4 ms·
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
by api 8y ago
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. Obviously not everything on that screen was true, but when it was called "news" it was held to some standard and so was probably more likely to be true than not. They also had no way of delving deeper, no way of querying or seeking out an alternative opinion or discussing it with other members of the audience.
That generation grew up trusting things on screens.
- ben_w 8y agoOn the other other hand, I’ve seen a lot of people thinking they can determine the truth by weighing various commentators against each other and deciding which seems more likely, which I’ve just found Isaac Asimov used in Foundation (1951!) to characterise attitudes of decline. Not sure I’ve noticed a pattern, age or otherwise, with such attitudes.
- taeric 8y agoI 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.
- burfog 8y agoOlder generations didn't trust things on screens. They cursed at things on screens. They could and did seek alternative opinions, though often it cost more. Subscribing to newsletters has long been an option. For example, the John Birch Society's TheNewAmerican was created in 1985 as the merger of two older newsletters that date to 1956 and 1965. It's now available at https://www.thenewamerican.com/ https://www.thenewamerican.com/ but you can still get the print version delivered to your house twice a month.
- taeric 8y agoThis is in stark contrast to the evidence of the article. That some folks from older generations did this, I can accept. But you will need more data than this to counter the facts presented in the article, no?
- burfog 8y agoThe facts misconstrued in the article: older people are more likely to spread news found on a set of 21 conservative web sites identified by BuzzFeed. A better way to interpret those facts: older people lean conservative. The research showed that political outlook was a far better way to predict sharing these web sites than age or even party affiliation.
- taeric 8y agoIs this just a slant saying that conservatives share more false news? That feels dangerous.
- burfog 8y agoIt's something like that. The study picked conservative news sites, then showed that various groups were more or less likely to spread that news. The most obvious finding in the study is that conservatives were more likely to spread this news, but it was also found that old people were more likely to spread it. The article focused on the old people.