4mo ago

There are teenagers on the fediverse.

First of all, I don't mean this post as a complaint, maybe more of a warning?

There is teenagers on the fediverse. Most of them don't share their age, for hopefully obvious reasons. I'd say that a lot of the accounts which do a lot of posting/commenting are run by teenagers --- because most adults probably wouldn't have the time for that much posting.

While the young people of this generation are generally useless when it comes to something more complicated than microsoft word, the people who are good at technology, usually are very good at it.

most of my friends (most of which don't know the difference between a laptop and a desktop) could understand the fediverse as a concept perfectly when I explained it to them irl.

So, if you're in a really stupid argument with someone, try to remember that there is a small chance they are 14.

182 comments

WARNING To the People of Earth: Teenagers exist. BEWARE
- Pretty much yeah, most people assume that no one under 30 is on fedi because its "hard" to use.
  
  I'm 19 and assumed that there are at least a few. And with that I'm correct.
  
  I'm 24 and I'm using it just fine. I'd say that after signing up somewhere and getting an app to login into, the rest is pretty simple and much similar to reddit
  
  What part of the fediverse is "hard" to use?
  Lemmy is easier to use than the UBB forum I started to become active on at the age of 10 that was the entry point for me being on the Internet at all. Back then we didn't have Markdown, but BBCode, and I had that figured out after a few weeks.
  I think you're way underestimating young people.
  
  The assumptions that people make about age boggle my mind. You know that the people who made the internet are all "old" now, right?
  
  18 here started when I was 17
  
  Is this the popular assumption?
  
  Fedi does screw heavy middle aged and male and US but any one who can handle Linux can figure our how to operate here haha
  Yeah kids might be retarded tech wise now but there is always the nerds who excel at tech so they would naturally end up here
- I actually do appreciate this reminder
This is actually a good thing - teenagers are known to bring niche things into popular culture! For some reason the whole of society kind of cares what they think is cool
- Most free time, rich teens spending their parents money drive our trends probably , not even probably thats most influencers, like alix earle , its funny af that all the girls ik that repost eat the rich and shit follow her and taylor swift
- It's just so tiring to discuss something like politics with someone who is literally 12.
  
  I agree. Discussing politics should require some form of age verification! Reading the myopic takes are enough torture on their own, let alone having to contend with them.
  (Yes, this is hyperbole. If y'all come for me I'll laugh really hard at you.)
- You are either a 14 year old socialist furry or a 35 year old Linux user on the fedi. No in between
  
  Ooof well older than that Sonny…
  
  I am a 30 year old socialist furry Linux user on the fedi. But that's just the exception that proves the rule.
  
  What if I'm a 21 year old socialist Linux user?
- It’s the little things like not understanding the historical context that something from the past fits in while simultaneously telling me Im wrong about the time that I lived through.
  In fairness, that's not necessarily a sign of them being young, but could be any number of things at play. I've had my grandmother literally tell me not to tell hew how things were during World War II, because she lived through it, when we were talking about well documented actions of major historical figures that she was confidently incorrect about. No amount of documentation about what Churchill, Stalin or Hitler did during a particular event could change her mind, because she lived through it, never mind the fact that she was like 10 at the time. /r/AskHistorians had a 20 year moratorium on discussing recent events for a reason. Then again, this is the same lady who left her church of decades, because she was sure she was better at interpreting the Bible and church doctrine than all the priests who spent years studying those topics in seminary, since she occasionally read random books of the Bible and was older than they were.
  It could also just be peoples' biases at play. A Marxist historian and a fundamentalist, conservative Christian historian will come to wildly different conclusions and interpretations of things like the significance and impact of the rise of the religious right in the US under figures like Ronald Reagan, despite looking at the very same events.
  And it could always just be that people are essentially engaging in drive-by posting quite often on the internet. For all the good things it can bring us, and the sense of community that it often provides, I think that internet "communities" really just provide us with a close approximation of community, while fundamentally lacking key elements that help real communities to exist and function in the long term. Personally, I'm closer to the Democratic moderates/centrists that abound on Lemmy.world than I am to my coworkers or my parents politically, yet I find that political discussions here tend to lose all civility and sincerity much quicker than they do with my boss who is all gung-ho for MAGA in real life. Like, I actually got my boss to come around on things like taxing the rich and universal healthcare when I had a chance to explain them without the hysterical stuff Fox tosses out and with examples of how they would actually benefit him to have as a baseline during election season last year, and it was a more civil and less heated conversation than some of those I had here a few months prior about whether Harris was really a good pick when the Democrats announced her as their candidate last year.
- Assuming someone to develop a sufficient consciousness of their time starting with age 10 that would mean anything before 2010.
  In all practical matter, people who are 25 now, cannot have any practical recollection of the US invasion of Iraq and are only having broad ideas of the 2007 financial crisis.
  That is indeed scary.
Teenagers now get banned if they tell their age anyway: !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- To any teens who come across this post, do NOT admit you're underage or were underage at time of account creation anywhere, anytime for any reason
  It's like Rule 1 of the internet.
  Sincerely, The kids who grew alongside the internet since the 90s
  
  I was totally above 13 or had parental consent when I went to forums in the early 2000s. I totally wasn't actually 9.
  It's wild to me this concept disappeared? It's literally never been a good idea to reveal you're a minor online. The laws are against you. Companies don't want to deal with a curated minor experience, even less so in the current times. If they do, you get the crappier version of things.
  The worst thing to happen to the Internet is when Facebook normalized using your real name and real info online.
  
  A/S/L
  
  On my main account (this is a throwaway, if the username didn't already suggest that) I'm sure if you dug around enough you'd find out my age, but it would be a lot of effort.
  
  Duh, I was born in 1901, why do you ask?
  
  I was -1 years old when creating this account🚬
  
  Even if the instance doesn't have any rules about it?
  
  even gen a probably knows that, but those that dont, they will find out the hard way
- And what's the problem with that?
  Laws don't currently make a concession for federated social media. If the law in an instance's jurisdiction says that users on a platform must be of a certain age, then for practical/enforcement purposes it makes no difference if they're local or federated.
  FWIW, I also ban people under age 18 on my instance (local and federated). Obviously I can't know everyone's age, but if someone offers it and I become aware, and it's below the minimum age set in our policy, then they're banned until they're of age - simple as that.
  I'm in the US, so 13 is the minimum age by law for most services (COPPA), and there's various grumblings to increase the age specifically for social media, so I'm playing it safe with 18 which is the age you're legally considered an adult.
  Considering some of the stuff that gets posted here (legitimately and via bad actors), then my legal liabilities are less as I'm going out of my way to only serve adults on the platform. Mind you, I'm running this as a hobby / volunteer and do not have a team of lawyers on hand.
  
  Lemm.ee goes with 16, as does Blahaj.
  The case linked was kind of an edge case as that user is turning 18 in a few months.
- Meh. At least pretending to be an adult feels like a pretty low bar.
  
  Nobody should pretend and nobody should have to li
  Also, nobody should volunteer age info for no reason... Esp under age crowd. Fucking pedos everywhere
- Thats why I made this post. If a teenager is on the fediverse, they will know how to evade a ban.
  
  Makes sense!
Most of us would post on forums as teens back in the day, so it’s hypocritical to try to keep them from doing it too. The only places we should run them off would be communities we specifically make for adults. They don’t necessarily have to be NSFW. Sometimes it’s just nice to have a community where everyone is old enough that they get the same references and are in similar stages in life.
General music and hobby related communities really shouldn’t be blocked off, though.
- A friend and I just yesterday talked about that and how we both visited some random sites/communities back then. How we had ICQ Chats with adults as 13-somethings, phone calls, about the blogosphere, how some Internet friends asked whether you needed something and send it on a disc via Mail.
  I suppose if I were a teenager again, I would be here too.
- we would not stop from accessing adult stuff, if we wanted to. so trying to hard prevent them now would be hypocritical too imo. it is our job as parents to prepare them as good as we can.
- I mean, as a teenager, if a community says in the rules that its for adults only, I'd avoid it.
  
  Honestly I think that's unusual for a teenager
  
  Press x to doubt
As a teenager who is relatively tech-savvy and on the fediverse, can confirm. I think it's gotten to the point where even less technically inclined people can join fairly easily, but the more savvy are usually the first to flee from enshittifying platforms so we see a lot more of them here.
- https://lemmy.cafe/post/14200034
  Be careful admitting that.
  
  Teenager ≠ underage, 18 and 19 year olds exist. But thanks for your concern. :)
Ah yes, of course other generations are much better with technology than today's teens.
- They are, teenagers (saying this as a teenager) are hopeless. Tech became so easy to use that anything requiring a tiny bit of effort is impossible for these people.
  
  Its the same as its always been. There was always a small subset of the population interested and developing computer sciences. There was never this time where all the youngins knew computers like they did breathing. That was a fallacy.
  
  You're admitting that after teens just got banned? Guess thats why its a throwaway lol
- Huge variations. I'd say probably the technologically literate percentages of people is about the same... but tech has allowed the technologically illiterate the ability to use the internet.
- It's the late 70s early 80s gen, aka the Oregon Trail gen
  https://www.popsugar.com/tech/how-technology-influenced-generation-x-37522155
- This idea is absolutely laughable.
You people still get into arguments online? Discussions, sure.. but arguments? o.O
- YOU GET INTO INTERNET ARGUMENTS ALL THE TIME, YOU FUNGDARK! YOU'RE IN ONE NOW!
  
  Ah cool hang on, just let me get some snacks and a drink before we get in to it.
- Discussions, arguments, uncontrolled debates, whatever you want to call it.
- @Angelusz @throwaway Only with Nazis, racist and bigots.
  
  I spend all my time on twitter arguing with russian bots before deleting my account. There was some really shit takes there.
- Oh my sweet, summer child...
  
  Ha! I wish.
- They start out as discussions, but it only takes one party to turn that into an argument. Generally though, continuing the argument is more to convince onlookers than the argumentative party.
I've long assumed that many (most?) of the tankies, and of hexbear's userbase in general, are teens.
- You would probably be right. Teenagers change political ideologies every other month.
- The Lemmy devs themselves are around 18, I think.
  
  One of them has a kid, so not too sure about that
  
  That would explain their behavior.
Why do you think teens are generally stupid?
- As a teenager, I get in stupid arguments making stupid points because in my head, being right is important.
  
  I hate to break it to you..... But people of all ages do this.
- not teens, arguments (as in wasted effort to textually convince or defeat a faceless web foe) are usually stupid
- Look back at the shit you wrote as a teenager. We were all dumb.
  
  So dumb. Also insanely naively hopeful/optimistic.
Listen teens, I'm 40. I was a niteclub bouncer in a town popular with backpackers and partying, I also did a lot of traveling and partying. I was shameless, its a miracle it didnt fall off.
When you say you fucked my mom, its childish and stupid. When I say I fucked your mom while its not likely its possible... and thats worse.
- Thats usually said by people in the 9 - 13 age group now.
Maybe, but I was on the internet as a teen and that went fine, being careful is a general thing in life.
But more importantly: adults have a phone and use it during work ALL the time. So I’m not so sure about the average age of the people commenting on here.
14 going on 40 so it will be some spirited ebeef. No quarter will be given
I'd say that a lot of the accounts which do a lot of posting/commenting are run by teenagers --- because most adults probably wouldn't have the time for that much posting.
Challenge accepted.
It should not be that surprising. Many teenagers are really smart, curious and will find their way here. That said I realise your warning is well intentioned; I hope Lemmy remains a more civil place than Reddit became over the last ten years, for everyone; teenagers included.
WHAT!!!??
TEENAGERS??
ONLINE?????
Brooo I had no idea... how could this happen? I never would've guessed there could be teenagers despite at one point being one and using the internet. I get you're probably pretty new to being online but like come on, the rest of the world doesn't discover things at the rate you do...
- I am a teenager.
  Most people assume fedi has no one under the age of 20.
  
  Get back to r/teenagers, where you belong!
  But seriously, thanks for the reminder.
  
  I never would've guessed 🙄
But don’t assume everyone who is very active is a teenagers.
Some of us aren’t ;).
And you don’t have to understand federation to use lemmy. I’ve brought a couple of gen-z ers here. Get them to download voyager. Voyger automatically suggests lemm.ee for account creation. And then you just use it like reddit. Super simple.
- I don't assume all of them are.
  
  Knowing a couple of the most active accounts. None of them are teenagers, in all cases middle aged men.
While the young people of this generation are generally useless when it comes to something more complicated than microsoft word, the people who are good at technology, usually are very good at it.
"Young people bad!" This paragraph has nothing to do with the rest of the post.
- As a young person, this generation sucks at technology.
I FEEL ATTACKED!!!!
- Sorry if I'm being stupid, but how?
  
  That is a meme statement, context:
  I am a middle aged cuck with maturity issues
I was smarter than the rest of you all when I was a teen. It wasn't until I became an adult did I get this stupid.
- Hey, fuck you for calling adults stupid. Some of us have been stupid the whole time! Edit: /s
  
  No, we've definitely gotten dumber as time has gone on. Especially socially; interpersonal skills have basically vanished since I was in high school.
!teenagers@lemmy.world
- did lemmy world ban somebody yesterday lol
  i doubt the community will survive
Odd post, but checks out
- I would consider myself proof ; )
*Are. Not trying to be a jerk if English isn't your first language. Teenagers is a plural noun.
- English is my first language, I have no excuse.
Some are easy to spot because they don't understand that being apologetic has little to do with apologizing, for example. 😅
- I'm sorry?
  
  Found the teen! Yo guise, I caught one live! 😂
While the young people of this generation are generally useless when it comes to something more complicated than microsoft word
Generalizations and eager bootlicking of generational propaganda isn't helpful at all.
- I am literally speaking from experience, as a young person.
  
  I am literally telling you generalizations aren't helpful. I don't care about your age.
There are* teenagers
- shut up nerd
  
  I also like that phrase. I wish I could say it more often in jest without getting slaughtered for it. Lol
There's neither women nor non-adults on the internet.
- In fact, there's no one on the internet. Its all bots except for you.
  
  Damn, I suspected as much. The NSFW stuff, tho
- Minors are going to access the internet no matter what you do, it's on them an their underdeveloped brains on whether or not they can handle it.
  If their parents don't care enough, then let them be raised here, amongst the stable minds that think anything to the left of burning kids alive for warmth is tankieism (.world) or anything to the right of luxury gay space communism is fascism (all the sane instances).
- They won't, lemm.ee has a policy on federation, and they wouldn't let kids get in the way of it.
- Lemm.ee allows minors out of the same school of thought why it allows federation with nearly all instances there are, including NSFW: liberalism (as in: freedom)
Surprise, surprise. Some chunk of Reddit annoyances stem from kids running around amok.
Then moderators make many stupid rules to try to increase quality and overmoderation takes hold
In short time it becomes increasingly annoying to browse let alone post to get past the anti teen rules filter. Not to mention all the young hormones commenting some stuff at you like it is school break slander or smh
One can always change instance though so it isn’t doom and gloom. The kids will have Lemmy.world and nice, enjoy it and have fun. It is the club penguin of Lemmy instances. We knew this would happen
- Then moderators make many stupid rules to try to increase quality and overmoderation takes hold
  This is so true. One of the best decisions I made during my tenure as mod of /r/StarTrek was changing the rules to be spirt-based instead of language-based. People will literally try to lawyer their way around the language of any rule, and it leads to mod burnout when they are getting drawn into rules-debates when it's obvious the person is just trying to get around the spirit of the community's purpose.
  For example we had a rule that was literally just "be nice". There's no wriggling around that because it's not some legal text. If someone is ""concerned"" about a request to "be nice" or "be honest", they are not someone we wanted to be around anyway. These are discussion communities, not civil society, not everyone has a right to participate in every single one of them.
  As you said the beauty of the fediverse is that each instance can have it's own preferred method of discussion.
  
  Great comment, great moderation. Also by the way it has come to my attention that your instance bans/warns users that merely upvote discovery hate posts? Or was it some other Star Trek instance?
- I don't think all, or even most, of the low quality content comes from kids.
Ew, gross
Play with fire, get burned.
If you can't take it, get the fuck out.
Isn't it wise to do some sort of age check before someone can access the adult subs? If this becomes a trend among teenagers, I can already see parents halting that just because of easy adult access. Pixelfed for instance has parental controls.
- Lmao, when have age checks worked on any site ever
  
  Well in all honesty: never
- i dont do pixelfed, so idk what parental control they have. but what kind of system is gonna stop teens from making an account without their parents knowledge? and no, age verification wont work. there is a mysterious thing happening, where teenagers immediately turn 45 for the duration of any "please enter your age" question on the internet.
  
  A parent can flag an account of their children, that the child has to accept. They would of course do this together sitting next to each other, so the child has no choice but to accept. Then, the parent can control the content the child sees.
  Honestly age verification other than ID checks will never work. But to send your ID to the owner of an instance is of a whole other level, that the people who join / have joined and even the instance owners are probably unwilling to accept. And they wouln't be wrong for that.

182 comments