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Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

bbc.com

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Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#51

Post by Aurornis »

retrac98 wrote: post #19

My parents generation are the most screen addicted people I know. Absolute slaves to Facebook’s algorithm. It’s really disheartening to see.

It’s definitely not limited to Facebook. About half of the 50-70 year olds in my family and my wife’s family are screen addicted without Facebook. They live on questionable news websites, messenger apps, Nextdoor, and some others.

It’s strange to hear a 60-something rant about how evil Facebook is and then go on to regurgitate countless conspiracy theories they picked up from whatever websites they’re reading this month.

The parents who scroll Instagram and Facebook feel downright tame in comparison.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#52

Post by talon8635 »

gzread wrote: post #41
blakblakarak wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Dad’s got early stage dementia and Facebook is an absolute nightmare. The apps infested with AI slop and the algorithm seems to fill his feed with stuff designed to get him worked up (currently badly behaved cyclists even though he no longer drives).

Mine got Israeli propaganda and kept texting me so often about Hamas and Muslims that I had to block him.

[flagged]

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#53

Post by SoftTalker »

HNisCIS wrote: post #20
rrr_oh_man wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the most likely to vote Well... who's fault is that.

It's because election day is a weekday and the rest of us have to keep up with the grind. It's entirely because they don't have jobs

It's been this way for 100+ years (probably much longer) and people found a way to vote. It's easier than ever in most places today, with early voting, mail-in voting, whatever other options are available.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#56

Post by hsuduebc2 »

gcanyon wrote: post #33

Time to sign off HN, I guess :-) On a serious note YT shorts are on my radar for "things I spend too much time on that deliver minimal value."

In my opinion it's best from short content feed out there but it's still useless. Too much AI slop in there. Needles to say I did get some interesting creators in there but I believe people I'm searching for are using YouTube as long videos platform and do not properly use the short term format.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#57

Post by pcblues »

"But is this shift actually worth worrying about? Or are younger people just projecting their own anxieties about screen time onto their parents and grandparents?"

False dichotomies can either be the worst thing that happened to humankind or a pathway to a new way of understanding each other.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#58

Post by asib »

susam wrote: post #9

Fortunately, I could never get used to the small screens of mobile phones as a serious computing or web browsing device. So my use of my mobile phone is limited to basic tasks like making calls, sending messages, and sometimes, reluctantly typing emails when I don't have a laptop handy. My primary computing and web browsing device remains my laptop, with Emacs and Firefox being my main tools. One thing that does mana…

If you press t key you will get a full width video player.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#59

Post by pndy »

Over 3 years ago I was in the hospital - they put me on shared room with other men of various ages. The oldest ones liked to talk for hours, doing all sorts "memberberries", elaborated expertises on current state of European, world affairs. Because what the hell else you can do when you have vertigo or tampons in your nose and you need to lie down.

Anyway, the oldest over 80-something man was given some older Samsung phone by his great-grandson with instruction to launch tiktok whenever he feels bored. And bloody hell, that thing looped so much content with every launch but this man still tried hard to find something remotely interesting. I wouldn't say he was glued but that's a random guy who liked to attend his orchard and bees, going fishing etc. - he had something to do in the real world.

I'm witnessing more elderly people around me actually struggling using touch-capable devices - it's like they're smacking fingers in frustration that there's no tactile sensation. They were told that there are buttons to press/tap but there's no feedback they'd expect. For them smartphone screen is no different than tv.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#60

Post by alwa »

rationalist wrote: post #10
analog8374 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a lot of old bored retired people. They need something physical and social. Like softball or something. But compatible with their decripitude. I hook them up with each other. There are parties. Still working on the softball part. Ideas are welcome

> I hook them up with each other. There are parties. OnlyGrandparents.com? (I looked it up, the domain name was registered six days ago!)

If anybody wants to do something with instagran.org, I know somebody who would be willing to part with it for a good cause…
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