The Fediverse is still relatively "new" (in the sense that it really started gaining traction a few years ago) and the type of people you mentioned are just the first to know about it.

If we get enough support and the big problem social networks crack we'll probably get a more diverse crowd later on. I doubt the Fediverse will become mainstream but it's definitely more known now and becoming more popular.

I feel personally attacked.

2/3, and linux-curious so yes

You got me on the 2nd two points

Noooooo.

Turned 20 a few days ago.

38 year old moderately tech savvy person here, much more hardware savvy than software if that makes sense? When the whole reddit thing exploded, I concluded that I was pretty much going to stop using reddit once Boost stopped working. Then I saw someone mention Lemmy in a comment so I searched it up and here I am. I didn't know there was a reddit alternative, or a Twitter, instagram or YouTube (decentralised) alternative. Just finding out all this now. I didn't even think of centralised VS decentralised until the last few days, this is all new to me and still wrapping my head around the whole federation concept, particularly with the Meta etc. I feel like I need an ELI5 on that concept but I'm still yet to search and find if an ELI5 community exists here lol

But I think it makes sense that the demographic might be older. I don't want to shoehorn any age group into one large generalisation but I'd dare assume that under 30-40s are happy to be where their peers are? And to be clear, I'm not an instagram/twitter/tiktok user. And I only use Facebook for a side business I ran and it's marketplace.

what is blud wafflin about

Check

Check

Half check I have a Linux self hosting setup

Test

Hmm, idk the communities I follow are pretty "normal" though and don't really fit in any of these categories…

It's really hard to understand some things unless you try, and I don't really feel like I want to understand how a social media application works, I have better things to do

Not that I'm for letting it into the fediverse, but I wonder if something like Meta's Threads will end up with that other demographic given how marketing (and influencer marketing in particular) is especially effective on younger, less savvy audiences.

Lemmy by it's very nature is never going to do that. But then again, Reddit was never particularly hip; I teach at University and not even my nerdier students used that, let alone anything from the fediverse. That was all TikTok and Snapchat.

What did you expect? It’s difficult to sign up for and participate in.

Oh wow, maybe go back to Reddit or whatever teenage swamp you enjoy?

yes, yes, and yes. Moved to the fediverse because my presence on data mining platforms like windows, twitter, google, etc is already minimal, so no point in letting reddit spy on me.

Is diversity really a good thing? I was on reddit before the great flood, and those days were better. I was on youtube before it exploded, and while there's more higher-quality content today, there are far more quality content videos that will never see the light of day because of all the restrictions. Even discord servers go to shit once too many folks join. Diversity for the sake of diversity is stupidity.

Pretty sure women aren't that interested in free software or open technologies.

How do you block 196 and all the other troll posts? Those feel like the <20 crowd.

I do not get that feeling at all! The opposite actually. Mostly seeing some dank ass memes that people you're talking about wouldn't be particularly enthralled by