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?

  • cstine@lemmy.uncomfortable.businessEnglish
    20·
    1 year ago

    Honestly, from all the Gen Z and younger kids I know in my life the big thing that’s probably killing the fediverse is it’s not a media-first platform.

    Not a one of them really participates in text-primary social media, which is what Lemmy definitely is.

    Mastodon supports it better, but there’s so much gatekeeping around the “right way” to share media content that the few people I know that tried to use it just bounced off it because they couldn’t figure out the technical and social aspects of how to interact, because it’s just piles of conflicting opinions.

    They will, however, spend an insane amount of time on TikTok or Youtube or Twitch or Instagram or Snapchat endlessly watching whatever comes up and scrolling along to the next thing or sending pictures/videos of whatever they’re doing at that moment to their friends.

    • C0rkedchimp@vlemmy.netEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      It’s honestly quite a vicious cycle too; if you move to this app you are not engaging the same content your peers are, which can lead to alienation.

      It’s unpopular; and honestly it’s not like other generations are big on this site either. There’s a big overlap with 30 YO & tech nerds(complimentary), so it is prominent; but gen Z, or gen X, or millennials or boomers, none of them have a particular presence.

      Also to go back onto the gen Z thing, both them and gen Alpha have been absorbed by a predative algorythm designed to hold consumers in, and most mainstream media is made so that people needn’t work to prune the content they perceive, as it is mostly customised to their interest. Or whatever benefits the company. There’s this barrier of entry a lot of people don’t know how to deal with due to inexperienced, so it is IMO a complex, multifaceted issue.