Hope a two part question is allowed but after mostly lurking a lot, I’m noticing that there do seem to be quite a lot of Xennials. But on the other hand, also plenty of rebellious youth.
In my mind I’m thinking that Lemmy userbase is (very broadly generalizing) dividing into people who saw internet’s early days and as such, aren’t scared of the slight technical hurdles to enter. They tend to be a bit worldweary but Lemmy does feel a bit more like OG internet, which they like (this is me). But also, there’s younger people who are techy enough to deal with the hurdles too but see using Lemmy as a sort of an act of rebellion against the mainstream internet (which I appreciate).
That said I feel like the two clash a lot since the former tends to have fewer shits to give than the latter. As often is the case in the whole history of humanity.
Obviously there’s plenty of people who don’t fall into either camps, which is why I’m curious. Lemmy is small enough to have a sense that there are actual, real, individual people here, as opposed to Reddit’s amorphous blob of a massive userbase most of whom seem like bots.
59, been on Mastodon for years, saw the occasional mention of Lemmy and came over for a look some time ago to lemmy.world, then to the instance I’m on now. Also have a piefed alter and the original .world alter.
Spend more time here than on Mastodon these days, I find the shitposting here is if a higher equality.
Had used reddit in the way distant past but it annoyed me the usenet structure was being centralised and replicated for $ off the back of “slaves” and left way back.
Early 30s. API debacle.
Like 2-3 years old (as of 2026)
I was unhappy with Reddit’s userbase(before i cared about company track records), and i randomly stumbled across lemmy.(ion remember how)
The small size makes finding communities hard but its workable.early 40s. Reddit API scandal in 2023.
This is me
Same.
Me too
Same. Tried to go back late last year and it was a sloppy disappointment. Partner kept talking about Lemmy and after checking it out I joined. It sorta reminds me of old Reddit (joined in 2013) yet very different.
It’s a bit less clean cut for me. I started using Reddit in 2012, at first just the Minecraft sub and later mostly IT related stuff. I joined the threadiverse via a small niche Lemmy instance after the API scandal in summer 2023 but didn’t delete my reddit account until that November. I lurked on Lemmy for about a year before I started posting in earnest on the Worldbuilding community on .world. Now I’m bouncing around various fediverse platforms.
I wish NodeBB would take off as a platform. I want a home for more permanent discussion and personal connection.
Same!
In my 70s. In response to the U.S. aggression, I switched to Lemmy.ca, a Canadian owned media. Not many other Canadian owned social media sites out there.
RIP Nexopia
This is one of the questions we asked on our census this year. We are still working on cleaning the data, and we may exclude additional responses if we identify more duplicates / errors, but here is a preview of those results:
A lot of people are way older than I thought. Interesting. Thank you!
You know this is a chart of the ages most likely to participate in a survey not necessarily a representation of the avg age of users, right? Especially depending on how many days the survey ran for because Lemmy is far less likely to see daily user activity than a facebook/reddit/twitter. Its just not big enough to generate enough content to fill daily use needs. Not talking shit just reflecting on what ive seen thru daily active user reports and content volume.
I’m in my 40’s and by golly do I like charts.
I mean I realize that my whole topic might specifically attract only my age group to respond. But it’s not like I’m making an academic study 😅
Impressive
Mid 30s. Got here the same way as everyone else - evacuated from reddit.
I am 41. I found out about Lemmy because of Reddit’s API bullshit, and ended up staying here ever since the actual API shutdown that killed all the 3rd party apps which were the only usable way to browse the site on mobile. Was already getting sick of the place, since it was becoming more and more obvious that the admin staff had a nazi problem, and probably would have come sooner if I was aware of it 4 or 5 years ago. Or maybe I would have only seen Lemmy.ML and got turned off by the tankies. IDK…
Late 60s. Came here on the heels of the death of Apollo and the Reddit API fiasco.
I’m 65 and I hate the generation labels. I genuinely think they were originally pushed as another propaganda mechanism to create further artificial divisions between people. There is no doubt that people of significantly different ages are often different in various ways, but the over simplicity of the named generations just provides another convenient way to stereotype people instead of understanding them as individuals.
I think I joined reddit in 2008. I’ve been involved in social media since the days of dial-up bulletin board systems in the late 70’s. (And I ran one of my own in the mid-80’s.) I had an email address on Bitnet in 1983 and was on Usenet in its early days. reddit was an interesting and open place for a while there and I enjoyed the variety, but most of it was becoming too cynical and tribal for me by the early 20’s. I discovered Lemmy a couple years before reddit’s API debacle, but that is what convinced me to drop reddit and focus on the Fediverse.
I like the decentralized model of the Fediverse. I think the idea that different servers can have different rules is healthy. I stay away from parts of it, but I have found plenty of communities that are friendly and interesting to me. After hanging out on several different servers, I joined Fedican and have been happy here. It’s a nice place to call my home online.
Late 20’s
I used reddit app so the api fiasco, while it bothered me on a fundamental level, did not directly affect me.
Then I read some article about the potential for reddit to create paid subreddits or something?
I don’t remember exactly why paywalled subreddits bothered me so much, but it was enough for me to decide to leave.
Gen X but I came to use (and host) lemmy as an act of rebellion against corporate controlled internet
same
- Old
- LONG time redditor that got fed up during the original API bullshit. Ive been here for a bit. Feels like home. 2.a. I feel like I am in both camps. I don’t mind the technical hurdles (it really wasn’t THAT bad, folks). I also do it for rebellious purposes.
24 (approximately)
Doesn’t take much knowledge to find Lemmy, I like a topic-based forum, not some influencer-follower twitter like shit… I don’t like “following” “people”… I want to talk about stuff not people… was on Reddit… and just have a burning hatered for authoritiarians and bullshit like: “AUTOMODERATOR: OPPSIES YOUR KARMA ISN’T ENOUGH…” or “YOUR POST HAVE BEEN AUTOMATICALLY REMOVED”… and a desire for freedom.
Techical Knowledge? Idek how to do coding lmao…
Never knew what internet was like in the “Good Ol’ Days” or whatever y’all are talking about, my first glance at the internet was in 2010
Internet in the “good OK days” was very (^1000000) slow.
But, on the bright side, sales funnels didn’t exist
I think you could summarize by saying: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
Older Gen Z, Reddit API issues.
Peak Gen X, same
