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?

  • vd1nEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    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?

    • Swexti@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Mastodon works a lot like Lemmy IIRC. You have instances that you create your account on, then you can use the same login on all instances. Not sure how it works for content, though, if it’s shared across instances (like Lemmy) or if content is instance-specific.

      • Azzu@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        It’s exactly the same, just instead of “links” and “posts” it’s basically only “comments” being shared.

        The main difference is instead of following communities (based on specific topics) you only follow people. As such, it is much more about personal connection.

        And honestly, for me, I have enough personal connection in RL that I don’t really want anymore online, which is qualitatively just worse. It’s just so much nicer to have a face in front of you, being able to touch someone, all else being equal.

    • Overzeetop@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      It’s open source, so it’s dead simple. Just go to the git repository and download the code and a compile it for your system. When it doesn’t work, it will throw an error and the simplist thing to do is just to a crash dump and then go back an manually update the bytes in the machine code that called the wrong register and boom you’re golden.

      JK - go here and find an instance (like lemmy) to join. You can log in on mobile, too, with one of the official apps.

    • skepticalifornia@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Just set up an account on a reputable server (I picked Universeadon) and search for hashtags that interest you (#linux, #hiking, etc) then start following people that share those interests. I’ve been on since last year and like it very much.

      For apps, I use Mona on my iPad and Fedilab on my Android phone and recommend both of those.