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?

  • CrunchyBoy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    2 years ago

    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.worksEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      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.

        • nnullzz@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          No I feel the same way. I think it’s because it’s part of an ecosystem of concepts built with all its predecessors mistakes in mind. There’s still learning to do but the foundation is simple but is also modern.

    • Dark_Blade@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 years 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!

  • ZagTheRaccoon@reddthat.comEnglish
    10·
    2 years ago

    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.devEnglish
      2·
      2 years 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.

  • illah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    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.

    • jscummy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      First thought when I read the title. Surprisingly, the early adopters of a new, not particularly user friendly tech platform are the same as people who use other niche technologies

  • silencioso@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    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
  • Ghostc1212@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    51·
    2 years ago

    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.

  • THE MASTERMIND@feddit.chEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

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

  • RagingRobot@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    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.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 years 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

  • qaz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

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

  • DigiWolf@pawb.socialEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    I’m called out, although I’m not quite in my 30s yet.

    Also… Reddit started out in the same way, mostly as a forum for programmers and nerds

  • Secret300@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Well it’s new open source tech that can be self hosted by the 30+ tech nerds that have the money and interest in it.

  • fututio_enjoyer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    Is picking a server/federation too complicated?

    Yes.

    Absolutely.

    Literally the single biggest problem with fediverse adoption, brought up in every discussion about migrating to it. It will never replace centralized sites as long as it remains confusing and complicated.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/14t9t66/im_so_lost_is_there_an_easy_mode_to_the_fediverse/

    https://www.reddit.com/r/LemmyMigration/comments/145epgc/looking_for_a_lemmy_website_try_lemmyworld/

  • ScaNtuRd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    Good. I don’t want to see some teenagers doing some dumb dance or whatever is on normie platforms.