• moseschrute@lemmy.ml
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    25 days ago

    Me as Gen Z trying to get all my Gen Z friends to join Lemmy, not very successfully. Though to be fair, I’m basically as old as you can be and still be Gen Z.

    • ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      My introduction is subtle. I text content to people. When they ask me where I get it (it’s happened twice so far), I say Lemmy. They say, “what’s that.” Gives me an opportunity to explain the similarities and differences with (advantages over) Reddit. No takers yet, but it’s coming.

      • Aneb@lemmy.world
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        25 days ago

        Re:

        No takers yet, but it’s coming.

        I literally have explained the open protocols for social sharing that were released years ago. I tried to tell them that nobody can track you. And the ads they see don’t go to corps but literally no buy in from my friends and family. My sister has a blue sky account and I told her she was part if the Masterdon/Lemmy federation. She just thinks blue sky is a better twitter, for now.

      • isar@lemmy.ml
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        25 days ago

        On Reddit there’s a lot of “lemmy’s too complicated to be adopted by the general public”. Ik we don’t all have the same tech literacy but it doesn’t seem that complicated, like, do you understand emailing? Then you understand most of what lemmy is… (also you don’t even have to understand the intricacies to enjoy your experience there)

        • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works
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          25 days ago

          I don’t think its just complexity, its a semi-ghost town if you venture out of the political topics.

          I mean, there was never a GoT community, The Expanse Community, Rick and Morty, Squid Game, or like even a GTA community. Inactive communities with 1 post every 3 month doesn’t count.

          Like this is really just a place to vent about life, and for general everyday discussions, not for topic-specific discussions.

        • Contramuffin@lemmy.world
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          25 days ago

          Frankly I think it’s simply that the public doesn’t particularly care to figure it out. As an analogy, people use Windows because that’s just what their computer came with, and therefore saying that Linux is free (as in price) is a meaningless selling point to them. You don’t convince Windows users to switch by saying that Linux is free, you convince them by saying that Linux is more convenient, stable, and less annoying.

          In the same way, you don’t convince the public into using Lemmy by arguing about why open protocols are better. You convince people by saying that Lemmy is basically like Reddit but not overrun by bots and spammers

      • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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        24 days ago

        i wish there was a useable german instance for the general public.

        discuss.tchncs.de is great but as the name says, rather for techy people

        feddit.org is borderline unusable garbage between political shit-takes (constant bickering and non-constructive arguments) and generally a very non-open mood, it feels to me.

        • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          Yeah it’s hard to get people to join when you explain how instances work and then immediately follow up with “never ever use [list of instances] because they oppose democracy and want the west to nuke itself.”

  • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works
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    25 days ago

    Average here feels like 40+

    Even me being 20+, I feel like a kid interrupting adults talking lolz

    I read a lot of “back in my day, there weren’t smartphones” comments whenever the post talks about technology and smartphones, and I feel so left out. I mean, Smartphones have been a part of most of the life I remember. Can’t really remember the world without smartphones.

    Idk what I’m doing here, but reddit banned Tor, so I have no where else to anonymously ask weird questions and rant about life.

    • Mika@sopuli.xyz
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      24 days ago

      Early 30 here. Mobile phones only started being accessible when I was like in 5th year of school, smartphones, like proper ones, android/ios - that was closer to my university days. Before that we had different phones with good displays but controlled by buttons, you could play games on those too, but lot simpler ones.

      What I’m trying to say, your gen is about the first one to experience “smartphone was here always” vibe.

    • rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz
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      24 days ago

      I read a lot of “back in my day, there weren’t smartphones” comments whenever the post talks about technology and smartphones, and I feel so left out.

      reminder that not everyone is a westerner. my home village only had internet (adsl) like in 2008 or so

    • 007Ace@lemmy.ca
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      24 days ago

      Smartphones? I remember before cellphones. How about only having to remember 4 digits to call someone? Or… How about just going to their house to see if they wanted to hang out. No phones involved. Haha. I’m 40.

      • frostysauce@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        Wow. I’m 44 and I remember the switch from seven digit dialing to ten digits but we already moved past four digits in my area before I was born. Unless you’re talking about the prefix being the same for the whole city, like everything started with 262-XXXX so you only had to remember the four at the end?

        • 007Ace@lemmy.ca
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          24 days ago

          Oh yes, for clarity, the first 3 digits were the same for everyone, so we didn’t have to think about them. Haha, well after the official change from 4 to 7 digits.

    • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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      24 days ago

      I was probably older than you are now when you were born. It’s been interesting (in the ancient curse sense of the word) to witness firsthand a world without internet slowly becoming online, advancing, then decaying into the corporate-run AI slop hellscape we’re seeing today.

      • Afflictedlife@lemmy.ml
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        23 days ago

        As an ageless fifth dimensional being extending my influence into this world through this rotting meat sack I am confused by both of you as I still recall time as a singularity

  • Jerb322@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    I’m nearly 50, not really sure how it all works. Just glad that I found something other than reddit.

  • zeca@lemmy.ml
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    24 days ago

    How would we know the average? I dont remember putting my age when signing up

  • TheBannedLemming@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Is the average age of a social media user really that young? Are very young adults and legally speaking children the driving force behind the base of social media? Are even modestly older individuals not willing to try and engage with this developing type of medium?

    • Tired@slrpnk.net
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      24 days ago

      Kids and trendy young people are on tiktok and Instagram and do short video clip based social media.

      The people who grew up with the internet being a place where you type and read things to be social, are here and places like here.

      I think folk just prefer what they know, like if you grew up with loud and bright video clips being the normal way to interact online, you’d probably not want to switch over to reading and typing- which probably also feels like more effort to these people than just performing for a camera.

      Same likely goes for us text based social media people but in reverse.

    • twice_hatch@midwest.social
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      24 days ago

      I think a lot of older people have jobs and real-life hobbies. When you’re a kid trapped in the suburbs with no neighbors to play with, you can’t drive, you can’t walk to anything, the idea of being terminally online is very appealing. I’m still growing out of it in my 30s

  • M137@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    I’m just happy there aren’t any, or at least many, teens and kids here. Reading the comments on Reddit, YouTube and anywhere else where they are is a fucking fever dream of stupidity, ignorance and weirdness. It’s mostly fine here, and it’s a nice break.

  • foggy@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    There are either a ton of 12 year olds on here or an ever larger number of 18 year olds.