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
    1574·
    1 year 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.

  • erasebegin@lemmy.fmhy.mlEnglish
    1406·
    1 year ago

    I’m new here, and new to federated applications (and fit OP’s description perfectly). This federated stuff is going to remain niche unless somebody figures out a way to make it approachable.

    Reddit first time:

    > open app
> choose some things I like
> see all the things

    Lemmy first time:

    > open app
> ?????
> google how to use it
> choose a... server? 
> ?????
  • ZagTheRaccoon@reddthat.comEnglish
    97·
    1 year 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)

  • illah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    91·
    1 year 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.

  • SisuAika@lemmy.worldEnglish
    67·
    1 year ago

    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.

  • pHr34kY@lemmy.worldEnglish
    672·
    1 year ago

    30s software engineer / linux user here.

    We are exactly who you want as the “primer” user group. We will collectively make sure the whole thing works before the load really rams up.

  • RagingRobot@lemmy.worldEnglish
    591·
    1 year ago

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

  • fututio_enjoyer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    561·
    1 year 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/

  • toasteranimation@lemmy.worldEnglish
    574·
    1 year ago

    These are the people who make everything work. After they get it all setup and working, the kids will come flooding in, don’t you worry

  • DigiWolf@pawb.socialEnglish
    42·
    1 year 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