The only reason why I know how to do anything more on a computer than what I needed for school and Roblox is because some of my hobbies require you to mess around with a computer. Even then, the most technical things I’ve done include modding video games (sometimes I go hackerman mode and edit a text file to change a modded hotkey) and downloading specialized software to play ancient Flash games or fix a KSP save. You can get around just fine online these days without even using a computer. Most of Gen Z just uses their phone.

I guess some people just deserve the social media they get

Idk I just heard that apparently knowing how to use file explorer is considered impressive in modern CS classes

gen z, hate that trillion dollar corporations run our social media.

This isn’t even an issue for me so long as those trillion dollar corporations let me use social media the way I want to. I can just download an ad blocker and stay off the more garbage parts of their websites. The reason why I like the Fediverse is not because trillion dollar corporations don’t have a stake in it, because let’s be real, money was always gonna be involved. The reason why I like it is because I will most likely be insulated from the effects of enshittification and corporate incompetence on company-run instances. Even if the instance I’m on gets enshittified, it won’t be that difficult for me to just move to another instance, especially once the Fediverse matures and we get things like account migration, or even account federation, if I wanna keep one foot in both instances. Same for whatever community I’m involved with. Plus the fact that I can just block any community who’s users I don’t like means my experience will be way less toxic than it would be on Twitter, where avoiding toxicity requires a lot of effort. That’s one of the things I liked about Reddit, the structure kept the toxic people in their own little bubble and I was able to ignore their existence if I stayed off mainstream subreddits.

TL;DR: It ain’t about the money (or lack thereof), it’s about the potential for a better service.

it’s byzantine enough to jump in that it dissuades many newcomers who try.

Hard disagree, it was confusing when it was first explained to me, but in practice only a few more clicks were added to the account creation process.

I can confirm. I only came here after Reddit fucked the app I was using. I switched from the official app to Boost years ago because I was tired of the official app being complete garbage, and I refuse to go back. I never really paid attention to the enshittification of Reddit up until they crossed that line, since it didn’t affect anything I was doing.

I’m Gen Z, don’t use Linux, don’t know the first thing about programming (I know how to use file explorer though), and never intend to learn, and I’m here because I don’t wanna use the official Reddit app and because I’m convinced that the Fediverse is likely to become big in the future and I wanna be able to say I was here when it all began.