Fediverse

You caught me. I'm old, write software and regularly use Linux.

I fit the description. I like it, the regular social media life drains me.

Eli5...How can I get into mastadon? I just signed up for Lemmy. Can I download any mastadon app and just log in and use it?

My 15 yo ass

Hey! I'm all three of those 🤓

Hmm, not sure. But I’m in my 20s and I love to advocate for privacy and decentralization.

Older? It seems the general lemmy population is in their early 20s.

have been around on mastodon for years (was one of the first few thousands accounts). it really depends where you look. i'm under 30 and the majority of people i see + interact with are under 30 too.

the "professionals" side of mastodon absolutely does skew more to that age range, but the more shitposty social groups skew way younger, and with a lot of them existing on other instances.

lemmy also has a mix and again depends where you look.

tl;dr i'm not sure i'd totally agree with that 90% statistic

Yes.

1. 23, so no.
2. Enthusiast, yeah, trying to get into tech for a job, but don't have the CS degree they all want.
3. No, but not by choice. Not running Linux because I buggered my UEFI somehow, and so it won't allow me to boot from USB or switch to my Linux partition.

I think it's because early Millennials are near the peak of techiness, and the sort of person to switch to an open-source, decentralised, somewhat anti-commercial website is also the sort of person to use Linux. I'm early Gen Z, but fit the other two categories.

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.

I've literally just signed up because of the Reddit policy changes killing off third-party apps, and I'm already confused by some of the conversations on here about the "fediverse" and some stuff about Threads and EEE (whatever that is).

I'm just like, I wanted an alternative to Reddit, what the hell is all this? 😂 Even signing up to this was confusing and I consider myself more tech-savvy than most. I think the process needs to be made simpler to encourage more ex-redditors to sign up.

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

27yo tech enthusiast and worker and linux user here

Signing up and commenting on Lem should be made stupid simple so that masses can flock here instead. ANY friction in between will result in no action taken. Also more Google searche algos with Lemmy will greatly help.

21 yo software dev here, so not quite older, but I'd say I fit the tech nerd bill lmao

While a lot of people are conscious about the software they use, I think being involved in tech, either as a hobby or career, ups the chance that a person will care about things like user privacy, how an app is run, algorithms that might manipulate the user, or even how technologically literate the rest of the community is

And that isn't to be condescending towards people who are more apathetic about it. It's like how a doctor might be more behooved to eat healthy; when you've seen and studied what can go wrong, you're more compelled to avoid it

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 was ready to argue that we're not all older, but apparently I'm in that category. I'm not very tech literate or use Linux, though.

I think someone else got it right. Younger people didn't live through dial-up and the old internet. They grew up with polished apps and fast loading websites. They're used to convenience.

It can be intimidating to join the fediverse. I was intimidated and still a bit confused. It's not something I'm familiar with in the slightest. I'm not scared of challenging myself to learn something new in tech, though, because of the generation I was born into. We grew up experimenting with the crunchy internet and awkward technology.

I started back in the Wild West BBS days on the 80s; graduated to USENET in the 90s, website forums in the Web 1.0 days, /., Reddit, and now Lemmy. Yeah, I’ve been around. Been “Yaztromo” all that time too.

I don’t mind that “Eternal September” hasn’t infected this space yet — that’s a feature, not a bug!

Damn I feel seen