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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

#221

Post by thecatspaw »

tropo wrote: post #215
jameslk wrote: post #165

Here's the study since the article didn't link directly to it: http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/1/eaau4586

Wow, that's bad. The definition of "fake news" is a list of 21 conservative web sites chosen by BuzzFeed. For some reason, BuzzFeed wasn't in that list. Unsurprisingly, by that definition, fake news is primarily spread by conservatives! Chart C shows that as the strongest result by far. Chart B, going by age, is a weaker result. Well yes, it seems that conservatives live longer (living less dangerously?) or that peop…

Are you aware that buzzfeed actually has a pretty good news section too?

It doesnt pay well enough, so they also have the clickbait stuff

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

#222

Post by wil421 »

iheartpotatoes wrote: post #104
wil421 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last election really turned me off of social media. The amount of absolutely false memes and screenshots being shared by both sides was way too much. I recently saw some of the ads and memes being churned out by the Russian propaganda machine. I was not so surprised some of the stuff they created was the same crap people I knew were sharing as truth by intelligent yet older people.

Where is the primary source of this, where can I go to see popular memes? I read HN, Reddit and sometimes /., and I guess due to my settings I miss a lot of stuff. I'm not on FB, IG or snap, is that why I'm missing these memes?

Reddit is a good place and they even have subreddits about Russian botnets posting comments. If I look on Facebook it’s mostly other people sharing them not me and I don’t know where they get them.

Some of this stuff is just political garbage in meme style. Basically a pic with block letters.

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

#223

Post by mbostleman »

asdff wrote: post #199
mbostleman wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Fox News is the only major mainstream media source that has completely turned news into dishonest influencing operation.>> To me, it's ideas like this that perpetuate the problem. It clings to the idea that journalists and journalism - at least that which is sold via mainstream media channels - are capable of some kind of pristine objectivity. They aren't. It is much healthier in my opinion to understand that news…

Fox news doesn't correct their lies when exposed, they double down. Unlike any other journalistic entity that isn't state run.

Which is to say that their peers don't correct their lies when not exposed. Which is to say that the number of corrections is proportional to the number of exposures. So Fox is just a pig among pigs in lipstick. I'll buy that, but it doesn't really change my point.

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

#224

Post by trumped »

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.

no mainstream media is really reliable/truthful... you have to watch news from both sides to give you a clue of what the truth is... of course it depends on the subject... they won't lie/distort the truth about 1+1=2 for example.

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

#225

Post by tropo »

thecatspaw wrote: post #221
tropo wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that's bad. The definition of "fake news" is a list of 21 conservative web sites chosen by BuzzFeed. For some reason, BuzzFeed wasn't in that list. Unsurprisingly, by that definition, fake news is primarily spread by conservatives! Chart C shows that as the strongest result by far. Chart B, going by age, is a weaker result. Well yes, it seems that conservatives live longer (living less dangerously?) or that peop…

Are you aware that buzzfeed actually has a pretty good news section too? It doesnt pay well enough, so they also have the clickbait stuff

BuzzFeed is the site that spread the "piss dossier" nonsense. You can't get much more fake than that without invoking aliens and Elvis.

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

#226

Post by Cakez0r »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #149
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 suspect it’s at least partly that the elderly didn’t grow up with Internet, never really understood its culture, didn’t hang out on 4chan, Reddit, etc, and never developed a highly attuned BS/scam detector like more of the younger generations did. Many of these folks don’t even really understand how the Windows UI motif works, they’ve just memorized enough procedures to get stuff done on it. I also suspect that man…

> I also suspect that many of those artfully worded and subtly manipulative email forwards of the late 90s and 2000s May have been Russian psyops experimenting with viral information. They were always just a little too clever and effective while trying to look colloquial and organic, and I always suspected it was some PR outfit somewhere cranking them out, but could never divine a reason for the non-political ones. But maybe it was psyops testing and learning techniques in a long game just coming to light now.

How can you possibly post comment on the elderly not having highly attuned bs detectors and then close with that paragraph? What irony!

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

#227

Post by pesmhey »

cheez wrote: post #111
dandare wrote: post #110

Anecdotal evidence: I remember how my 65 years old dad changed from a large-minded, world-traveling retired professor to an avid consumer of fake news in the span of fewer than two years. Yes, it was a shock, but most of all I am mortified that this could happen to me as well when I get to his age.

I used to read the national enquirer (UFOs, Bigfoot!) religiously as a kid. I suspect there is something that appeals to people at certain stages in life. Most likely, as you get older/younger you desire stimulation. In mid-life, you're probably over-stimulated.

Hey friend, let me in on some of that get-younger juice!

Just poking fun.

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

#228

Post by gammateam »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #149
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 suspect it’s at least partly that the elderly didn’t grow up with Internet, never really understood its culture, didn’t hang out on 4chan, Reddit, etc, and never developed a highly attuned BS/scam detector like more of the younger generations did. Many of these folks don’t even really understand how the Windows UI motif works, they’ve just memorized enough procedures to get stuff done on it. I also suspect that man…

The thing that bothered me about 4chan was that everyone pretended to be silly and insensitive but were competent people that would run the country in a few years

I always had every problem accurately solved with b from people that were lawyers and doctors or were rising up the ranks in those fields

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

#229

Post by babyslothzoo »

I find it interesting that many people, especially boomers, can go to the grocery store and recognize checkout tabloids as obvious hoaxes, yet they stumble into something much more ridiculous online and determine it to be true.

They seem particularly susceptible to confirmation bias in propaganda memes and literal fake news.

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

#230

Post by starik36 »

nabla9 wrote: post #146
starik36 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fox News is the only Seriously? Pretty much all major networks have been caught making stuff up. CNN has been caught giving debate questions ahead of time to their pet candidate.

CNN fired Donna Brazile as a contributor after that. CNN's statement: >"On October 14th, CNN accepted Donna Brazile's resignation as a CNN contributor. (Her deal had previously been suspended in July when she became the interim head of the DNC.) CNN never gave Brazile access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate. We are completely uncomf…

> they get fired as it should be

With Brazile, yes, they "accepted her resignation" - not even fired. With other journos, they only fired them after they were caught making stuff up by outsiders. With yet another group, talking heads at CNN make stuff up on a regular basis, but yet they are there because they are "opinion" talking heads. Not just CNN - same with all the other news orgs.

Given Donna Brazile's past and her obvious partisanship, she should have never been allowed to work at CNN to begin with. If they want to be perceived as neutral and fair, that is. That's like hiring Eric Trump to do commentary, while his dad is running for office.

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