Asking someone to download and install a Usenet client then set it up to connect to a server of their choice and then subscribing to newsgroups is way above and beyond what most people are willing to do in 2023, sadly.

This is not true at all. People download phone clients all the time. And there were also Usenet web clients. Subscribing to newsgroups is exactly the same as subscribing to subreddets or kbin magazines. And you have to pick a server for Fedverse also, but the the Usenet server doesn't matter at all like a Fedverse server does.

The only reason people don't use Usenet is because the free servers disappeared and ISPs no longer provided it with your internet service.

Usenet arose during a time when the people using computers actually understood how they worked and how to use them.

Well. Usenet arose during a time when computers were only available to people who were all or most of the following: wealthy, white, formally educated at the post secondary level, professionally employed, affiliated with a western university, fluent in English, male, associated with the "defense" industry. Presumably most people who were on Usenet in 1980 had a good understanding of the technology.

But you sound as though you are being nostalgic for this extremely exclusionary time in computing. Having been in rooms as described above, it is not as interesting as you'd think. Homogeneous. Rigid. Boooring.

Asking someone to download and install a Usenet client then set it up to connect to a server of their choice and then subscribing to newsgroups is way above and beyond what most people are willing to do in 2023, sadly.

Why would anyone do that in 2023 when usenet is full of spam. It would only be an academic exercise unless you are looking to download pirated content. In which case usenet is quite a popular choice. Usenet's traffic has increased steadily year over year as it has transitioned into a media sharing platform. But you mean the forum side of things. Probably because you yourself have "sadly" not done any of the things you are crying about other people not doing you are not even sure what is going on.

Expanding on this, I’m worried a technological education gap is forming among the youth.

It's off topic but on this you are correct from what I understand. I can't find in my bookmarks right now but I recall having read some research about how younger people (b >~2000) lack understandings of things like file systems and other computer basics. In their experience these things have always been very obscured. So they are very good at the things they have experience with, but actual understanding of "computers" is minimal.

Yes. plenty of articles coming out about how many in gen z are technology illiterate. I am started to see it at my workplace since we hire a lot of fresh college grads. getting more support calls for completely inane stuff that shows the person has zero basic technological knowledge, like the type of stuff that my you see from boomers. and often it's the issue is simple the user doing things wrong and refusing to understand or learn to do them correctly, like a boomer.

it's wild to think a 22yo is incompetent at basic computer skills, but like you said, all they do is social media crap on their phones. they have no idea how to actually work with PC/Mac applications, let alone solve basic problems or change settings.

They even paid someone to design a semi-monetary points system and then scrapped it...

I’ve seen lots of people say “federation is like email”, but to me it’s like Usenet.

You are correct but since 99.99% of people do not know what usenet is, it would be a pointless analogy. :) To be more specific than federation being like usenet: usenet was/is federated.

A couple years ago I was telling a 20something about usenet and I started to explain it the same way I always have: "It's like an email discussion list---" but I was interrupted for a question: "what's an email discussion list?" And this was a person who would describe themselves as geeky and good with computers. But has had no reason to interact with ancient techs like mailman. So first I had to explain what is an email list, which actually my friend thought sounded like a great idea. But having no experience of it, the ways in which usenet is an improvement were slightly lost.

I’ve seen lots of people say “federation is like email”, but to me it’s like Usenet.

It is a lot like Usenet, but Usenet has some superior features.

1. Discussion groups are automatically merged across all servers. So it is decentralized but does not feel decentralized.

2. Newreaders only show you content that you have not already read/seen

3. Readers let you kill articles in subscribed newsgroups and threads within subscribed newsgroup articles so that you don't see them in the future.