How many Lemmy users are non-technical background?
I think most all of us here on Lemmy are people with technical background. Most of my professional contacts remained using Reddit, Twitter and even excited when Threads launched.
If you are non-tech background, please comment and share what you do for life.
If you have tech background, upvote this to help promote this post so that we can find more non-tech users on Lemmy.
Work on/build racecars. Some of it's very technical, but probably not the type you're asking about. Also a woman. I'm checking off all the abnormal demographics here. Right?
We should normalize what you do. Woman can build racecars or do any other work a man can. Great work, keep it up!
@techconsulnerd I agree!!! It's been a very, very slow process, but I have been seeing more women in motorsports, which is awesome. Even F1 has a new series F1 Academy, which is an all women series. I'm way too old, but if I was younger, I'd sure be trying to get in.
Male prostitute
/s
(Seriously, agree with you in general though)
Yeah the only other abnormal demographic I can think of is being totally normal and well functioning mentally.
But I mean c'mon, this is an internet forum, we are all nuts here haha
Haha, yeah I'm DEFINITLY not "normal" or "well functioning mentally".
Def need an AMA. Or whatever we call it here. What kind of racing?
Can definitely do an AMA, but not sure how interesting it would be.
We have built multiple kinds. We have build engines/cars for Rolex GrandAm, Drifting (Formula D), Land Speed Racing (we actually hold a bunch of records in our class), King of Hammers/Baja type off-road (engines/wiring only, not chassis), and then the more casual type stuff for the weekend warrior types (autoX, desert toys, etc).
You’re my hero. I always wanted to work on cars. I ended up in IT. I miss repairing shit back in my tech bench days. Using my hands to repair, build, make better. What kind of racecars?
We have built engines/cars for Land Speed Racing, Drifting (Forumla D, and lower classes), Rolex GrandAM, 24 hours of lemons (or similar series), more weekend warrior type stuff like AutoX or off-road toys, and engines/wiring for trucks that run in series like King of Hammers or Baja 500
That's an amazing story! I've never been out west, but Bonneville would be awesome. Over 400 on salt sounds absolutely nuts.
Did you ever determine what was causing the spins? Aero or mechanical?
Ok, the TL;DR is lack of aero, and weight, and we couldn't really fix it, and keep our class.
As I mentioned, we took an SR20 and destroked it to get it under 1500cc. We loving (sometimes) referred to is at the SR15VET or the 150SX. The class also limited aero. We were able to take some of the JDM body pieces off of the Type X Silvia, but we couldn't add any other aero components, and keep our class.
Our best guess, since it happened religiously at the same speed, was that it was an aero issue (mostly). Air would get under it, the car would get light and then spin. Land speed racing is counterintuitive to EVERYTHING you know about racing. Typically, you want a light as possible, and the biggest fattest tires, with relatively low tire pressure, amongst other things. You also typically want a linear power band, with progressive power over the whole range. Land speed racing is it's own beast. You want the skinniest tires you can get to work, and I swear, you overinflate them. You want the car to be heavy too. Our power band was also, basically, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing ALL OF IT. I can't find the dyno right now, but it really couldn't get out of it's own way, and then when like 6k rpm hit, and the turbo started to get happy there was a MASSIVE power/torque increase.
Some of the old timers came by our pit, in their golf cart, and started chatting with us. They seemed fascinated by our little import, and what we were doing. So they start asking questions. "How much does the car weigh?" "2800lb", or whatever it was. "bullshit, you need to add xxx more pounds" "what kind of tire pressure you running?" we reply "xxxpsi" "bullshit you need to be over 70psi". "did you add ballast?" "no....." "bullshit. you need to talk to xxx guy, he'll tell you where to get some cement" This was really our first foray into land speed racing, and it was definitely a learning experience.
Our next course of action was to add ballast, but the thing about land speed racing is that it takes place on "dry" lake beds (typically). Here is an iconic pic of Challenger II in 2014, when Speed Week got rained out (happens a lot). They had dragged the car all the way to Boneville only for the weekend to ultimately be cancelled. And they had to take pics of the car on the "salt" of course.
The year that we went out, and set the record (same year Challenger II did) a massive storm blew in over the mountain range, as our car was in tech, making sure we could make another pass, on our last day. Well, it was lingering over the mountain range, and heading for us. I've seen what that amount of water can do, and how fast it can do it, so we decided to get the pit packed up and head out, before we were submerged. There were EZ-Ups blowing away, shut flying everywhere, raining, windy, and salt was already getting more soggy (there is only a patch in the middle of the lake that's dry enough to drive on typically. The edges are usually still lake-ish. The day we arrived, I drove the "borrowed" SUV off the end of the road, and onto the salt, but I had to drive through water to get to the pits. The water was up to about the side skirts of a big chevy SUV. When we left the salt on the last day, the water was basically trying to come in the cabin, it was that high, at that point. The whole point of that is that we didn't have time to play with any changes, and the team captain and driver weren't able to continue with the car the following seasons, so it go mothballed.
@Plaid_Kaleidoscope
@techconsulnerd
62 years old woman, semi-retired, only work part time now. I was in the travel business. Found Lemmy thru a Reddit comment a few months ago. Felt the need for a change. Currently with Lemmy, Kbin and Mastodon, trying to find my place.
That's like the coolest thing. I hope you feel super welcome here.
Very impressive. Kudos to you for taking the effort!
Non tech background here. I work in a steel mill and see social media as entertainment. A time killer.
Dope, steel mills always seemed like a cool place to work. The large mechanical machines everywhere and the way that Liquid Metal pours is always cool AF.
Personally, it sounds like quite a warm environment
I’m sure it is hot, but at the same time as a sysadmin that has former railroad work under their belt I always loved the physical labor. It’s gross, but it just felt like I did something. Plus someone has to work in those places and do those jobs. I might be a sweaty mess once it hits 70, so I appreciate anyone that does the work! 💪🏼
I'm a substitute teacher, and definitely not technical but my husband is, and he introduced me to Reddit many years ago. It was fun but I only ever used it on the RIF app. When I saw what was happening last month, I read a thread that suggested Lemmy as an alternative so here I am.
Very based
Thanks for being a substitute teacher. I’m EdTech and I always think of subs as being one of the most difficult jobs in education since you’re learning how to manage a class you’ve most likely never managed before, trying to work on technology that is never the same and varies from room to room, and all while being bombarded by staff when you show up if you can cover other classes on the day too.
Thank you. I taught high school for several years, so I try to think of subbing as just getting the fun parts of teaching without a lot of the BS. (In saying that,I know that the school district I currently work in doesn't have a lot of severe behavioral issues that other schools have.)
I'm an assembly line worker and have been for about five years now at different factories. Refrigerators, car parts, ag equipment, etc.
There's a job opening coming up at a plant that offers college benefits though, so hopefully I get to join y'all in tech in a few years. Hopefully working with so many robots and machines will give me an advantage through sheer osmosis lol
I wish you luck! College/university is amazing! I wanna go back (went for trades) but it's super expensive and I managed to land a job in tech without a degree. We will see though.
I'm a stay at home mom, no professional tech background. I came here to get away from Reddit. I am considered the "tech support" for my family and friends though. :-)
One of us one of us
Got to love Freaks - 1932
I'm a biologist, but have always been fairly techy in my own time outside of my work. Definitely not much of a tech person though, I can't code or anything like that. Can troubleshoot most of my own technical issues though and built a PC.
I think if you can troubleshoot your own built PC, that's pretty much a tech person, even though you can't code.
I’m a skilled trade worker doing maintenance at a university but I also troubleshoot my own PC issues, have built half a dozen gaming PCs
I'm non tech.
I just work as essentially an administrative assistant in a real estate-esque office making $20 an hour.
Just a married woman in her 20s who is sick of Reddit's shit.
Arborist. No real tech background or skills but always been interested in tech trends and issues, so I keep up with those things more than the average person.
Are you subscribed to any arborist/permaculture/gardening communities that you like?
Not really, unfortunately. I added all that seemed relevant but most aren’t really active yet. I was thinking of making a tree focused community but haven’t had time.
Edit: I did end up creating it, see !treehuggers@slrpnk.net
Therapist. I'm not very techy at all.
Same here, it's been a fun experience.
Non-tech Background. I work for a big union and migrated here from reddit, which was my only social media site I would use.
I do not have a tech background. I am a baker in my mid 30's. I became sick of reddits shit, and once RIF was gone I was done.
I really like Lemmy, even though I admit it is a bit confusing at times, but I've gotten the jist of it I think.
Am just a poor peasent fastfood worker lol, I joined Lemmy because I was looking for reddits alts and I saw some people saying "don't try to understand it too much just sign up" so I did.
Before becoming a stay-at-home dad, I was a state investigator (and a police officer prior to that). I investigated medical doctors and nurses on behalf of their respective state licensing boards, investigating things like application fraud, substandard care, unprofessional conduct, and drug diversion.
My tech skills are limited to building a PC and basic troubleshooting.
My wife is a therapist and she’s considering making the jump from Reddit to Lemmy.
Fuck spez.
Non-tech background. I'm a book editor and when the Snoopocalypse happened, most of the niche communities I was a part of were shut down in protest, so I decided to give Lemmy a try. Loving it so far, as it seems way less toxic.
Hey, I'm an editor too. I'm disappointed I can't use reddit to network with authors anymore. Hopefully Lemmy will start some writing & editing communities soon!
Agreed! I've come across a couple of writing communities here, but they're still just starting out. Hopefully we'll be able to grow these communities. 🤞
There's !writing@beehaw.org and !writing@lemmy.ml already. Still a little lacking in activity but they're growing.
Come join us over at https://lemmy.world/c/writing !
I'm disabled and unemployed with only a GED education. I'm not a programmer or anything. I taught myself basic HTML in 1997 when I was 10, but that's about as far as I go. I know juuuuust enough about tech to understand and appreciate that Lemmy is decentralized and open-source.
But I think you'll find that a lot of new users are only here because Spez is ruining Reddit. All they're looking for is a Reddit that doesn't suck.
I'm a baker. Found lemmy through a friend
Baker is two letters away from Hacker. You're a tech bro/brodette in spirit.
This guy Levenshtein distances
Very technical. Technically, I build chairs!!
I work in a bakery. I used to be a nurse. But my husband is in tech otherwise I wouldn’t know about Lemmy more than likely.
Just a regular 'ol retail worker. I'm so glad Lemmy was here to save my lunch breaks from reddit.
Stay at home wife. I used to work as a bookkeeper, now dealing with some health issues. However I am 55 and have used computers since as long as i can remember, I learned how to use punch cards in what you yanks would call middle school. So I don't work in tech, but it doesn't bother me to learn new things. Lemmy reminds me of the good old days of BBS and just trying things out to see what stuck.
I'm a massage therapist just blundering my way through this space...
I work in insurance but I ran some Minecraft servers once. That's gotta count for something right??
Legal field for me, but I'll be honest. I was planning on quitting Reddit cold turkey and doing something else with my free time but my software project manager husband kept talking about Lemmy, so here I am.
non tech, i currently am not working but i have a bachelor’s degree in paleontology and am currently studying for my master’s in museum studies. my partner is a programmer but i’m the one that introduced her to lemmy
I'm a geologist.
Randy Marsh?
Family law attorney who hates bullies. Fuck spez!
Semi-retired lawyer here and wholeheartedly share your sentiment. Fuck spez!
Union ironworker, mainly do heavy rigging and crane work. Not tech related at all, but I've helped build data c enters all over the US
Mad respect to iron workers you guys are nuts sometimes lol
I'm a truck driver though I do have a Master's in maths. Make of that what you will.
You did the math and realized you could get a job elsewhere.
I'm a mom that works part time in accounts. Definitely not IT technical.
Here because Apollo and RIF have gone and I saw reddit posts directing me here. Might leave because 50% of the posts here are "reddit is shit" and I'm just not that interested in that circle jerk.
I think that's a phase and it will pass. The sorrow is fresh. I'd recommend find yourself some interesting communities and browse the subscribed tab instead of all.
Try sorting by new, it might have been a little shitty on Reddit due to the sheer volume of posts, but here it's actually nice and IMO much better than sorting by hot.
Classical composer here, and choral conductor. I've always been a computer person, but I don't have a background on tech stuff.
Ooh! Will you be posting some clips of your works here?
I'm non-tech. I swing a hammer for a living.
The extent of my knowledge is building my gaming PC and a bit of HTML 20 years ago. I'm still a bit confused as to what is going on, but I'm managing.
I think more people will migrate here once more apps create accessibility for the layperson.
You're Thor?
I'm a music teacher!
Pre-Med student here. Just ya average non-average queer neurodivergent zoomer. I'm not from a tech background, but I do use Linux, which basically makes me a programmer 😎
Not technical at all, I work in Learning & Development at a company. I am always reading the comments and try to learn, but sometimes I have really no clue what you guys are talking about haha!
Yesterday someone was expleaning about adblocker and all the comments were like: "Yeah, who can live without it..." Well, me I guess? And I saw one that was highly recommended so I downloaded it, because why not try it out right? But apparently it's not for your phone. Or I didn't have the right app to support it on my phone.
I was thinking about asking it in the comments of the thread, but like you said: I think a lot of people here have a tech background and although everyone is very nice, I think the explanation might go over my head.
I don't want to give people the feeling I get when I'm trying to explain to my mom over the phone how she can e-mail a file on her computer. It can be very frustrating ;)
Then, please ask again and don't feel bad if someone fails to explain it to you :) If an explanation doesn't make sense it's likely that the one giving the explanation skipped a few steps that they think are common-knowledge, but those aren't.
Thanks, that's really kind :)
I'm a social worker at an elementary school. My tech abilities are limited to addressing cyberbullying amongst 9 year olds.
I'm a librarian
Should be expected if people know what libraries and librarians stand for.
I'm a security officer. Reddit pissed me off with all the rules and I was looking for somewhere that the internet felt more like the good old days. Haven't found it yet but lemmy is like a breath of fresh air
Not a techie. Paramedic / firefighter - I'm not the most tech literate, but I manage to get by lol
Non- tech: I’m a psychiatrist, generally working with offenders in hospital and prisons. The clinical work is always interesting, and im usually thankful for openness at which people spill their life stories to me.
Tech: I’ve kinda thought myself software development since I started working as a doctor. There’s just too much inefficiencies in the way we work clinically day-to-day due to the sheer amount of defensive practice inherent in the health system. Started off with personal tools to “assist” the electronic systems in place. But since then I’ve launched and maintained a number of digital clinical tools in a few local hospital which I’m pretty proud of.
Non-tech. Just a healthcare worker who got sick of Reddit's shit and is open-minded to new tech.
Would be great to get places similar to meddit, r/pharmacy, and r/nursing here.
I majored in English, now I make artisanal pizzas.
All of my friends are either programmers or are in I.T. I'm a lowly handyman who just happens to be tech literate enough to get by.
Eh, same difference.
Photojournalist. I just pretend to know what the buttons do... it works. They all think I'm some kind of a genius with the picture machine, but I'm actually an artist.
I'm a music composer and currently learning deep learning to help me compose music and arrange it. I don't know if I should consider myself as a non-tech person or not.
I think deep learning is quite technical, so... :)
Not me, that's for sure.
I was just here to promote a movie.
Replying just to tell my friends we've been chatting 😁
Tell them to support the strike too!
I’m an artist, maker and workshop technician. Apollo refugee.
Electrician here, came to upvote, realized I should be posting. My formal computer training ended with Java and qBasic in 2003.
If I had formal experience with Java & qBasic, I'd become an electrician too
That does explain my dislike of semicolons and case-sensitive variable names.
Factory worker. Not tech illiterate but also not exactly an expert in any respect.
Have been abnormal though, Internet-wise. I only have a twitter to post crap from Switch to lazily import screenshots to computer. When Facebook asked for my real name I said fuck you and never looked back.
Reddit was the only social media that I actually used as social media.
I'm a carpenter apprentice and a refugee from RIF.
I am a mere washed-out adult. just work retail and wish I was going somewhere in my life
Me too, but also I've spent 23 years learning a very niche skill that has no carryover into other facets of a professional career! Here's hoping 🤞
I am a doctor, not quite a techy person, I’m just tired of the shitshow that is conventional social media
I assume, considering this is the fediverse, that by "technical" you mean IT-related, Silicon Valley type fields.
While I grew up on computers and know my way around them, and have a bachelor's degree in biochem, I'm an Operating Engineer.
That's the proper title of "union guy that runs heavy construction equipment." Mostly, I help build or resurface roads.
I'm one of the guys y'all get irritated with when your local highway is restricted to one lane by a work enclosure, but are thankful for when your new road rides nice.
It pays really well though, so there's that. And it is actually very technical, but in a materials/engineering sense.
Political scientist checking in, but I'm doing statistics in R and installed Linux for the first time before I hit puberty, so I guess I'm not entirely non-technical.
Am here both out of an interest for open source and because I consider centralized social media platforms to be dangerous for society, so it seems worthwhile to help fight them. I'm also pushing 30, so I'm nostalgic to the days of yore of independent forums.
I don't have any job, since I'm disabled and just live off government disability benefits. For hobbies though, I still don't get much into anything tech related. I do cooking and sometimes attempt writing. Unless tinkering with Linux a tiny bit sometimes counts as tech.
By background, no. Current lawyer, Classics major.
But... I am presently defending a Bittorrent copyright infringement case and negotiated a software license agreement a few weeks ago.
I work in the restaurant industry.
I have a 14 year old MacBook pro.
Not very tech savvy
I do ceramics full time with my SO. We run the pottery subreddit but computery stuff is just a hobby! Heard about lemmy after losing the reddit is fun app. Its much better!
Non-technical background here. I do strategic policy work.
I'm pastor in France. Nothing techy…
Not a techie, background in journalism.
non-tech, older millennial, and going back for nursing. I've been on the internet since the 90s and I love computers (and tech in general) but I'm not very tech-inclined
I do invasive insect surveys
Can't you think of the insects and not be so invasive about it?
I wish!
Non tech, I currently work in municipal water but previous to that was municipal sewer.
I also saw in this thread I'm not the only woman working on a racecar! Hell yeah
Cinema worker, diorama maker/sometime animator. I jumped ship from Reddit about 2 days before RiF became unusable. Have been progressively finding more (if not identical) interests to pursue in fediverse, and unexpectedly contributing more content than I did on Reddit.
Metal fabrication
Stay at home parent, former chef. The closest thing to tech background I have is electrician training in night school.
Nurse ova here
I'm tech literate but I wouldn't consider myself technical compared to a lot of people here. I struggle with adapting to new concepts. Takes a while to get my head around them.
For instance (no pun intended) when twitter shat the bed and I heard about Mastodon being an alternative. I looked to into it but it seemed a bit overwhelming to figure out.
Fast forward to Reddit shitting the bed and the bits of knowledge learned from Mastodon helped me in converting to Lemmy.
I'm mid 40's and it's really frustrating that I can't figure things out like I could in my teens and 20's.
Used to be a handyman now I'm a machinist
My only background is in Hell/customer service. Like most of us, Reddit was home for so long. I wouldn't call myself super tech-savvy, but I fucked around with the Fediverse, figured it out and am happy to not create content for that shitbird Spez. Thanks for listening
Social worker in sexual education and health from Germany
Hobby tech-savy but mainly enthusiastic for tech stuff Aim to do IT to social service translation
Greetings :)
i’m a psychology student going to graduate school for counseling :) wouldn’t consider myself to have a tech background - tech savvy enough to build my own pc and troubleshoot common tech problems for friends, but not tech savvy enough to understand most open source technology
Hi, me from a decade ago. You can't be sure!
I got out of school and worked various jobs as a counselor, then got roped into IT for about a year and a half to work with facilities who were transitioning from paper records to an electronic system. They wanted a tech-savvy clinician's perspective to configure for the different hospitals. I'm back to counseling again now, but I loved that job.
No formal tech background other than building my gaming PCs or troubleshooting stuff over the years.
Environmental protection here. Making sure people don't fuck any shit up worse than it is. To be fair I do IT work on the side and hope to transfer into the field one day. You'd be surprised how many folks out there think I'm the enemy but they're just mad they got caught, or completely misinformed.
"What do you mean i can't dump oil down a drain?? Like, what can you dump down them then?"
Literally a question someone asked me this week.
I work in HR. Im also working on getting the fuck out of HR. Not into anything techy, though. I came here from reddit just before rif died.
Bro I don't even understand what a server is. My spouse explains it to me like every second week and I get it for like 30 seconds but I just don't understand to remember. I'm also not sure what a router is. Apparently Wifi is like radio, just waves? Wtf
I've got a MSc degree in Biomedicine and before going on parental leave (still am) I've worked in pharmaceutical research and with DNA/RNA analytical services in the lab. My biggest tech experience was trying to code with R and I hated it and it was a mess.
Been in the foodservice industry for a lot of years. Quit that and switched to nonprofit social services.
I am of the age that I remember helping my mom set the time on her VCR so it would stop blinking 12:00. Now I need my kids to help me with stuff they consider pretty basic.
I am a geek by nature and an IT tech by trade. But my kids still need to help me with basic windows stuff. It dawned on me qhen I entered my 40's that while I'm technically adept beyond most people in many areas, I simply stopped caring about other areas that is still in the same field.
At work I usually say "If your PC has a monitor, I won't be of much help" when I get asked about "normal" IT stuff. I can build you a petabyte-sized server cluster and route it around the world via VPN over maritime satellites, but ask me how to find stuff in any windows control panel and I'm going to come up short.
I'm a chef lol
I'm a professional photographer, hardly "tech" although that world interests me.
I'm a medical lab manager. I don't work in tech professionally, but it has always interested me. By default I handle all my labs technical issues. Lol I loved using reddit via a 3rd party app and was disgusted how things were handled so I have come here to test the waters. So far I'm finding this exciting and I'm having fun!
I am a translator. I do like tech and learning about it but that's about it.
I came to Lemmy because reddit killed 3rd party apps and because I really support the idea of the fediverse.
I fix (flatpanel) TVs as a side hustle, but I wouldnt call that technical since 90% of the time, its just a blown capacitor on the backlight power rail. 6% of the time, its a blown backlight itself, and the remaining 4% of the time its something else that usually requires in my personal experience, for me and my limited skills (Which is mostly just common sense and internet searching, no actual practical skill besides knowing how to solder), to either pass or part shotgun it, depending.
well, i've gotten a few broken screens, but those arent fixable, so i dont really count those.
mostly I'm just a gamer, and any technical skill I learn is because i'm forced to to unfuck something with my linux install, heh.
I'm a real estate office drone who loves guitar and video games. Took a programming 101 class and absolutely hated it. Fuck Spez!
I don't have a tech background, currently doing museum security, that's all. Super enjoyable work. This community is nice, I only lurked in reddit.
Psychologist, work in schools. I feel like I'm slightly more tech-inclined than my peers but idk
I'm a stay at home mom and a former teacher. My husband does IT, which means I do even less tech stuff than when I was single because I always just call him. I really like Lemmy. I was a casual Redditor and never used any third party apps, but after coming here to check it out, I'm now planning to stay.
Airline pilot. Surprisingly low technical knowledge required considering how computerized airplanes are.
Airplanes tech is designed easy to use for the pilot. You wouldn't want to debug an error during a flight mid-air.
Very true. It does very occasionally do some strange things, but then we just either disengage the autopilot, or change modes to something simpler while we try and figure out what went wrong (it’s almost always that we’ve made a mistake).
"Wait, what's wrong with our
malloc()implementation??" - screams whilst flying over the PacificWastewater Operator. We have an older gentleman at my job who refuses to use computers at all. We still do everything with paper and pen. Nothing is digitized.
Construction industry project manager here.
Sure, we use lots of tech and actually build a lot of the data-centers and fabs that are the backbone of the internet and modern computing, but the on-the-ground nuts and bolts of what we do is very much about highly-skilled tradesmen performing manual work that can't be done remotely or by robots.
So it's not really "tech" per se at all, even though we do a ton of work for companies like Intel, Google, Meta and the like.
I’m a security system salesman, and while some of it is “technical”, it’s probably not in the sense you meant.
I needed a social media that has more legitimate conversation. Reddit provided that but fuck Spez.
Lenny has been my replacement!
I think a lot of people here who are not into tech in a non-professional capacity are into "nerd" stuff as a hobby. Including me. I don't know if I count, but I'm looking forward into working in tech, kinda terified because I run the chance of getting my hobby jaded.
I'm not tech, but sales as a profession. Now, to be fair, I have an interest in tech and I'm always looking for what's new.
Im in HVAC/plumbing. But I mainly install the stuff.
I built my own Computer, use Linux and am passionate about floss and privacy issues.
Tax consultant
I am a loader on a dust cart. I found out about this type of website through my brother, who was mates with the IT guy where he worked. He told him about Digg and reddit, which I then joined. I actually prefer the tech side of things rather than everything being memes.
Apartment building super. But also a computer geek.
I love seeing the diversity in here! And so many people actually participating.
There is non-tech and non-technical.
I'm not in a tech field, but I'm in an engineering field and there is a lot of technical knowledge in that.
I'm technical. But I would love to hear from people who aren't. It's impressive for someone who isn't technical to be on Lemmy I think.
A humanist here, working in the cultural heritage (which is also increasingly digital) field.
I reckon I have more computer skills than an average user but in no way I am a "techie". It's just that I know how to search for tech solutions and am not afraid of breaking the computer. Due to using Unity I also have some experience with C# and currently I am trying to learn python (mostly just for fun but you'll never know if it ends up being helpful at some point).
So definetily not a tech person, but interested in both the humanist and technological side if life.
This is, without exaggeration, literally all that's required to become a techy.
I used to be an accountant. I’m in the process of changing careers. It still won’t be tech related.
I'm a professional dev, but I'm also mostly shite with technology. So whether that counts is up to you I guess.
Soon to be brewer. But I play with Linux (after w 10 got too heavy with updates).
My tech background is in the fact that our family computer in the early 2000s wasn't powerful enough to do much and my parents wouldn't pay for games, so I spent a ton of time digging around in Control Panel and system files and messing up the BIOS settings.
My studies have all been in the humanities and I've never worked in an actual tech role; I got into scripting and self-hosting because I'm lazy, I like FOSS, and I like systems that work in the way I tell them to rather than how someone else thinks they should work.
I have no tech background. I have a degree in communications that I'm wasting as a veterinary receptionist and doctors assistant. The discount is huge for people who have a lot of animals, and wait times for appointments are very long due to the shortage in the industry. My animals are seen right away for the slightest concerns, and they get top quality care for pennies on the dollar. They've got me by the short and curlies.
I’m a stand-up comic and game show host. I migrated from reddit, where I founded /r/feminineboys and then passed it to capable moderators and abandoned the site as Apollo died.
Not too much techy, paleontologist here
I have my own carpet installation business, no formal tech knowledge but I'm a hobbyist and taught myself html and some visual basic in the late 90s early 00s when I was a young teenager and have always built my own computers to play games on, somice always had an interest without ever really getting involved as a.career 35 yo currently.
I'm a teenager with a maintenance job, interested in game design tho.
I’m not super into tech and I work in a bookstore. I heard about the fediverse thru various sources on the red site.
I lift things up and put them down.
(UPS driver and avid gamer. No tech background but would have loved to have gone down that path in my yoots. c'est la vie )
Depends on what you mean by "background". I'm an ex-lawyer (practiced for a couple years, but hated it, doing other law-related things), but I'm an old school geek that was using the internet in the late 80s, building my own boxes in the 90s, etc. I'm also a woman.
I like the fediverse because it reminds me of the free-wheeling, anarchical days of the interbutts in the early 90s with IRC (EFnet only, mind), usenet, etc., before Endless September.
I don't know if I count but I'm a communications student. Information technology is somewhat related but this field isn't pragmatic when it comes to that. I'm probably one of the few students here who's interested in studying (alternative) media platforms over media content.
It's rare to have dicussions on things like copyleft, privacy, open-source software, and decentralized communications platforms, all of which I genuinely believe are worthwhile topics in this field.
Absolutely agree that copyleft, privacy, open source software are important no matter who you are.
I don't work on servers or anything for a living. I need some systems knowledge for my job, but mostly it's focused on talking to people and relaying information.
But I believe in this sort of thing because allowing capitalist corporations to control large parts of our daily toolset is bullshit, and it leads to bad outcomes. Shitty subscription models, stagnation, being squeezed for every penny.
I hate the control that a tiny number of unelected assholes have over us. The sharing society of the future will not have copyright in the traditional sense.
US Navy Sailor: Professional PowerPoint Ranger, not computer troubleshooter. That’s for my IT homies sitting in their Div office onboard, and why I make sure they stay supplied with whatever snacks they want.
I am not technical however I can follow instructions very well. When people were migrating i read a bunch of the stuff and finally got here.
I’m a math education major and a stay at home mom
My MIL can program cobol but can’t use her iphone lol
Musician now studying compsci because I dun wanna starve :(
Bartender who's studying game design🤚
I work as a medical office assistant and left Reddit once whatever 3rd party app I was using was no longer supported. I am however supposed to be learning to take over a medical IT business at some point. Allegedly.
I work in hospitality. There's a lot of waiting around at my job, so I mostly used Reddit to kill time. I hopped over to Lemmy since Wefwef's app is better and Blahaj.zone had a Lemmy instance
No technical background: historian, former university teacher and researcher, now researching at a museum. Did teach digital humanities though and am uhm... tech friendly?
Lecturer at a university! I am a political economist working on post-growth/post-development and trying to change the economics discipline. So I guess I feel quite good on Lemmy now, better than reddit 😁
I’m a real estate advisor so definitely non-technical though I do consider myself more familiar with the workings of computers and most other tech than the average person. I’m familiar with the Linux command line at a basic level and have run Linux on my PCs before. I’m also somewhat concerned about online privacy and frustrated over how capitalism is largely destroying the best things about the internet, something which seems to have accelerated as of late..
I'm an arborist. The most tech I get is figuring out mechanical advantage setups with various pulleys and snatch blocks.
No tech background. I try to get by with online tutorials mostly.
I repair heavy equipment in the mining industry, as a welder.
i'm not sure what counts as 'tech background', but i probably count. though my job is as a construction laborer.
Physical therapist
I work as a barista in a coffee shop. I'm decently techy if you compare me to the average population. I can't code or anything actually technical, but I'm a decent tech support for friends and family (and by that I mean I am able to find and follow instructions written by people smarter than me using search engines).
Part of me would love to go to school and learn how to code, or get a better understanding of computing and land an IT or sysadmin type of role, since I love tinkering around computers (I semi-regularly install and setup a new operating system on my computer just out of boredom) but it seems like too much effort.
In STEM, but not tech specifically. At least not professionally.
In a professional sense? Zero technical background. I have a general interest in tech, built a few computers and worked in an electronics section of a store for a few years (almost miss it.) Otherwise I'm the guy who has parents that say I should be in IT just because I know how to set up their TV.
I'm techie by gift, not by trade. I'm an MA in philosophy. Teaching is my main activity.
Well, I'm here. I'm loving the fediverse. And I'm kinda from outside tech, although being IT literate. So perhaps I should be counted as having a technical background.
Not techy at all, am very confused mostly. I am figuring all this stuff out though, slowly. It's so new and exciting.
Im a biologist working in research. Ive always been a hobbyist with computers and videos games. But I never went into tech because I didn't want to make my hobby a full time job.
Love Lemmy and can't wait for it to be number one
I work in a bank and have very little technical knowledge about mechanics, software, coding and web design. However, I know a good deal about computer hardware, as one of my hobbies is fixing and building computers.
Went to school to be a history teacher but ended up working in accounting for a healthcare company. Just like my job I never really planned to be here, but i was on reddit for 11 years before jumping over last month. Im excited by the growth I’ve already seen, and to see how that will continue.
I'm technically Stoopid with computer stuff. I teach elementary school.
Marketing / illustrator. I'm tangentially techy 👌
Financial Services here. Licensed Broker for a major firm.
Marketing, illustration, and graphic design here. I also dabble in music making but have yet to do anything interesting.
Personal care assistant
Psychiatric nurse here.
I'm non-tech, but I was using the internet back in 1994 when you had to know more about how computers worked to get them to do what you wanted.
I’m a pilot, certified flight instructor. Not professionally techy, but like techy stuff as a nerdy pastime. Lemmy’s honestly not that complicated, you just need to be willing to put up with the bugs and growing pains. I’m enjoying the ride so far!
I'm a minor, so I can't have a job in tech, but I am really tech-savvy (I use NixOS and like to tweak every system I have)
My background is librarianship, but because I now work as a technical writer, I'm in close proximity to developers and I'm often looking at code and specs and such. I'm good at asking questions, which is what my job is really about. I'd say I know slightly more than the average joe on the street, but a lot less than anyone who's actually got a technical background and skillset. I do love learning, which is part of why I'm enjoying Lemmy so much. I didn't know much about the Fediverse or decentralised software. The learning curve has been fun!
I’m in marketing and work on company websites from an SEO and content development perspective. Nothing too technical but I’m aware of some of it even if I don’t know how make a server/instance I’m aware of it’s benefits.
Also, I’ve done social media advertising and peeking behind that curtain opened my eyes on how advertisers use our data so it made me interested in open source and community run projects over company run software.
History degree. Former lawyer. Current historian, public speaker, Podcaster, voice worker.
Not an official tech background, but I have built every desktop I have ever owned for decades. So I consider myself more knowledgeable than average. But less than anyone with a single year of comp sci training
I mean, I was a 25B in the army, which could be counted as technical, except that after training I pretty much never saw another army computer and became a radioman.
I work in a warehouse and take care of exotic animals on the side. I feel I have the basics down for tech but not enough to do IT or something. My family and friends contact me for tech help so I guess I know more than the average person. Even though I literally just Google everything, most of the time.
How about a technical background not related to computers? I am a meatspace engineer, not a thoughtspace engineer.
Private transportation dispatcher. Really not interested in tech stuff unless it involves getting ads and bloatware off my devices
I'm in medicine. My level of computer literacy is that I've built several computers, and fuck around with easy versions of Linux for fun
Don’t have any formal tech education, but can write a simple Python program or build a simple circuit with a 555 timer.
Administration and office management but studied Ecology of course in college... it's like studying history in regards to getting a well paying job.
I work in a food warehouse. I have a little idea about technology, flashing consoles and stuff like that
dont know shit about tech. most i ever knew was how to play games on the school laptops using a bunch of workarounds or loopholes
Not me, but one of my closest friends is a professional handyman who is almost anti-technical, and I managed to get him using Lemmy.
I'm pretty techy and work at a tech retailer but, I'm a Classical Music major and teach piano
Social Worker
I’m in construction. Non-technical but I’m suffering/enjoying my way through NixOS. Been enjoying SSB for a while and always up for trying a new tech that could be an improvement over the corporate status quo.
I have an Associates in Electronics. I graduated just as the recesion reared it's ugly head in the early '90's. With nothing else to do, I cleaned carpet for 20 years. I have dabbled in computers and programming in A86 but never got too deep into them.
Let's just say I know enough to mess up everything I touch if I'd let myself...
Lit major, no tech. Have taught kids, been unpaid home nurse, worked retail. I can turn it off and back on again, but that's all.
Non-tech. Pubs / bars, arts, then generic admin. Now in a regulatory case working role. Can't really say much more without revealing my employer as it's very very niche (but not exciting, at all, trust me on that).
Physical therapist assistant
I'm a tech head, but just hardware kinda stuff. Power user, home theater, audiophile kinda stuff. Not a coder.
I bartend for money.
I’m something comparable to a bus driver
I work in tech but I also lied on my resume and have no qualifications, and also I wish I had been a farmer, does that count?
I am a student working on a degree in finance. Work in cell phone sales part time so I am kinda used as tech support but wouldn’t consider myself that technical
Non-technical user here. Closed my business last year, currently between jobs. Any good business ideas that don't cost much to start up?
Mechanical Engineer here. Although, most of us are either kinda' into tech, or kinda' in cars. I'm definitely not into cars.
I'm a college dropout, managing my microbusiness and screenwriter. I'm only using Windows notepad, Fade In Screenwriting Software, and browsing using Firefox whenever I stumble on my ThinkPad.
I'm a Substation Designer. Non tech for sure. I had to get a coworker to plug up my monitors, I tried to do it myself and failed miserably.
degree in Visual Art, work in digital asset management for a marketing (blech) studio. I'd love to get into a DAM position at somewhere less ethically awful, like a symphony or museum or something, buuut my position pays really well relatively speaking to other similar similar jobs I've looked at, so that'll have to wait until I feel more established in life.
took a couple basic comp-sci classes in college, though, and went to a coding bootcamp before I got my current position. running linux on my laptop, might switch to it on my desktop. I make use of bash for renaming files a lot at my job.
there's a lot about tech-heavy areas that interests me, but it'd drive me crazy to be around too much of it. I think there's a lot of good in the liberal arts that tends to get missed by the sort of hard rationalists that tend to hang out in tech spaces.
I don't work in tech but I do (I translate technical stuff). I'd say I'm very tech-adjacent, but nobody should hire me for any real coding or engineering jobs. But if you like to infodump about very technical stuff go ahead, I'll get sparkly eyes and start drooling. I'm also a tree-hugging hippy.
Zero technical background.
Non-tech person, though I would prefer not to go into detail on a public forum. I do get along well with tech people, and I run into some fairly technical issues while trying to do other things, but I’m rarely interested in technology for its own sake. I will listen to someone talk about what they do, or read an article, and I will always try to read the manual, but I am also the kind of person who’s like, “if I can’t solve this problem on my own in 15 minutes, I am going to call tech support.” (In my defense, if I can’t solve the problem in 15 minutes with the manual, I am not going to manage it on my own without human intervention, and I don’t want to bother my friends and family if I can get someone whose actual job is to ask if the machine is plugged in, and who won’t tease me about it for the next three weeks if it was, in fact, not plugged in. I am always polite with tech support, but I can tell they sometimes think I should have been able to figure it out on my own).
I’m fine with not really understanding how Lemmy works, since it does work, and it’s easy to find help if I get stuck. I am picking stuff up here and there as I go, which is usually what happens with stuff I use often, but at a certain point it’s just a black box to me.
ETA: when I say “not going into detail,” I mean about my background. That didn’t come across the first time, lol, sorry about that.
Nice to see so many non-technical users. It's good for diversity. HackerNews, Tildes, Hubski and Lobste.rs already cover that sphere pretty well.
Advertising illustrator. So not tech related.
I am not at all from a tech background. I have a humanities/ social science educational background, I work in the organizational management space, for a humanitarian organization.
I do not enjoy a lot of social media, but I had been using Reddit for 8+ years, as my only social media platform really. I enjoyed it for the specialist communities focused on niche interests. I’m hoping to replicate some of that with Lemmy, which is much more aligned with my value set than a large corporate run social platform.
I'm a warehouse operator but I'm in love with tech since my first PC. I love open source stuff, I also use linux, I always root my phones to gain proper control over it. Basically enthusiast..
I absolutely do not work in tech. I'm not gonna share what my day job is, but it mostly involves talking to people, knowing product, and some lighter technical knowhow.
Through the years I've messed around enough to get some basic technical knowhow (how to plug parts into a computer, install a Linux distro, etc.) but I will fundamentally always be a squishy humanities geek.
I'm on Lemmy because the fediverse matches my political beliefs about how institutions should be run. I'm a big ol commie.
I'm a gig worker who delivers food to people.
I almost went into CS and consider myself fairly well-educated, so I think although I'm not in tech I share a slightly similar background and sensibilities with Lemmy folks. I just got on here a couple days ago and it kinda reminds me of reddit back when I joined (hopefully minus the racism and spez's favorite subreddit)
Psychiatric nurse here from Belgium
Not very technical, I manage the testing of an anti money laundering system for a bank. I work with lots of coders but I'm definitely not one myself, more of an analyst than anything else.
I picked lemmy because I didn't want to continue using reddit and this seemed like the best alternative when I did a small amount of browsing. So far I enjoy it even with less content, means I waste less time scrolling.
I'm technically non-tech, but have a bachelors degree in a hard science. I say technically because I did learn a bit of programming and other skills because I'm of a certain age and also you sort of have to if you want to make your work life not suck.
If I can create an automation that can do something that would normally take me days or weeks? Hells yes. (+1 if it's a fun challenge and +2 if I can transfer a time-saving tool to my co-workers).
But it looks like magic (scary magic) if you don't have that background/skill set.
And... long story short... I now work in a science-adjacent job but I've also gained the reputation as a "computer hacker" at my workplace. I appreciate how funny that is because I'm nothing of the sort! The thing is: a colleague once - in all seriousness - reported me to IT for these "hacking exploits" that I was committing. With VBA for Excel.* Fortunately, IT laughed their asses off when they heard that one and I've retained my job.
Non-tech, office worker (sourcing / procurement).
I’m in finance. Have nothing to do with tech. It’s interesting to me and I’ve always been into tech stuff but not professionally
I am a ux designer and design in a tech company so I am around tech and development often. I also can do the bare minimum of coding as a hobby and enjoying tech topics.
It would be nice if lemmy had more non-tech communities as well though, but they are growing in number. I haven't used other social media besides Reddit or lemmy for years now and have no interest in any other.
Professional fundraiser, having worked in non-profit my entire career (and my university degree was in a social sciences field). I wouldn’t call myself technically proficient, but I’m technically savvy - I was an early adopter of the internet as a teen, and have been online in some form or another since the mid-90s. Fuck spez.
I'm in law school.
Traditional and digital artist here. I do graphic design and illustration. Have always had a healthy interest in tech, though.
I’m a US Licensed Customs Broker (I help people/companies navigate Customs laws and classification to import stuff). I have been building and tinkering with PCs since I was a teenager though I have no schooling.
A science student. I view "non-technical" and "non-tech/non-techy" as kinda different, as in the latter are more specific to stuff related to computers, at least that's my perception. I'm non-tech or non-techy.
I'm a registered nurse and came over from years of Sync Pro. Currently using Connect and I quite like it.
Edit: though not in a technology centered career, technology is very integral to what I do.
I have also been into computers and technology for a long time.
Musician and amateur gamedev reporting in.
I'm doing PhD in math, but I've always been interested in tech and programming.
I'm "technically/mechanically inclined" as they say, but formally, "professionally," I'm just a worthless factory worker schmuck lol
Graduated with a criminology degree, do work with vocational rehab and have done random stints of juvenile services. I don't have a tech background, but definitely have an interest in tech stuff, I'd say easily moreso than the average citizen.
But like, I've tried to learn HTML and I couldn't get past the first few Khan Academy lessons lol. The logic it used just didn't jive with my brain.
Non tech background (art education), but I do like a minor bit of tech tinkering and tweaking
Aiming to remain semi retired for as long as possible doing a couple of hours work a day...
The rest of the time? I have several art projects to occupy me, and now I've migrated over from reddit to here I have more time available for that.
I have also created a few art subs here that I'm hoping to set up properly soon, and see where they go
I work in a warehouse after quitting my logistics job where I was managing a forklift team. If I ever have to work in an office again I'll just quit and find someplace else to work. I can't stand middle class people who think they're better than the working class just because they have a degree. It's ironic how they kept making the dumbest possible decisions and expected no one with logistical sense to say "that's not actually feasible".
You think someone with a college education could understand that if you take 3 boxes in and only send 2 boxes out, you're eventually going to fill an entire warehouse.
I'm on a much smaller scale and only oversee two mailrooms but when my dept head was looking for a place to use as storage and suggested one afternoon to use the "empty space" in the mailroom, I had to gently explain to him that the empty space was where the hundreds of boxes that we get every morning go.
It isn't my field, but tech and selfhosting is definitely my hobby.
Not really a tech person, most of my jobs have been in customer service or warehouse/manufacturing work. I mainly switched to lemmy because the 3pa change helped me realize I've been so tired of all the ads and bs reddit keeps pushing; it's pretty much garbage compared to the site it used to be 10+ years ago when I found it.
I do appreciate how much tech gets discussed here though. It's interesting to see things talked about that I wouldn't normally be exposed to, so I do learn a bit from time to time.
Physician.
I'm a non tech person I'm an almost nurse.
Am a nurse, but consider myself a bit of a computer geek. Was an avid Reddit user, but left in protest of the changes and never looked back. I've enjoyed participating in the growth of lemmy, learning the system by trial and error in throughout the migration. Has been really enjoyable, reminding me of when I switched over to Linux a bit in the early 2000's before becoming an avid gamer.
I know a lot of the non-tech savvy folks and younger generations were disappointed when joining lemmy and learning it isn't a polished platform like most other commercial social media is, but imo that's part of its charm, knowing it is a growing, living work in progress with the many dedicated developers devoting their free time to continually improve it.
I mean i took a programming class and damn near failed it my first semester of college so hopefully that doesn’t disqualify me. I work in insurance for now.
I just switched over because Apollo was my favorite time killer, and I can’t stand the Reddit mobile app.
I took a computer programming class for a semester in high school and was a Computer Science major for a month in college, but that’s the closest thing I’ve got to anything resembling a technical background.
Professional land surveyor. Work a lot with raw digital data, with some experience in various coding languages to manipulate the data. Plus I know computer stuff pretty well.
Half I guess? Graduated in a non technical field but I ended up taking a lot of CS and math classes. But now I'm not really doing anything since I've been depressed since college. There's probably a lot of stuff I could do if I could get over the motivation hump.
I’m tech-adjacent, lol. Technically I’m in Operations, but end up also doing a little project/product management. I wear many hats, which in one way is. I’ve but in others is very annoying.
Medical professional here. I am pretty tech savvy tho..
Writer. Have some very basic tech knowledge but mainly just had enough of reddit's bullshit 🤷♂️ lemmy is pretty easy to understand imo, I don't know how the fuck you keep a server running but I'm glad that many people here do so I can just sign up and shitpost.
HPC researcher but I suck, so am I partially technical?
Is telematican an heatpump-programmer a technical background?
Don’t have a technical background per se.
I have a degree in music education, and work at a consulting firm doing non-programming-language-based data work.
Personally, though, I am a very technical person who loves science and math. I have a tinkerer’s mindset; I love taking things apart and understanding how they work, then putting it back together.
Electrician. I'm new here and looking for a good alternative to reddit since the whole 3rd party app thing.