The mastodon and lemmy content I’m seeing feels like 90% of it comes from people who are:
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~30 years old or older
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tech enthusiasts/workers
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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?
I saw an old friend post a few years ago asking if anyone else’s students didn’t know what file directories were. And I don’t mean freshman in a general class. This was a summer interns in a hard science. The responses to the post were essentially “yeah they only know how to search for files.”
I really started using computers for more than gaming with windows 95, and it wasn’t until college when I switched to Linux that I got serious about file directory hygiene, but even in those win95 days I knew where everything was on my computer. I fundamentally don’t understand how you can use computers without understanding that.
I still have to explain to fully grown adults where the Start menu is
These days even Minecraft mods are one click to install hundreds at a time. The average person can get by with nothing more than folders on their desktop.
A lot of students use phones and chromeOS, both of which obfuscate file system. Remember majority of gen z are still in college or school.
And even after you graduate - how many job’s actually require you to interact with the FS? In my company for example people are supplied with a laptop with everything already pre-installed. Majority of folks would just use couple of the apps they need for their job and a web browser. As for files - they just have an endless list of stuff in their downloads and desktop folders.