I've seen and even tried to run a few polls on age (mostly on mastodon and microblogs).

The age demographic of the fediverse definitely leans as you think ... on average ... Xennial tech/academia/nerd oriented. Not too sure linux users are too dominant though.

As for more diverse users? This isn't mainstream (yet?). There's a lot of inertia around the big-social era. It lasted for a long time relative to the history of the internet, ~2008-2022, ~14 years, which is nearly as long as the internet had been around for before then. So many are stuck in their ways and stuck on the idea that there's only one or two places to be online and they're on one of them, the "right place". I saw someone on twitter just yesterday say that they'll stay on twitter until it goes down and then never go anywhere else because they don't want to bother with another social media platform.

It seems that the idea of a monopolised internet is breaking apart and fracturing now, which is a good thing, but not completely good across the board. Where for instance should emergency information be broadcast? Previously I would have checked twitter before mastodon without blinking. Now, Lemmy might actually be pretty good for this (only realising this now as I write). So there's also a dimension of kinda believing in the big/monopolised social media. This is likely more prevalent amongst younger people, from whom, for example, I've heard ideas like that decentralisation is some weird tech-libertarian ideology and that the "town square" is actually a good thing and something that should be committed to. As far as anyone that has any commercial interest in their social media profile like businesses (both small and big!) or journalists, not being the town square, and the lack of apparent "engagement" and "virality" on the fediverse is definitely a turn off. And of course having those types on a platform naturally attracts others. All of which is not to mention that the decentralisation thing is something your average person just doesn't have the time or patience for and the insistence of some of the people on the fediverse that you should learn about it and that it isn't hard are off-putting to some.

In the end, we've reached a bit of an impasse it seems, where we've culturally outgrown the idea of an important service like our online existence being at the mercy of private corporate whims, but don't have a clear way out. Accepting that the internet is diverse and not monopolised may just take some time.

Where the fediverse comes in is that it gives you both a fractured and diverse social media space but also the ability to connect anything to anything with a standardised protocol. It's a powerful idea, just like that of the internet itself, and whether it's activity pub or some other standardised protocol, I hope it makes it.

OK, 3/3, but I should get points for only running Linux on WSL and Steam Deck. I'm not a nerd.

Edit: and my two android phones and my router.

Ill take it as a compliment to be considered among such folks.

I also fit the description. I wonder if I see the internet differently having grown up pre Web 2.0. With tech corporations cracking down on user freedoms, I can't imagine jumping ship, say from Twitter to Meta, and expecting to be treated any differently.

As a nerd, I'll use a platform that works the way I want, even before the content is there. Hopefully as the amount of content grows it gets more diverse and normies will take interest.

Reddit was where we were when we were younger tech nerds, so...yeah man.

The simple existence of different instances will be enough to scare away casual users.

I'm not entirely sad about this.

As for the ages here, the people most likely to migrate are the long term Reddit users that have had an account using third party apps since 2010 or so (because younger people have only ever known the official app). That self selects for anyone that was old enough to use Reddit in 2010 back when the user base was mostly high school / college / recent college grads. Someone in their late teens / early 20s back then will be in their 30s now.

I feel the two big reasons are:

1. The average user of a site like Reddit probably hasn't noticed any significant changes; or if they have, they just don't see them as a problem. So they don't have any significant incentive to emigrate to another site. On the other hand, people who are tech-savvy notice the changes; and decide they need to move.

2. To a lot of people, the Fediverse is just not as convenient as centralized sites. People who are more tech-savvy and/or use Linux, are willing to put up with a bit of inconvenience in exchange for using a site they see as better.

It's also worth keeping in mind that right now, the Fediverse is still in its early days. Every site in its early days generally has a broadly similar userbase- people who are familiar with technology and willing to put up with some inconvenience because they see the potential.

"Exclusively?" No. But obviously its initial appeal was to the more tech-savvy and FOSS-centric sort, and it's byzantine enough to jump in that it dissuades many newcomers who try.

But ActivityPub does seem to look like it will pull in larger services (like Threads) so in the end "protocols over platforms" may win out by default, sorts like WebKit/Blink/Chromium has. Not everyone gonna use Brave or Opera, but the mass of Chrome users will still feed back in some fashion.

Hit the mark on all 3. 🤷‍♂️ But in fairness the early days of Reddit was pretty similar.

Phase 1: Collect enthusiasts

Phase 2: ?

Phase 3: Profit

Reddit has tried lots of things in Phase 2, including borrowing many techniques from Facebook, but they're still fundamentally there.

Probably because tech enthusiasts are the only ones that care about their privacy so they use open source alternative before anyone else

I don't think there's much keeping users outside that demographic away, more so that the fediverse is a tech solution to the reddit problem, so naturally the people that flock to lemmy are the type of person that looks for tech solutions to the problems they experience in daily life.

My mother just had her illegal IPTV streaming box stop working recently, was her solution to find an alternative? No, she simply stopped watching her shows and did other things instead, and complained about it. And that's with full denial of service, not just limited/compromised service like reddit users currently experience.

It wasn't until her tech-savvy nerd son set up another IPTV box for her that she was able to resume consuming the content she wanted to, and similarly lemmy won't really take off until it reaches a critical mass where enough tech-savvy nerds have shown regular people Lemmy as the tech solution to the problem they're facing. What's holding up progress with that at the moment is that the reddit problem for most people isn't significant enough for a regular person to be in a position to do anything about it, even if they are directly inconvenienced.

I'm 3 for 3.

4 for 4 of you separate item 2.

I just joined and I suspect that you're correct: there's an overall learning curve. No snarky tone intended, but explaining decentralization to those who would likely struggle with grasping the basic client/server model is going to be challenge.

Shoot, I've got 10 years pentesting and R&D under my belt and it took me a while to weigh the pros and cons of creating an account on a public instance or self-hosting. (Will self-host eventually...enjoying a test drive.)

FB was only for college kids, now it's for your grandparents.

Absolutely tick those boxes. And it makes perfect sense.

Before seeing this post, I didn't see a reason to make an account instead of just lurking, but now I made an account because I feel more special.

If this was your plan all along, you have my utmost respect.

I left Reddit because I like browsing on my phone while pooping. They took that away from me.

If YouTube forces me to remove AdBlock, I'll leave that too. And if Windows 11 forces me to create a Microsoft account then I'm moving to Linux.

But yes I'm 39, I run a tech repair shop, but I'm not on Linux... Yet.

I dont think 30 is that old

Uhm I’m a Mac user sweaty. But yeah the rest applies lol

Fucking zoomers with their tiktoks and snapchats, what was so wrong with old school forums?

am teenager

I mostly fit that description. While I understand what you're saying, we all have other interests on top of this. That's what makes it diverse.

Personally, I feel like a more mature audience is needed. I have never liked the feel of places like Facebook, tiktok, etc. Let me have one place where I can pretend the world isn't overrun with stupidity. There is actual conversation on topics to be had, and people aren't jerks to others for no reason.

The fediverse is somewhat complicated to understand. Maybe like usenet or other such places.

Well... damn. I'm mid-30's; Tech is (definitely) kind of a hobby of mine; and I use Linux for learning, experimenting, and... uhh, tech hobby stuff lol. I can solder a little, and sometimes it actually works!

Maybe it's because that cohort is the fastest to adopt. We grew up with a rapidly changing internet, we're kinda used to navigating the glitches/unfamiliarity, and it's just more familiar (to us) in a "back-to-basics" way. I feel like I've entered a nostalgic "place" that has become better since I last visited.

With Memmy for ios going full-live, the multitude of 3rd party apps at full throttle, and Facebook ready with "Threads" - this just seems like the first wave of what could be a hell of a storm. The content will increase and diversify, that's inevitable now.

The question is: do people want to be responsible for maintaining a user-controlled platform? Or would they prefer an operator help to connect us? We'll see, but I guarantee there will be some fresh af memes coming through here in the mean time, so no worries

Hell, while you're here... throw some of those old ass memes (or almost any pic you've got saved on your phone) onto !196@lemmy.blahaj.zone

Be the change you want to see and shit

Or don't, it's not like anyone can really judge you when you're anonymous... but you'll know. Months from now, when you're lying in bed, unable to sleep because you were complicit in the apathy; you'll wonder if it could have been different. You'll try to bury the intrusive thoughts and "what ifs", but you'll always wonder...

"Could it have actually worked? Might we have taken claim to a piece of independence in the future of world communications?!"

... and the thought slips away, as you mainline another 40 min of memes directly into you're neurotransmitter reservoir, for sustenance and maintenence

Age 16 here. I'm getting old, eh?

As a 49 year old IT worker I think you guessed well lol.