TL;DR - Lemmy's userbase compare to Reddit just feel more angry and it so offputting when asking a question and getting an answer that sound like their pissed off. Feels oddly worse than Reddit.
Honestly, I want to like Lemmy as I want to try not use Reddit as much. The thing that is holding me back is I hate the users on Lemmy which their often passive aggressive and really snarky. I know Reddit does have those people but I always seen more them on Lemmy where I barely used it as much.
I asked on AskLemmy community if there's any Gen-Z community around, ideally just talking about nostalgia and stuff like that. Nothing malicious at all. Then got a angry reply saying "Fuck Gen-what, just join community and post!" and telling me about generation are there to "divide" people. Apparently, me asking community which mainly be me talking about cartoon and games I grow up with is evil.
If the tone was at least "This may not matter as much and you find it better picking any community that in your best interest" then I'm be alright, it the way they seem pissed at me for even asking it like I'm an idiot which gets to me. When I told that person to calm down and stop being snarky, I got reply from other users saying they wasn't.
Might stick to Reddit for now. I know it not great but it in my experince isn't as easily pissed off and is actually bareable to scroll for awhile. I hate talking bad about Lemmy as I really want to like it but I just hate the userbase so much that it feels pointless to even properly use it as much.
I think that your desire for a place where you can discuss the experiences unique to your generation is totally reasonable, and I'm sorry you've gotten backlash for asking how you can have the same thing others are enjoying. To me, there's obvious value in a Gen-Z community. Later generations too eventually.
My friends and life were already firmly established during the covid lockdown and I imagine that the younger you were the more impactful that period and the time after it must have been. I'd love to watch younger people talk about that time of their lives if only so I can learn more, and it's obvious I could learn other things I'm not even aware of yet from younger people's conversations.
I for one hope you stay, and even if you don't feel up to starting a new community I hope you get what you're looking for. There's nothing wrong with posting to a slow or dead community and just thinking of it like a small forum every once in a while. You're definitely not the only Gen-Z on here, and if you post someone else might feel more comfortable posting too!
Thanks, it generally means a lot! I just thought Lemmy is more welcoming instead of whatever is not in majority of the users' interests is bad and malicious.