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People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

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Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#31

Post by sillyquiet »

Like other commenters, this study jives with my experience with older relatives. I mean 'forwards from grandma' has been a thing forever, right?

'Bill Gates will give a nickel every time this is read' (remember email chains?), 'naked women get shared, but this heroic child won't get a single like', 'Like and Share if you stand with politician X', etc etc.

Combine this with the targeted scamming of elderly from various Nigerian princes and jailed grandchildren, and there does seem to be a much greater degree of credulity with our current elderly generation. I think a more interesting study would be to figure out whether it's generational, a function of changing brain physiology as we age, or what.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#33

Post by mu_killnine »

sillyquiet wrote: post #31

Like other commenters, this study jives with my experience with older relatives. I mean 'forwards from grandma' has been a thing forever, right? 'Bill Gates will give a nickel every time this is read' (remember email chains?), 'naked women get shared, but this heroic child won't get a single like', 'Like and Share if you stand with politician X', etc etc. Combine this with the targeted scamming of elderly from variou…

I wonder if this study includes memes like that or only actual site links external to Facebook.

I have similar experiences with older loved ones I'm friend with on Facebook and it's rare they send links. But I think the rampant meme-sharing of misinformation/disinformation is much more prevalent.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#36

Post by gdulli »

Liquix wrote: post #6

It makes sense - they grew up in a time where news was (relatively) reliable/truthful, so perhaps don't have the same "this may not be true" skepticism that younger generations have.

Also, politics aside, the younger generation has some sophistication about domain names (which are essentially their news sources) in general.

They know a domain that's been around vs. one like justice-freedom-eagle.usa that looks like a default wordpress template with stock clip art.

They may get their news from aggregators and live in their respective bubbles, but they're more likely to see through a shady looking site with headlines like "Pope endorses Trump" or "Hillary leads Trump away in handcuffs." As much as the respective sides want to believe those things.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#37

Post by simulate »

The elderly are generally more susceptible to internet fraud. Last summer the New Yorker had this story about how an 85 year old was scammed out of her life savings:

My Mother and Her Scammer https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/my-mother...

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#38

Post by cafard »

psychometry wrote: post #20
Liquix wrote: post #6

It makes sense - they grew up in a time where news was (relatively) reliable/truthful, so perhaps don't have the same "this may not be true" skepticism that younger generations have.

Also, the older an American is, the less education they're likely to have received [1]. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/785618/educational-attai...

Well, the fewer years of schooling they are likely to have received. (Full disclosure: 63 years old, two degrees.)

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#39

Post by cmsonger »

pimmen wrote: post #3

And they are more likely to vote than young people. We really have to work to make elderly people more digitally literate and young people more involved in politics, I reckon it will require the removal of multiple barriers (like, oh I don't know, not having the election on a weekday that makes no difference for retired people but all the difference in the world to minimum wage employees living pay check to pay check…

Step 1: Election day is a national holiday.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#40

Post by btbuildem »

Having spent Christmas back home, I've come to the conclusion that people over 65 should not have the right to vote.

You've had almost forty years of voting, you don't really have any future left, and your minds aren't what they used to be. Please stay out of it.

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