I am probably blowing the statistics way out, but I’m 71, a podcaster on three shows, no degree, no computer experience except personal, poor, living in a trailer, in Eastern Tennessee.

The median age seems to be much higher than other platforms if i had to guess its around 30-35. There are a good deal of tech people, Foss people and activists. There seems to be a balance of gender( based on nothing but vibes). Lots of lgbt people and communities.

There is a culture of creating art, technology and building spaces. There is a culture of inclusiveness and working together. Calling out bad behaviors in people, companies and governments.

Also cats and coffee.

I am only including the lemmy that is within my own federation. I am aware there is fringe communities of extremists and vile people but I’ve had very little interaction with them so I can’t say how much of an impact they have on lemmy as a whole.

People that miss forums

As a late gen x/“xennial” myself I’ve noticed there’s proportionally more of us here than on other social media.

Tends to be left of centre even without factoring in the communistanarchistsocialist nexus, but also wider political range.

Tends to skew STEM.

Loves cats as much as the rest of the internet but proportionally loves FOSS more.

Strong rainbow presence.

Here representing the suburban moms.

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Think of it as the cool/bad kids’ table in the special-needs school cafeteria

More language diverse than Reddit, especially on language based instances. Shout out to the Germans who seem much more active than other languages (such as French or Spanish)

I’m here for shitposting, anime titties, and saying disproportionately cruel things about rich people.

I’m here to have a experience similar to reddit, without the negative load on my mental health.

Female, old, non-techie but in the one fourth of people in my office who can set up a printer.

That’s a good question. From what I gather, Lemmy (and most of the Fediverse) is an alternative to something, with less focus on the money/advertising. So I would guess most people are looking for an alternative way to connect about common interests. And because it’s not the easiest path for social media, I would guess most people have a desire for agency/self-reliance.

And because the whole Fediverse seems to be a different way of approaching social connecting, it takes a little more understanding of computer technology, so I would also guess most people have a least a higher than average affinity for computer technology. Linux and Programming Humor are larger communities.

That said, I have enjoyed a somewhat active participation about woodworking, gardening, jokes, news, medical updates, etc. Like mentioned in another comment, the different instances will have somewhat different norms and practices.

We are Reddit before it became… Reddit.

Nice try Mr. FBI

Lemmy has an abnormally tech literate and FOSS “aware” (there’s got to be a better term but I’m blanking) user base. The community is small enough that recognizing people isn’t unheard of so we tend to be more polite overall - with a smaller community there’s less of a sense of anonymity and more social accountability. Oh, we tend to be rather left leaning but, to be honest, “The universe has a well known liberal bias”.

Other than those factors we’re a mix of folks.