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?

  • illah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    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

    • Schooner@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      Even as a crypto enthusiast, the web3 movement smelled like VC manure being dumped on a field hoping something grows.

  • Ghostc1212@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    1·
    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.

  • Margot Robbie@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 years 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.

  • chraebsli@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    1 year 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