People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds • Hacker News Board

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

#51

Post by seattle_spring » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 3:27 PM UTC

gdulli wrote: post #36

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…

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

Is that really true though? A lot of the younger folks on my Facebook share stuff from things like "natural-truth-health.net" or "gmo-truth-toxic.tk" or "naturalnews.com".

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

#52

Post by anovikov » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 3:27 PM UTC

wybiral wrote: post #10

Elderly people are frequently the target of scams. I'm curious what the age statistics for people who clicked on Nigerian Prince scams and viagra spam were like before social media.

What's wrong about the viagra spam? Did it actually scam people out of anything? I thought these were the actual e-shops selling actual (generic and probably of dubious quality) stuff, just did it in an overly pushy way because of oversaturated market.

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

#53

Post by sonnyblarney » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 3:27 PM UTC

akiselev wrote: post #26

sonnyblarney wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are taking Dominique Strauss-Kahn down for exactly that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Strauss-Kahn

Did his pizza shoppe actually have a basement, though?

Allison Mack, some other prominent actors, and several members of the Bronfman family are going down for running a sex ring. Some of the circumstances are crazy.

It would seem like fake news at first glance surely. It's downright bizarre.

I certainly would have written it off as 'National Enquirer' were it not out of super credible institutions.

Sometimes it's hard to tell what is 'truth' and the major 'credible' news agencies simply don't cover a lot of things.

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

#54

Post by jessaustin » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 3:28 PM UTC

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…

Perhaps it would be easier to just suppress the vote of older voters? It says right here that they're more susceptible to suggestion.

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

#55

Post by ben_w » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 3:29 PM UTC

maldusiecle wrote: post #28

mcculley wrote: post #9

It makes sense that people who discovered the Internet through Facebook and Twitter at a later age would be more susceptible to memes. I have been wondering if this will get better or worse. Once all Internet users have been using it since a very early age, will they be more skeptical and responsible? Or will they be more easily influenced? I have been wondering what an elementary school course in memetics and evolut…

You don't need knowledge of evo-psych or "memetics" (whatever that means) to distinguish most sketchy sites from reputable ones. It may be tricky to distinguish more carefully-assembled fake news sites, but most of these bogus websites/Facebook groups are easy to pick out via stylistic cues alone.

I think it’s unwise to rely on the incompetence of fake news websites.

Compare two UK newspapers, The Guardian and The Daily Mail. They are both well-known and have popular domains which have been around for ages. Considering only their contradictions on the topic of Brexit, one of them must be about as dangerously out of touch with reality as it is possible to be. Which one?

I know which one I believe, but I am not a lawyer, a trade negotiator, or a politician.

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

#56

Post by rfinney » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 3:29 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #27

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.

> It makes sense - they grew up in a time where news was (relatively) reliable/truthful, No, they grew up in a time when media distortion was less likely to be revealed because the major media was narrower and it's ideological biases more consistent, and voices outside the major media had major barriers to reaching any substantial audience.

Hmmm. Time magazine, the morning newspapers and CBS/ABC/NBC evening news was much more middle of the road than today's Drudge/Huffpost, CNN/Fox and google/reddit (and HN) type ideological bubbles. More straight news.

Back farther in the past, the many competing newspapers were very partisan. Perhaps we're just back to that situation.

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

#57

Post by CodeCube » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 3:31 PM UTC

mu_killnine wrote: post #33

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.

I'm really really loathe to say this ... but in today's climate, "memes are news". I have 100% had the contents of memes thrown at me in a political discussion. I happen to be online a lot, so in many cases, I've seen the meme scroll by and it's easy both to realize what it is (fake propaganda), and easy to debunk ... but to those folks, it's as real as if delivered by Walter Cronkite's lips.

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

#58

Post by ardy42 » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 3:33 PM UTC

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.

> It makes sense - they grew up in a time where news was (relatively) reliable/truthful

Many of the elderly become more gullible as they reach advanced age, which is the same reason con-men target them with scams.

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

#59

Post by danabrams » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 3:33 PM UTC

Overheard during the 2012 campaign in florida, between some octagenerians: I’m voting for that Mitt Romney because he’s a nice Protestant boy, not like the others. (Not that it matters, but Obama was the only Protestant in that race, Biden and Ryan are catholic, Romney is like the most famous Mormon).

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

#60

Post by taeric » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 3:33 PM UTC

api wrote: post #14

taeric wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorta. Propaganda is not a new thing.

No, but I think the parent is correct. I grew up with the Internet. I was reading wacky conspiracy theories in my teens. It made me more skeptical of virtually anything I see in print since I learned how easy it is to create a BS narrative and fit details into it. I also learned what propaganda is, how it works, and how prevalent it is. Older generations grew up with a one-way opaque screen preaching to them. Obvious…

I think I agree, but you are probably over stating how many of them grew up with television.

Now, the same points generally hold with radio, as well.

I was just saying that propaganda is not new. Of course, I don't know that this research is claiming these folks are the most misinformed. So, I could be taking it in a pointless direction, as well.