Johann Sebastian Staedtler 🇨🇦Jul 6, 2023

Hypothesis: The Fediverse consists almost entirely of adults.

I expect most youths are drawn to the large corporate social networks; but those of us who took the effort to come here have likely experienced the Internet before most of those existed.

Of course, the only way to test this is by collecting data using the most scientifically rigorous method available to me: a Mastodon poll, lol

(I expect this will only reach English-speaking Fedi, but do boost if you're able)

⬇️ What is your age? ⬇️

Less than 18 years old
2.2%
18 to 27 years old
17.3%
28 to 39 years old
35.1%
40 or more years old
45.4%
Poll ended at .
Show threadJohann Sebastian Staedtler 🇨🇦Jul 6, 2023

Regarding the choice of age ranges: my first intention is to separate adults from not-adults, so I picked age 18 as the threshold.

But beyond that, I'm kind of interested in the generational demographics. Gen Z is roughly as old as age 27, after which are Millenials. And the divide between them and Gen X is somewhere in the early 40s, but for simplicity I'm just using 40 as the cut-off.

If I could have more than four poll options, I would have been much more deliberate and precise, but shrug

Show threadhesirJul 6, 2023
@jsstaedtler I'm 54, my mother was born in 1928 (I think some of the Earp's were still alive), she had me late, I'm the youngest of eight. She, I guess, was one of "the (I originally wrote "Lost" but meant) Silent Generation", so as her child, not sure what that makes me... are these "gens" based on the gen that birthed you or just the period you lived through.... There's nuance in all that I guess... 🤔
Show threadKo Simon toku ingoa Jul 6, 2023

@hesir @jsstaedtler Gen are based on when you were born (these dates will move a little depending on who you ask).

“Lost Generation”: Born 1883-1900
“Greatest Generation”: Born 1901-1924.
“Silent Generation”: Born 1925-1945.
“Baby Boomers”: Born 1946-1964.
“Generation X”: Born 1965-1980.
“Generation Y” or “Millennials”: Born 1981-1996.
“Generation Z”: Born 1997-2012.
“Generation Alpha”: Born 2013-2025.

Show threadhesirJul 6, 2023
@SimonCHulse @jsstaedtler ...still, seems counter-intuitive that there's an entire generation between me and my mother.
Show threadFabian TranschelJul 7, 2023

@hesir @SimonCHulse @jsstaedtler I see what you mean. But this is (heuristically) true for everyone: Between you and your parents, there is a whole generation that neither you nor your parents can relate to.

Consider your personal network: Unless you live in a rural area where everybody knows everbody around, you probably know people from your parents network (~age of your parents) and your network (~your age) and your childrens age (if you have some).

Show threadFabian Transchel

@hesir @SimonCHulse @jsstaedtler Now, while I don't agree with many of the takeaways[*] from the "generation [blank]" research, the semantic structuring of cohorts is sensible to some extent. (It aims, how could it by any other way, to ease ad targeting, obviously...)

[*] Worst offender is the tryhard approach towards bucketing in a way that imposes the assumption that would seem to indicate a hard boundary between cohorts. That's of course pure BS.

Jul 7, 2023 at 11:08amWeb