Aww, you missed out on the C64. My favorite thing was to get the new magazines when they came out every month so I could copy the BASIC code or ML code for games. So many cool games to play from those mags. It kept me busy for hours and hours.
I'm almost 48. My profession: foreign languages and literature. I have had a computer since I was 7 years old. I know how to use Linux and I have played video games all my life. I know a little code. I'm good with computers. A lot of people my age in my profession are not all that good with computers. They think they are because they can make a PowerPoint presentation or took a class on how to use a spread sheet as a grade book. So, I don't know, I don't think everyone on here are older tech nerds, so it's not exclusive to them. They could be the majority, though. Am I a nerd? Yes. But a different type of nerd. I speak three languages and read six. I can diagram a sentence and correct peoples' grammar and vocabulary in my sleep. I know all about literature from the 16th and 17th centuries. I play video games and I like technology enough, but it does not consume my life. Are there lots of people on here like me? I don't know. I DO know that I've interacted with a lot of younger people on here. To understand how to use this new type of social media you have to understand technology pretty well. It isn't for people who just want to tap or click on stuff that "just works." You need a basic understanding of how decentralized social networks function to be able to navigate it and you have to have patience with things that might slow down or do strange things every once in a while. There are lots of people my age that would not have the patience to learn how to use this space on the internet. In a lot of ways, they are very similar to the stereotypes of "average twenty-somethings" I've seen mentioned in this thread. No worries about privacy. In some cases, perfectly happy with their privacy being invaded because they want to see ads related to products they would buy. I also enjoy shopping. It's fun. I don't like ads, though.
It's just the way federations work. I think a lot of people are worried because it's a new type of social media with a different structure. You don't have to rely on one place anymore to socialize online, you can pick and choose what you want to connect to. If you don't like one style, you can pick another style. The thing that worries me is whether or not there different styles will continue to exist or if one entity will monopolize everything. The nice thing is that most modern democratic countries have laws about monopolies and they do in fact work. Several monopolies have been avoided or eliminated in the past.
All I can say is I am grateful there are fewer users on Lemmy. It's nothing like Reddit. There's less garbage to sort through. So, one percent of a smaller user population definitely makes a difference in my Lemmy life. I lurk less here than I did on Reddit, mostly because I don't have to scroll through crap as much. There's still crap, just less crap.
Yeah, exactly. I don't have Facebook, Instagram, etc. because I hate them as an online experience. I'm here because it's not that kind of experience. If the fediverse turns into the type of experience meta imposes on its users, I would just have to hope that something else alternative that I like pops up.
I think defederating from them is a no-brainer for the fediverse, but who am I? Just a user of the fediverse. I do not own an instance. I choose the fediverse over meta and its facebook crap, so for me it's a no-brainer. For owners of instances, maybe it isn't such an easy decision. It costs money to run an instance, for example. Federating with the Facebook corporate goons at first will seem useful to some instances, especially the big ones that want to stay big and general. When the big and general ones that fall for Meta's scheme to take control of things, the smaller instances on the fediverse that chose to defederate will be there to join.
Exactly. This is why federation is cool. The individual can choose where to go. Oh, kbin and lemmy.world, you didn't defederate from the corporate shills? OK then, I shall defederate myself from you. Plenty of instances.
I had an Amiga 500. It was great and I felt very fortunate to have one when I was a teenager. At some point, you could either buy the Amiga 500 mini or get a refurbished one. There is a nice community of Amiga enthusiasts who buy and sell hardware and also share software online, along with sharing emulators. This year for my birthday I might buy myself an Amiga 500 mini. I miss my old one, which is long dead and never coming back.
Is that really true? I navigated to the Reddit page just a minute ago and there is a ton of activity in the subs I was using before I deleted my account. There are new communities on here that were created to mimic subs over there and it's pretty telling: Little to no activity on the communities over here but a lot of activity on the Reddit subs that are being mimicked. I'm asking myself if the people that are leaving Reddit are mostly tech people, that either work in an industry related to technology or are super enthusiastic about tech. My go-to subs were humanities related on Reddit. Those are still super active over there.
I loved my Amiga. I got one the same year as you.