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?

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.

Non tech background here. I work in a steel mill and see social media as entertainment. A time killer.

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.

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'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. :-)

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'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.

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.

Therapist. I'm not very techy at all.

Non-tech Background. I work for a big union and migrated here from reddit, which was my only social media site I would use.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

I'm a massage therapist just blundering my way through this space...

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.

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

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

I'm a geologist.

I'm a truck driver though I do have a Master's in maths. Make of that what you will.

Family law attorney who hates bullies. Fuck spez!

I'm a music teacher!

Classical composer here, and choral conductor. I've always been a computer person, but I don't have a background on tech stuff.

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'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.

I'm a social worker at an elementary school. My tech abilities are limited to addressing cyberbullying amongst 9 year olds.

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 ;)

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 😎

I'm a librarian

I majored in English, now I make artisanal pizzas.

Not a techie. Paramedic / firefighter - I'm not the most tech literate, but I manage to get by lol

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

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'm a carpenter apprentice and a refugee from RIF.

Not me, that's for sure.

I was just here to promote a movie.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 am a doctor, not quite a techy person, I’m just tired of the shitshow that is conventional social media

I'm pastor in France. Nothing techy…

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.

I am a mere washed-out adult. just work retail and wish I was going somewhere in my life

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.

Nurse ova here

Not a techie, background in journalism.

I work in the restaurant industry.

I have a 14 year old MacBook pro.

Not very tech savvy

Non-technical background here. I do strategic policy work.

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 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!

I do invasive insect surveys

Stay at home parent, former chef. The closest thing to tech background I have is electrician training in night school.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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 :)

Airline pilot. Surprisingly low technical knowledge required considering how computerized airplanes are.

Used to be a handyman now I'm a machinist

Metal fabrication

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

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'm a professional photographer, hardly "tech" although that world interests me.

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.

I'm a chef lol

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'm a real estate office drone who loves guitar and video games. Took a programming 101 class and absolutely hated it. Fuck Spez!

I'm a professional dev, but I'm also mostly shite with technology. So whether that counts is up to you I guess.

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 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!

Psychologist, work in schools. I feel like I'm slightly more tech-inclined than my peers but idk

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 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.

Wastewater 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 love seeing the diversity in here! And so many people actually participating.

Tax consultant

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.

Apartment building super. But also a computer geek.

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.

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.

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'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.

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 used to be an accountant. I’m in the process of changing careers. It still won’t be tech related.

Soon to be brewer. But I play with Linux (after w 10 got too heavy with updates).

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.

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.

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 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.

I’m not super into tech and I work in a bookstore. I heard about the fediverse thru various sources on the red site.

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 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

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 )

I'm an arborist. The most tech I get is figuring out mechanical advantage setups with various pulleys and snatch blocks.

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.

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 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.

Not too much techy, paleontologist here

Physical therapist

Financial Services here. Licensed Broker for a major firm.

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 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.

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.

Musician now studying compsci because I dun wanna starve :(

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'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.

Marketing / illustrator. I'm tangentially techy 👌

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.

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 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.

No technical background: historian, former university teacher and researcher, now researching at a museum. Did teach digital humanities though and am uhm... tech friendly?

i'm not sure what counts as 'tech background', but i probably count. though my job is as a construction laborer.

In STEM, but not tech specifically. At least not professionally.

I'm technically Stoopid with computer stuff. I teach elementary school.

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..

No tech background. I try to get by with online tutorials mostly.

I repair heavy equipment in the mining industry, as a welder.

Marketing, illustration, and graphic design here. I also dabble in music making but have yet to do anything interesting.

Not techy at all, am very confused mostly. I am figuring all this stuff out though, slowly. It's so new and exciting.

Bartender who's studying game design🤚

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.

Medical professional here. I am pretty tech savvy tho..

Don’t have any formal tech education, but can write a simple Python program or build a simple circuit with a 555 timer.

Personal care assistant

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

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.

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!

Psychiatric nurse here.

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 tech but I also lied on my resume and have no qualifications, and also I wish I had been a farmer, does that count?

How about a technical background not related to computers? I am a meatspace engineer, not a thoughtspace engineer.

Administration and office management but studied Ecology of course in college... it's like studying history in regards to getting a well paying job.

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 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

Private transportation dispatcher. Really not interested in tech stuff unless it involves getting ads and bloatware off my devices

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.

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 work in a food warehouse. I have a little idea about technology, flashing consoles and stuff like that

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

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.

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 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.

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.

Social Worker

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.

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 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...

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.

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.

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

Zero technical background.

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.

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 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..

Mechanical Engineer here. Although, most of us are either kinda' into tech, or kinda' in cars. I'm definitely not into cars.

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.

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

I'm pretty techy and work at a tech retailer but, I'm a Classical Music major and teach piano

Non-technical user here. Closed my business last year, currently between jobs. Any good business ideas that don't cost much to start up?

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'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)

Traditional and digital artist here. I do graphic design and illustration. Have always had a healthy interest in tech, though.

Non-tech, office worker (sourcing / procurement).

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)

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.

Very mixed background. Retail, customer service, warehouser, some technical support (HP laser printers in the 00s), a season and a half of a TV show, single-dad, commissioned fanfiction writer...

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.

• to be fair, it was a prank that I ran on her and my other colleague.

I'm in law school.

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.

Musician and amateur gamedev reporting in.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It isn't my field, but tech and selfhosting is definitely my hobby.

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 something comparable to a bus driver

I'm "technically/mechanically inclined" as they say, but formally, "professionally," I'm just a worthless factory worker schmuck lol

I'm doing PhD in math, but I've always been interested in tech and programming.

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.

I'm a non tech person I'm an almost nurse.

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.

Mighty housewife. Used to have a semi-techy civilian job with the military. I recently volunteered to manage a very small community computer lab in my town. cybersecurity and sysadmin have been instructive here, but I usually can be found loitering at noncredibledefense.

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

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.

Physician.

Retired military at a young age working property maintenance at a storage facility part time to kill time.

Interesting question. I'm a software developer, but I just wanted to point out that reddit also started out very heavily skewed toward tech workers. The non tech people came quite a bit later for the most part. Even today from what I can tell, software developers are overrepresented on Reddit.

I'm non tech, in a professional role. I just like computers.

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 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.

spreadsheets and stuff but I don't know much other than how to google problems

R.I.P RIF

Public Affairs

I'm a geographer and haven't been techie since it was considered technical to connect a VCR to a TV using RCA cables

I’m a cinematographer and editor so I spend a lot of time working with tech but very specific stuff. I’m still on reddit for now. At least until Narwhal becomes prohibitive to use. Fuck Twitter and Threads.

I’m an administrator so I work with MS Office but that is about it as far tech. I did dabble a bit in high school and college with some basic computer programming but that was ages ago and things have vastly changed since then.

I’m semi tech related? Work in the graphic design industry. So I’m adjacent to some of the things here.

I’m a bartender

I work in the office side of a distribution center. I’m far from technologically illiterate, but my knowledge drops off a cliff when I get outside my comfort zone. I know enough not to bother IT most of the time, so I count that as a win.

Reddit killing the 3rd party apps pissed me off a little bit, but their AMA about it really made me start looking for alternatives. So here I am!

I work in retail management lol! although I have spent p much my entire life around computers and am tech savvy :p

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.

I work for an outsourced company representing a large search engine brand. The largest.

I am not on the tech end though. I handle partner relationships. Aka I am the company rep from a tech jugganaut, to people way more tech saavy than me.

I spend my days hoping I don't get caught out.

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.

I'm an advertising copywriter. I don't use much tech on a day-to-day basis (I tend to write about deodorant, which is definitely on the lower-tech side) but I have some extremely limited coding in my background, and I like building PCs.

Lawyer here, but a lot of my interests are tech-adjacent.

HPC researcher but I suck, so am I partially technical?

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.

Is telematican an heatpump-programmer a technical background?

Electrician. I'm new here and looking for a good alternative to reddit since the whole 3rd party app thing.

I am a Social Worker. But Computers are my hobby since as long as I remember.

I've never worked in any tech field, but I've built every computer I've ever owned and have been online since '93, which I suppose counts as far as this thread is concerned.

I am civil servent and from non technical background

University student. Doing business. Not that tech savvy. I will learn some programing languages because finding a job(a good one) gets harder and harder every year.

I'm technical in a broad sense but not in the tech industry. I'm a production engineer putting in production lines for the auto industry.

Well, I have a degree in tech. Work in finance. Tech hobbies, programmer second job

So I probably don't fit. Most of my working life was retail though.

I am a Ph.D in Chemistry, now doing an MBA in finance.

Tech background, but never worked with it.

I'm a plumber now, used to design trusses for houses.

Civil Engineering, do a lot of things to keep me interested from design, construction, pm and administrative stuff depending on the phase of the project. And yeah, there is a lot of IT/Programming Guys in Reddit and Lemmy now.

Non-tech background, currently a undergrad student, but formally trained office worker for secretary and business matters.

I do music, photography/videography, strength training, student too, but it started by being into tech (still am), it's helped for doing music/photography greatly.

I’m a master’s candidate in the life sciences and public health. I can’t code or anything, but I regularly troubleshoot my own computer problems, and I’ve built a couple PCs for gaming. The most technical my field gets in this sense is the use of R or SPSS for statistical analysis.

I'm a programmer but I don't think there is a high bar of entry here, maybe with so many options to choose from maybe

I'm a student, gonna start (undergrad) medical school this summer.

Non-tech career but have always been a tech enthusiast.

I’m kinda like a handyman for a medical laboratory. Actually hard to define…from fixing doors to fixing medical equipment

I don’t have a specific job, I do administrative work, customer service, worked in a few shops… I would love to work in tech but I’m not an expert, just passionate about it! I tried to follow an online course but I need a real teacher and where I live there aren’t many opportunities unless you go to university

Does payroll count as technical? I suppose maybe within our payroll system (Workday), but that's peanuts compared to like actual tech jobs.

Non-tech user here. Well I'm tech-minded I think, and tech-savvy. I know enough code to say that I thoroughly dislike PHP and Javascript. But that's about it.

I think "fediverse" and "instances" are terms many non-tech-oriented might find confusing. and off-putting, maybe because they're not immediately intuitive. I'm aware of the concept of instancing but wasn't sure how or where to create an account at first. I made an account on world because I figured I'd probably see more content there? I don't know.

And making a new account for each instance? I'm not entirely sure if that's how it works yet but that's my understanding. It's intimidating, it's daunting. Plus I'm not as tech savvy as a lot of the people here. It's not that it's uninviting, really--quite the opposite, in fact--but I still have this imposter syndrome-like feeling that I'm not supposed to be here.

Idk. That's my take.

No tech background. I work as a teaching assistant and after-school teacher with grades 1-4 (not exactly, but those are the closest US equivalents). Always loved technology though so I spend as much time as I can teaching my kiddos programming and other nerdy things.

Non-tech! I'm a buyer for a large wholesaler and distributor.

I'm currently an attorney but in another life I worked help desk in the military.

Non tech. Designer.

social sciences (anthro) background but have always been a bit on the tech savvy side and had tech support jobs

I am not a geek.

Work for a class 1 railroad. I’m about as tech savvy as your grandma.

Attorney here.

I'm a CPA and not highly skilled in computer stuff. The fact that I managed to join Lemmy, set up Jerboa and actually participate means that almost anyone can do it

Work in a chemical factory making soap. I'm a supervisor for a night shift. Been working factory since high school.

Not in a technical here - I've worked on jets and cars, have done retail management and now program management in the public sector. Though my dad was an electronic engineer in silicon valley in the '70s and '80s so our family adopted technology early and I learned to code very young, but tech stuff has remained a hobby rather than profession.

I'm in marketing haha, I joke that I'm my parent's IT person, but that's just about as technical as I get

Not technically in tech, I'm an oceanographer but work with numerical modeling so ehhhhh

I ain't educated in any field, but ive been fucking with mostly old tech since I was like 9 im now 23.

Beyond that ive got nothing.

Not technical, but always interested in technical advances.

Research CRO Analyst.

I work as a city planner. I have an interest in tech and use some programs for work like Adobe suites, sketchup, minor GIS. Currently trying to motivate myself to learn GIS better but it's hard to sit down and start.

Sort of non-tech. Working as an RF Engineer with my Physics degree

I started going to school for programming in my younger years, but life happened and now I'm a diesel technician (and aircraft mechanic in the US Army national guard)

Arts admin. But I live and grew up in Silicon Valley; my dad worked in tech although he wasn’t an engineer, so we always had fairly up-to-date tech and I’m pretty comfortable with it. But when my husband (software engineer) and I watch Linus Tech Tips, most of it goes over my head. I adopted Lemmy during the Reddit blackout before he did (and funny enough, I also switched to Reddit during the Digg fiasco before he did, too).

I would certainly characterize myself as a tech-enthusiast rather than from a technical background. I have a Chemistry degree and work in a tangentially related field (Brewing industry) though mainly on the sales/retail side rather than production. I don't code but it's certainly something I am interested in. I've set up a Pi-hole on my home network and have a small Plex-Server streaming downloaded media (as I try in vain to disentangle myself from the myriad of streaming services that exist).

I'm a data analyst that's started to do more data science stuff (learning SQL/python) but not sure I would quite class myself as technical yet.

I work in healthcare but have always been interested in tech, but not professionally.

Non-tech background sort of? Work in games but on the localization end of things.

I'm a chemical plant operator working for one of the big companies in Germany

social science research

I'm associate director at an academic think tank. But I've always been interested in technology and have recently decided that i want to pivot to cybersecurity. I've got a long road ahead of me so here i am!

I'm far from a technical background. I make storyboards and concepts for ads and animations. Mostly related to graphics and illustration. Sort of a digital art director.

At the same time I do all my work on a tablet + computer and am a huge tech enthusiast.

Yeah, I agree. I'm a programmer, and I too would also expect the majority of people using decentralized platforms have a technical background.

I’m an art school student who writes creative fiction and messes around with old electronics, so I wouldn’t really say I have a technical background. Work-wise I’ve mostly just done art/editing commissions or taught at studios. I’m just kind of tired of mainstream social media so I’m taking refuge in the Fediverse, and I’m liking it a lot so far

Ive worked in kitchens most of my life, now I work in AI and I have my own copy editing business, and go to school for Info Systems and Supply Chain Management. Wasnt tech but im slowly pushing into it because these are skills ill need to get to retire with money in the bank.

I'm still in school lol. I am into computers, so idk if that counts

have a great day and be kind

oh wait this is a 2yo post... whatever lol

I work in IT at the moment, but I don't consider myself as having a technical background. I did have a lot of programming subjects in high school and college, but I did end up in a non-IT, but (sort of) IT-adjacent course in university (but ended up not finishing it because of mental health issues).

Maybe I should own up to my technical background? I am also the go-to guy for IT (mostly networking) problems among my family and neighbors. But then again, I use PHP for most of my work.

I stopped doing the computering until around 2006 or so. At that point I was tired of slapping keys like some kind of psychology experiment bunny slapping the paddle in the cage when the light went off and on and off and on for them to spit up a food pellet.

I work electrical maintenance in a hospital trust. We cover all sorts though.

I don't have any IT background if you mean that. I have a decent tech savvy and work in an engineering oriented field though.