1822
submitted 2 years ago by gamer@lemm.ee to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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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[-] randomdude567@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Yes. Especially on Mastodon, a poll showed nearly half of the site was above 40 and 3 percent were under 18. Most of the content is people talking about the site itself, especially on lemmy. I've felt pretty isolated as a minor on the sites.

[-] tuts@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Yeah... We rule... :-)

[-] FinalBoy1975@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

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.

[-] monerobull@monero.town 3 points 2 years ago

I'm actually quite a bit younger than that. I was very much into stocks but got scammed in the GME fiasco when they disabled the buy button and got into Monero (at least I know beforehand that crypto is manipulated as fuck). Monero lead to FOSS and now I run a xmr node, i2p node, lemmy instance, selfhost cool stuff, etc. I learned a lot of stuff this way.

[-] HungryKoala@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago

Not yet 30 and can't be bothered with Linux on desktop

[-] fugepe@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago
[-] tehfishman@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

According to this poll, fediverse definitely skews older. There's some sample bias for whoever is in this guy's circles, but I think it's relatively valid.

https://mastodon.art/@jsstaedtler/110668308409683502

[-] realz@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Check. Check. And check.

[-] kplaceholder@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

FWIW, someone on my Mastodon TL suspected the same thing and made a poll regarding the users age. About 850 people voted and 63% turned out to be 30-50 years old.

Here's the toot in question. In Spanish tho https://mastodon.social/@batmanyyo/110668830560740847

[-] gapbetweenus@feddit.de 2 points 2 years ago

Almost got me!

[-] Uriel238@lemmy.fmhy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

I'll have you know I am not (yet!) a Linux user. (Later this year, maybe.)

[-] hitagi@ani.social 2 points 2 years ago

I'm far from 30, am a tech enthusiast but I'm taking a degree in a different field, and I do use Linux.

But yeah, it's hard to get other people to use media platforms like this one. I think it will naturally grow though but it's hard to compete with corporate media platforms.

[-] DmMacniel@feddit.de 2 points 2 years ago

frick, I check all three boxes (36, software developer and currently a KDE Neon user)

[-] trouser_mouse@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I think that tends to be the starting point, but the user base is expanding quickly and is becoming way more diverse. There are already plenty of users who don't fit in that category, and I suspect it will continue to grow.

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this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
1822 points (94.8% liked)

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