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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[–] Andreas@feddit.dk 6 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.

[–] Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

Speaking as a 23 year old windows user (though one that want to move to Linux eventually), the only one of those that I am is a tech enthusiast. From what I've hear Reddit started the same way, tech enthusiasts built it up and then everyone else noticed how good it was getting and moved in.

[–] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

I don't mind a monoculture if it keeps morons away, that's a price worth paying. The reason I started using Reddit in 2009 was to escape the comment section of YouTube. Erik from Internet Comment Etiquette has been doing sterling work educating the Mongol Hoardes but they're still not ready.

[–] meiti@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

It might be partially due to corrolation as well. People who don't like to be controlled by corporate overlords and be their products, tend to use/switch to open alternatives.

[–] Hackerman_uwu@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

Closest I’ve felt to BBS since, well, BBS.

[–] sdrawk@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years 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.

[–] InvaderDJ@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

It is obviously. Just look at what Lemmy and Mastadon are. The whole concept of the fediverse is trying to get back to old school, smaller and less controlled services like message boards, IRC, etc.

Most younger, less tech savvy people don’t care about those principles. They just want a cool place with a bunch of people.

Hopefully the balance will shift a little bit to get more diversity and more users in general. In the last few days, stability issues and lack of content have lowered my engagement. It’s early days still though, so hopefully the people developing and hosting these sites keep plugging away and more people come to make it worthwhile.

[–] rev@ihax0r.com 6 points 2 years ago

Its the BBS era come again.

[–] Magiwarriorx@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Only 1 for 3 there myself, but I get the point.

One thing I have noticed is a big chunk of the memes posted earlier in June were very dated, ~2010-era Facebook style. Made me wonder if the crowd on here didn't at least initially skew older.

[–] someacnt@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 years ago

Did you see the linux memes comments? It's full of windows users who are infuriating me.

[–] Stach@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Hasnt internet started like that?

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[–] ArcticCircleSystem@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I'm 20, but if this is the case, and I've heard a lot of people saying Gen Z is not that good with technology though I haven't seen anything verifying that, then that's a bit terrifying, honestly. ~Strawberry

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[–] kosanovskiy@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

30yr+, tech enthusiast, linux user... these are all the same thing XD

[–] xohshoo@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Only 2 of those 3 (age, linux)
If you ever had to configure your xorg.conf to not set your monitor on fire, the fediverse isn't very complicated

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