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?
I’m almost 48. My profession: foreign languages and literature. I have had a computer since I was 7 years old. I know how to use Linux and I have played video games all my life. I know a little code. I’m good with computers. A lot of people my age in my profession are not all that good with computers. They think they are because they can make a PowerPoint presentation or took a class on how to use a spread sheet as a grade book. So, I don’t know, I don’t think everyone on here are older tech nerds, so it’s not exclusive to them. They could be the majority, though. Am I a nerd? Yes. But a different type of nerd. I speak three languages and read six. I can diagram a sentence and correct peoples’ grammar and vocabulary in my sleep. I know all about literature from the 16th and 17th centuries. I play video games and I like technology enough, but it does not consume my life. Are there lots of people on here like me? I don’t know. I DO know that I’ve interacted with a lot of younger people on here. To understand how to use this new type of social media you have to understand technology pretty well. It isn’t for people who just want to tap or click on stuff that “just works.” You need a basic understanding of how decentralized social networks function to be able to navigate it and you have to have patience with things that might slow down or do strange things every once in a while. There are lots of people my age that would not have the patience to learn how to use this space on the internet. In a lot of ways, they are very similar to the stereotypes of “average twenty-somethings” I’ve seen mentioned in this thread. No worries about privacy. In some cases, perfectly happy with their privacy being invaded because they want to see ads related to products they would buy. I also enjoy shopping. It’s fun. I don’t like ads, though.
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)
Without hobbyists most all new recreational activities just won’t take off. People don’t become professionals and things don’t become usable until those who have more passion and time than sense tackle it first.
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.
TL;DR: it’s just that the current state of the Fediverse is more attractive for that demographic than for most other people.
NTL;R: It’s a damn complex subject but I’ll try to simplify it.
Let’s pretend for a moment that each user is a perfectly rational agent (they aren’t, but it’s a useful model). A perfectly rational agent will stay in the platform that offers him the most subjective value. And subjective value is tied to a bazillion of factors, among them:
lots of content that the user wants to see, and it’s easy to sort it out from things that he doesn’t care about.
lots of people whom he’d like to interact with, and it’s easy to avoid people whom he’d rather would not.
liking the interface and experience of the platform itself.
the feeling that the platform is reliable, and won’t suddenly stop working.
agreement with the premises, goals, and values of the platform; etc.
Note that the weight of each of those factors changes from user to user, even among perfectly rational agents. For example, Alice might think “I’m fine with a shitty interface” (low weight for #3), while Bob might think “I can’t stand an ugly platform” (high weight for #3).
Now, let’s think about the differences between the Fediverse and “corporate media” in those points. For the first four factors, corporate media is clearly at an advantage, due to: network effect, network effect (again), age of the platform, and more money to throw at their user experience. For the fifth one, the Fediverse is at a big advantage, but only for users who care about open source and transparency.
And who cares about those things? Older, tech-savvier users, who are likely to also use Linux. For those, factor #5 weights so much that it compensates the cons of factors #1 to #4. But for the others, factor #5 is non-existent (they do benefit from the open nature of the Fediverse, but they don’t weight it because they don’t care about it).
That applies to the current state however. The Fediverse is growing, while Twitter and Reddit are enshittifying themselves; so over time there’ll be less of a gap on the first four factors, promoting further migration to the Fediverse, even among people outside the demographic that OP narrowed down.
That said, I still have a hard time dropping reddit until a network effect happens here or the multi-feddit stuff can start combining same-named subs across the fediverse.
I spent most of my time on Reddit looking at: various sports,cooking, finance (pf, investing, bogleheads), IT (sysadmin, vmware, homelab), gaming (console and PC and specific game subs), and PC hardware subs. (Plus some for sale places).
I wasn’t really one to do much OC, but would participate in comment threads fairly often. I think lemmy/fed has potential, but it’s going to need to be simpler for the average person to get logged in and just see the content they want with out jumping through a bunch of searches and hoops.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
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 [email protected]!
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I’m almost 48. My profession: foreign languages and literature. I have had a computer since I was 7 years old. I know how to use Linux and I have played video games all my life. I know a little code. I’m good with computers. A lot of people my age in my profession are not all that good with computers. They think they are because they can make a PowerPoint presentation or took a class on how to use a spread sheet as a grade book. So, I don’t know, I don’t think everyone on here are older tech nerds, so it’s not exclusive to them. They could be the majority, though. Am I a nerd? Yes. But a different type of nerd. I speak three languages and read six. I can diagram a sentence and correct peoples’ grammar and vocabulary in my sleep. I know all about literature from the 16th and 17th centuries. I play video games and I like technology enough, but it does not consume my life. Are there lots of people on here like me? I don’t know. I DO know that I’ve interacted with a lot of younger people on here. To understand how to use this new type of social media you have to understand technology pretty well. It isn’t for people who just want to tap or click on stuff that “just works.” You need a basic understanding of how decentralized social networks function to be able to navigate it and you have to have patience with things that might slow down or do strange things every once in a while. There are lots of people my age that would not have the patience to learn how to use this space on the internet. In a lot of ways, they are very similar to the stereotypes of “average twenty-somethings” I’ve seen mentioned in this thread. No worries about privacy. In some cases, perfectly happy with their privacy being invaded because they want to see ads related to products they would buy. I also enjoy shopping. It’s fun. I don’t like ads, though.
I fit the profile
30 years old or older - nopedanggiitt… 2/3
No wonder I feel at home.
I feel personally attacked.
Wow, this is me.
A. yes, that’s me.
B. we can’t force other people to come here, though it would be nice if they did.
43, artist
Define “older” hahah
“~30”.
How dare you, OP. Not even middle aged.
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)
Without hobbyists most all new recreational activities just won’t take off. People don’t become professionals and things don’t become usable until those who have more passion and time than sense tackle it first.
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.
My first interaction with reddit was to explain how ballistics work in a BF subreddit.
Man who knew how much time that comment cost me in my life.
TL;DR: it’s just that the current state of the Fediverse is more attractive for that demographic than for most other people.
NTL;R: It’s a damn complex subject but I’ll try to simplify it.
Let’s pretend for a moment that each user is a perfectly rational agent (they aren’t, but it’s a useful model). A perfectly rational agent will stay in the platform that offers him the most subjective value. And subjective value is tied to a bazillion of factors, among them:
Note that the weight of each of those factors changes from user to user, even among perfectly rational agents. For example, Alice might think “I’m fine with a shitty interface” (low weight for #3), while Bob might think “I can’t stand an ugly platform” (high weight for #3).
Now, let’s think about the differences between the Fediverse and “corporate media” in those points. For the first four factors, corporate media is clearly at an advantage, due to: network effect, network effect (again), age of the platform, and more money to throw at their user experience. For the fifth one, the Fediverse is at a big advantage, but only for users who care about open source and transparency.
And who cares about those things? Older, tech-savvier users, who are likely to also use Linux. For those, factor #5 weights so much that it compensates the cons of factors #1 to #4. But for the others, factor #5 is non-existent (they do benefit from the open nature of the Fediverse, but they don’t weight it because they don’t care about it).
That applies to the current state however. The Fediverse is growing, while Twitter and Reddit are enshittifying themselves; so over time there’ll be less of a gap on the first four factors, promoting further migration to the Fediverse, even among people outside the demographic that OP narrowed down.
By the way, someone in Mastodon created a poll that confirms your “gut feeling” of most users being 30yo+.
I gall into most of those categories.
That said, I still have a hard time dropping reddit until a network effect happens here or the multi-feddit stuff can start combining same-named subs across the fediverse.
I spent most of my time on Reddit looking at: various sports,cooking, finance (pf, investing, bogleheads), IT (sysadmin, vmware, homelab), gaming (console and PC and specific game subs), and PC hardware subs. (Plus some for sale places).
I wasn’t really one to do much OC, but would participate in comment threads fairly often. I think lemmy/fed has potential, but it’s going to need to be simpler for the average person to get logged in and just see the content they want with out jumping through a bunch of searches and hoops.
Millennial nerd checking in.
23 year old Nix user…
I’m not that old! I’m still a linux user and tech enthusiast though, so you’re not that off.