@baronvonj I'd like to jump in saying that there is also kbin https://kbin.social as an additional alternative, as so many people flooded lemmy that their servers overloaded. Come join smaller instances that also use lemmy/kbin!
@eonity Never feel like age matters. The average person changes careers 4 or 5 times before retirement. It's never too late to follow your passions and everyone will welcome you no matter how old! Plus, 36 isn't old. You'll probably make a lot of friends and maybe even some other 30-somethings will be in the same boat.