I’m not sure, I’ve met some lovely people whose technical incompetence is nothing short of incredible. And if you try signing up for an instance you’ve been recommended and the sign-up process is broken, I understand that it can be disheartening.

Sure, Reddit is full of bad actors who just want to discredit alternatives, and clearly these people are not trying hard and they probably don’t completely understand what Lemmy is, but I think it’s still worth listening to their concerns.

At this point I’m willing to believe your mother and cousin with downs are both more likely to figure things out than the average 20-something, for the simple reason that they are not used to everything being so goddamn easy and not offering the slightest resistance. When you see the discourse on Reddit, a lot of people seem to be unaware of the difference between platforms and apps. Which shouldn’t be a problem, if they can contribute to a meaningful discussion about whatever they do have an interest in.