this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
125 points (90.8% liked)

Fediverse

34976 readers
473 users here now

A community to talk about the Fediverse and all it's related services using ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, KBin, etc).

If you wanted to get help with moderating your own community then head over to !moderators@lemmy.world!

Rules

Learn more at these websites: Join The Fediverse Wiki, Fediverse.info, Wikipedia Page, The Federation Info (Stats), FediDB (Stats), Sub Rehab (Reddit Migration)

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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?

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Andreas@feddit.dk 1 points 2 years 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.

[–] noodle@feddit.uk 1 points 2 years ago

I think so. I think younger users trust official branded apps a lot more so actually see the Reddit app as safer. Despite how easy tech people think lemmy and mastodon are, picking a server just isn't a feature to non-tech people - it's an obstacle to getting started.

The lack of content is a problem, but the lack of community feeling is the actual offputting part. Having bots repost things from Reddit kills the organic feeling of interacting with another user.

I'll probably be flamed but I do think having such a homogeneous userbase is negative. It means you don't get a wide array of experiences and viewpoints. People bang on about echo chambers online, but if you are in a club full of old white guys then you're in one!

I'd like think we can make these platforms as welcoming for everyone of all backgrounds, genders, etc, but there's just some things we can't understand without having those viewpoints being represented.

[–] grizzledgrizzly@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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.

[–] mranderson1984@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

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

[–] kerr@aussie.zone 1 points 2 years 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.

[–] Cryxtalix@programming.dev 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

The youth have an innate pressure to follow trends and their peers. They need and crave social acceptance while still lacking the means to be independent and "go their own way", so it's not viable to expect younger users to form the bulk of pioneering users of an unproven platform like the fediverse.

Older user will generally be more confident and independent, especially when the craving for social approval is not as powerful as it was in younger users.

[–] DigiWolf@pawb.social 1 points 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

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Op too young to realize who made Reddit popular to begin with.

[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 years ago

Also why Reddit used to be better

[–] mariom@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Oh c'mon, 30s is not older.

[–] fututio_enjoyer@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 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.world 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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

[–] MarigoldPuppyFlavors@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

But then how will we know if our drip is bussin'?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] righteous_angst@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What do people have against dancing? Life is soul sucking enough - let people do their silly little dances without judgement.

[–] ScaNtuRd@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Oh I have nothing against it at all, I just have no interest in watching them lol

[–] SisuAika@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I don't want to stereotype anyone, but in my own social experience, younger groups don't give a shit about corporate monopolies or privacy, they just want things to work fast and automatically (ex: TikTok). And those I know in older brackets are still on Facebook and complaining that they don't want to deal with change because their family/business/workflow would be affected.

I happen to be 38, a linux user, and a gamer. And I concur that my age-group has just always seemed to be more open to new technologies for some reason.

[–] MercuryUprising@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

I think younger people don't give a shit about privacy because they grew up in a post 9/11 surveillance world. Facebook, Instagram and the internet at large became a giant surveillance machine and they've never known another possibility, so it's normalized to them.

[–] lessthanluigi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago
[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Is picking a server/federation too complicated?

Apparently anything beyond filling out a registration form is too complicated for a lot of people. Heck, even that seems to be too much for some people, hence the popularity of login with Facebook or Google features. Personally I'm happy to be away from people who can't figure out simple concepts. But, I'm the exact person you described in your post, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] spark947@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think older sysadmins are the only ones who understand the DNS knowledge required to grok federation.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

C'mon........16 is old now. Once you hit senior in high school, it's all downhill from there.

[–] AVeryCleverName@lemmy.one 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I spent most of my time on Reddit in the learn programming subs, so I'm glad at least that demographic has moved here. I'm almost 34, don't work in tech but want to, don't use Linux but want to (and if the rumors of windows adding ads to the OS are true I will switch to Linux full time except for gaming). I wasn't really that invested in the reddit API changes but I liked reddit when it was more under ground and wild west. I used to spend a lot of time on rcsources (those days are behind me regardless, though). So I wanted to see if there was still room on the internet for the outlaw tech cowboy shtick, and Lemmy stepped up to the plate.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 years ago

Linux is good for gaming these days. It took a corporate push from Valve to do it, but things have improved.

[–] AirZone@lemm.ee 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Well.. I'm 36 yo physician, an orthopedic surgeon resident. But I do LOVE tech&gaming. I want to switch from reddit because my favorite app boost stopped working and the creator is developing a boost app for lemmy. Oh and the official reddit app is just shit. I do hope lemmy will get bigger.

[–] ruffletuss@lemm.ee 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh wow, it's great to hear from a fellow healthcare professional!

I'm a 5th year med student who switched to using lemmy once my favourite app, sync for reddit stopped working :(

I'm a huge tech nerd too and while I do love the culture here, I find myself occasionally wondering if there are any communities on lemmy focused on medicine and/or medical professionals.

Would you happen to know any that you could recommend?

[–] AirZone@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

Not that I know of, maybe you can open one 😉

[–] Crudman@lemm.ee 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm normier than the listed demographics and find the Fediverse and it's associated jargon to be inline with 4 dimensional crochet in terms of ease of use

[–] Crudman@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

To make myself clear I'd rather be confused about lemmy servers than ever, ever use Discord as a wiki

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›