't seem to prioritize privacy and quality content. Some know it and don't seem to care even after getting hacked/scammed.

Living vicariously through influencers, likes, and whatnot. Being cool, blending in...

[–] THEMASTERMIND@feddit.ch 3 points 9 months ago

Because ipad kids are happy with instagram,tiktok and other shit and doesn't give a fuck about privacy.

[–] theKalash@feddit.ch 3 points 1 year ago

Older? It seems the general lemmy population is in their early 20s.

[–] EliYeet@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

My 15 yo ass

[–] vettnerk@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

*looks at self*:

  • 40
  • nerd
  • chief amongst my nerddoms being tech

I feel both insulted and understood at the same time

[–] zerkrazus@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There just needs to be automatic instance assignment for new users with registration time opt-out for those who want to choose. Pick whichever one is the most populated. If that's down at that particular moment in time, pick the next most populated and so on. Take the instance picking out of the equation for people who don't care about that. People who do care can still pick their own.

That being said, it's difficult to grow a new website in general unless it's already got established backing from other source (i.e. a large corporation, celebrity, etc.), It's not like old days in the 90s when there were far fewer websites in general.

[–] DirtyCNC@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 1 year ago

Most populated? That would slow them down. join-lemmy.org already discourages instances above a certain size threshold.

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's what I'm here for lol. I mean this is how reddit was when I first started there. Same with digg

[–] metallic_substance@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This place reminds me so much of early reddit. It's been a strangely nostalgic experience so far. The part of that which I'm enjoying the most, is that commenters are more polite to each other as far as I've seen

[–] MoogleMaestro@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago

That’s what I’m here for lol. I mean this is how reddit was when I first started there. Same with digg

This is what people always miss. Generally, sites become popular because niche subcultures form outside of the "big" websites as they no longer really serve their purpose of connecting to like minded individuals. They never "start big", they generally snowball from small hardcore users to larger more generalized userbases over time.

[–] nanook@friendica.eskimo.com 2 points 1 month ago

Perhaps it's because people under 30 have no sense of responsibility so don't really care to communicate much with peers. They don't have the means to bring systems like this online. They don't have the historical perspective to take part in intelligent conversation, so they have Twitter and Facebook.

[–] potkulautapaprika@sopuli.xyz 2 points 6 months ago
[–] kool_newt@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

There's always a group on the forefront, it makes sense that it's tech interested people Fediverse being based on open source software and all about sharing means it's right p Linux user's alley.

The 30+ demographic not sure, maybe just people a bit grown up and now under as much peer pressure to be on the more popular corporate platforms.

[–] qaz@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Currently interning as software engineer and typing this from a Linux machine. I'm Gen Z though.

[–] CrypticFawn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

I think anyone that fits in those 3 categories just tend to be the early adopters. The normies come later. 😁

[–] wtvr@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

Old tech nerd here. Is this the meeting spot?

[–] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I don't know what you're talking about, I'm just your average Hollywood celebrity here to promote my new movie "Barbie", only in theaters July 21st.

[–] wtry@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

I'm a younger tech nerd, but I do use linux.

[–] Nonbinary_Sahrah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

● under 30

● i mean im getting there in terms of tech interests

● Yeah ok i use linux

[–] chraebsli@programming.dev 2 points 8 months ago

as a young IT with friends who dont know much about IT i have to say that most around 20 use reddit, instagram, ... cause its the only thing they know. everyone they know uses them and many of them want likes, ...

if they would join the fediverse:

  1. they wouldnt understand how it works. what is a server? why choose an instance? its just too complicated
  2. all their friends dont use the fediverse. they would be alone and have nobody who they can share things to
  3. they would mostly see tech stuff and less in categories they are interested in
  4. none of the people they follow on instagram are here. the cant follow their celebrities, ... and see their content
  5. the fediverse still has to less users to be successful worldwide. its growing. and just like facebook in its first years, its growing slow.

=> give it a few more years and get your friends, family & collegues on here and see the fediverse grow

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's also used by loads of tankies

[–] porl@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Unfortunately true. Blocking features generally work pretty well though at least.

[–] kerr@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago

The Reddit migration was probably mostly people who know what an API is so that fits your demographic.

Also, people generally don’t take a stance on something unless it affects them personally. So API, privacy, data collection etc just doesn’t register.

[–] mranderson1984@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Fucking zoomers with their tiktoks and snapchats, what was so wrong with old school forums?

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago
  • I'm under 30 (Under 20 too) X
  • Tech enthusiast/comp sci student ✔️
  • Linux User ✔️
[–] grizzledgrizzly@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I am 46 and started my career in tech but now work in another industry. I think it’s people with inquisitive minds rather than an age demographic. If there is something new and cool to check out in tech and it’s easy enough for busy people to understand I am all over it.

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