I find it easier if the other person is a podcast listener.
“You know how podcast ads usually say ‘listen to it in Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts?’ It’s a bit like that.”
If not, I have to say something weak or complicated like “it’s a bit like email, dunno how to explain this if you have never thought about how email works, though”.
The email one works too once they realize they’ve never actually thought about what an email is. Like:
“If I send you an email from gmail, you can open it in outlook, right?” “Yeah”
“That’s because an email is just a file that both gmail and outlook can use” “makes sense”
“Can I see your Twitter post on Reddit?” “No of course not”
“But i can see Lemmy (Reddit) posts on Mastodon (Twitter). And these apps aren’t owned by huge companies. Normal people run each instance, and the software is free for anyone to use or host.”
I’ve heard that you can view Lemmy posts on Mastodon and vice versa, but I can’t wrap my head around it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Mastodon post on Lemmy, or maybe I have and just didn’t realize it?
What’s a Lemmy post on Mastodon look like? And what’s a Mastodon post on Lemmy look like?
I usually start with email, but I wonder if podcasts would be smarter. when I read what you said, my first thought was"but podcasts require you to upload to every instance that you want to be seen on" and then I realized that for the people that are just trying to get content this doesn’t matter. That’s actually genius.
I always start with, ok, so you know the internet is basically a series of tubes right? Once we are on the same page about that, I start talking about ipv4 and ipv6 including a mention of dual stack supporting instances.
I don’t think this is as much as specialized knowledge issue as it is that normal people are frightingly technologically illiterate considering how much is computers. I mean this is not a hard concept to grasp at laymans architectural level
Technology literacy is specialized knowledge. You’re portraying the comic.
99% of people have no need or desire to know anything more about technology than the bare minimum to use it. The fact that you’re on Lemmy alone means you have way more tech knowledge than the average person.
It’s crazy to me that within the span of my adulthood computers have gone from being a niche interest to something everyone uses and is knowledgable about and back again.
Computers have never been something that everyone is knowledgeable about. The IT industry has kinda trended like that, but to the general population they’ve always been boxes filled with magic smoke.
And that’s perfectly fine. If everyone was as knowledgeable about computers as you or I am, I wouldn’t have a job (well, I’m currently unemployed, but that’s because of Musk).
Not literally everyone, but there was a time period where it seemed much more common than not, at least in the US. When it was taught to children starting in elementary school, and taking advanced classes was required for many jobs, it seemed rare to meet someone who wasn’t knowledgable. I guess it isn’t included in children’s education or business education these day.
Personal computers used to be widely used because it was the only way to get online. We now have a new generation of users who use their phones to access the Internet and owning a computer is no longer required. Almost everyone has a phone. Not everyone has a computer.
Yeah it is but that’s not what I was getting at. You can try to explain things to people in the most basic way, say that a server talking to another server is like sending a letter. Latter concept is something everybody including literal children is conceptually familiar with. You do not need to know how the post sorts their shit, or distributes it or even how to properly adress a letter to understand how this works.
Except replace “letter” with “e-mail” and “institution or person” with “server” and people will act like this is impossible to attain knowledge requiring years of study. And I don’t mean in the abstract, I mean in the literal sense I have tried to use that specific analogy to explain how 2 servers talk, with no more depth than that, and it regularly fails
I’ve never felt like a bigger idiot than when I try to explain the fediverse to normal people.
I find it easier if the other person is a podcast listener.
“You know how podcast ads usually say ‘listen to it in Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts?’ It’s a bit like that.”
If not, I have to say something weak or complicated like “it’s a bit like email, dunno how to explain this if you have never thought about how email works, though”.
That’s a really good analogy.
The email one works too once they realize they’ve never actually thought about what an email is. Like:
I’ve heard that you can view Lemmy posts on Mastodon and vice versa, but I can’t wrap my head around it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Mastodon post on Lemmy, or maybe I have and just didn’t realize it?
What’s a Lemmy post on Mastodon look like? And what’s a Mastodon post on Lemmy look like?
!testfediverse@jlai.lu has a few examples
You ever notice those post replies that @ people’s username or names at the beginning of the comment?. Those are from Mastodon.
I usually start with email, but I wonder if podcasts would be smarter. when I read what you said, my first thought was"but podcasts require you to upload to every instance that you want to be seen on" and then I realized that for the people that are just trying to get content this doesn’t matter. That’s actually genius.
Hey… so you know about Email, right?
How you’re with Gmail and I with… say Proton. And we can still send Emails to each other? …
Is my go to approach
That’s a pretty good analogy.
it’s not an analogy lol. it’s literally the same thing.
It gives the wrong impression though. The user experience is more like reddit, it just has the backend like email.
Except using Lemmy is nothing like sending an email.
Please don’t reply all.
Consider the environment before printing this comment.
deleted by creator
Frontend: like reddit
Backend: like email (or can just say its split into different servers controlled by different groups and they sync with each other)
Even that is way too technical for most people.
I always start with, ok, so you know the internet is basically a series of tubes right? Once we are on the same page about that, I start talking about ipv4 and ipv6 including a mention of dual stack supporting instances.
Dude don’t stop talking right when we’re on supporting dual stacks. I’m on the subway and the entire car is about to get off but now we’re just sad
At some point do you overlay it on the OSI model?
I don’t think this is as much as specialized knowledge issue as it is that normal people are frightingly technologically illiterate considering how much is computers. I mean this is not a hard concept to grasp at laymans architectural level
Technology literacy is specialized knowledge. You’re portraying the comic.
99% of people have no need or desire to know anything more about technology than the bare minimum to use it. The fact that you’re on Lemmy alone means you have way more tech knowledge than the average person.
It’s crazy to me that within the span of my adulthood computers have gone from being a niche interest to something everyone uses and is knowledgable about and back again.
Computers have never been something that everyone is knowledgeable about. The IT industry has kinda trended like that, but to the general population they’ve always been boxes filled with magic smoke.
And that’s perfectly fine. If everyone was as knowledgeable about computers as you or I am, I wouldn’t have a job (well, I’m currently unemployed, but that’s because of Musk).
Not literally everyone, but there was a time period where it seemed much more common than not, at least in the US. When it was taught to children starting in elementary school, and taking advanced classes was required for many jobs, it seemed rare to meet someone who wasn’t knowledgable. I guess it isn’t included in children’s education or business education these day.
Personal computers used to be widely used because it was the only way to get online. We now have a new generation of users who use their phones to access the Internet and owning a computer is no longer required. Almost everyone has a phone. Not everyone has a computer.
Would you consider basic economics specialized knowledge?
Yeah it is but that’s not what I was getting at. You can try to explain things to people in the most basic way, say that a server talking to another server is like sending a letter. Latter concept is something everybody including literal children is conceptually familiar with. You do not need to know how the post sorts their shit, or distributes it or even how to properly adress a letter to understand how this works.
Except replace “letter” with “e-mail” and “institution or person” with “server” and people will act like this is impossible to attain knowledge requiring years of study. And I don’t mean in the abstract, I mean in the literal sense I have tried to use that specific analogy to explain how 2 servers talk, with no more depth than that, and it regularly fails
Maybe I feel crazy rather than stupid then.