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

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.

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

I'm 20, am I old yet?

I think the federation system is quite a barricade for some people. I recently changed over to Lemmy from Reddit, and it was quite challenging to first understand how it worked. Also I am not sure that I even now understand how this works fully.

Also the smaller community on Lemmy might be a turn-off for some people.

So exactly what Digg and Reddit where to begin with. The tech people are first and then everyone else comes over. Only this time I think the everyone else are staying on Reddit.

Yup. That's me.

That's why it's less toxic? No teens?

I'm 24 and while I do use Linux, I'm nowhere close to an expert user, so idk what to tell you man, other than fuck spez and fuck Reddit I guess.

I am younger than 25, but I’m a Sys-Admin.

However my mother also uses the Fediverse and has nearly to none technical knowledge.

Also my cousin who’s 15 uses it. And some friends of mine who are between 18 to 26 use it without being what you typically would call a nerd.

So I think for the majority it applies but there are also people here not fitting in this sector.

It feels very much the same type of people who were mostly hanging around the early Internet; BBS and IRC, etc. before "the general population" caught on and flooded the space.

Hey, I'm not old!

Shit, wait, yes I am.

This is why I’m single as a 24 year old woman.

• I'm under 30
• I use my PC for 3D render art as a hobby but otherwise I'm not a tech enthusiast
• I don't use Linux.

With that said, early adopters are often tech enthusiasts. As the user base grows, so will the content and diversify itself.

Just so we are clear.. Reddit was the same, likely before your time. But sites like Digg and Reddit were for nerds but over time it brought in other 'communities' in a forum type style. Build it and they will come. (also you're likely too old for that reference too, but its all good) I like the less 'normy' experience.

Generalization of course, but the younger generation isn't always as tech savvy as one might assume, and I'd imagine they prefer the easy "sign in and scroll" apps

I'm 19 if that works for you, just following wherever people go.

Enjoy the benefits of having a higher barrier of entry while it lasts. /gen

I was like “NO!” And then I remembered that I’m 25 now so…. Kinda :/

chuckles in elder millenial at 30 years being considered "older" 🤦😂

I just passed into the 30 and older crowd yesterday, and created an account a few days before. Thanks... :(

Yes, but that's pretty much the early adopter demographic across all tech. I would love for people to realize this and start talking about their other hobbies, not just how they run Lemmy on a toaster and are so radical.

Hey, I'm still in my 20s... for another 3 weeks. Also, Software Engineer for over 10 years...

For me, I really miss the old school internet forms where it was all just people nerding out about the same stuff and providing useful information because they cared about the interest and the community.

Reddit used to be like that but now it's like any other social media platform.

Everything is becoming algorithm driven endless scrolling packed with ads and promoted content with very little focus on the community and actual information. It is just an app you use when you want to turn off your brain.

I'm brand new to lemmy and stuff like it but I'm hoping to find something closer to the classic internet. Not sure if that's what I'll find here but reddit sure isn't that any more, and hasn't been for a while

Millennial checking in. Not a Linux user, not a programmer, occasionally plays Minecraft

After chatting to a few gen z, if I was to assume a characteristic of this generation, it's that most seem to have completely given up, or not even started, the fight against the deterioration of online privacy, exposure to ads, and companies "rights" and/or ability to harvest personal data from them no matter what they want. It's just part of life to them.

It's just accepted, and whenever I've raised the issue with them, they'll generally just reply with defeatist/pessimist/'pragmatic': "well, the alternative X, y and z apps/websites you've suggested likely all have hardware backdoors forcibly installed anyway"

So I think the willingness to fight, and picture a different way of having things, really is focused on those within millennial and gen-x age bands.

Edit: the point being, gen z therefore appear less likely to move away from existing structures, like Snapchat and Reddit, over increased ad promulgation, personal data harvesting, or bad company behaviour.

I would say picking a server. Regular users shouldn't be bothered with that. I wouldn't say multiple server choice is a bad thing, it's actually great thing, but regular users shouldn't be bothered with that. Maybe hide server selection behind advanced section or something like that, so regular users aren't bothered with that, but more tech savy users can still find that option if they would like to. And default option for server can be lemmy.world for example (or any other server). If using lemmy is too dificult for regular users and learning curve is too big, they will not bother with that and they will just leave. I am using Connect for Lemmy now and I think lemmy.world is selected by default. I am just using it and I was never bothered with concept of multiple servers, and I really like that I don't have to worry about that.

I like gay people