discussion Are anyone's parents suspectible to online misinformation?

[YourFavoriteWeapon]

My mom is on Tik Tok 24/7 and she's always sending me links to **** that's either obviously a fake blind item or some clickbait thing (ex: she sent me a fake AI interview of Kim Kardashian coming out as non-binary and asked if it was real and also asked me if I believe Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne were both murdered by their handlers and replaced, to which she now does). Lately she's been very into the whole P. Diddy saga and every other hour I get a link to some Tik Tok that's clearly some bullshit made by a desperate account whoring for likes. In the past day she's sent me a fake AI of Justin Bieber singing about being molested at a Diddy party, a blind item about Beyoncê and Jay Z putting a hit on Aaliyah and causing her to get killed, a blind item about Oprah being involved with his rapey sex trafficking parties, and a blind item about Hailey Bieber being one of P Diddy's victims (she is also convinced she's transgender, as is Jamie Lee Curtis). 

 

I woke up this morning and looked over the balcony to see her on the couch talking to her work friend over the phone telling her all this blind item **** like it's true and I think it's really cute how gullible she is. I feel like if she wasn't a left leaning democrat she'd 110% fall for QAnon. Also for those asking she's not a stupid woman, she has her doctorate and owns a hospital  

[Abracadabra]

Not mine thankfully but I have a friend who's mom got super sucked into QAnon during the pandemic and fully believes that Tom Hanks and Lady Gaga are satanists who are sacrificing babies or something  It sounds ridiculous but it's actually sad

[Distantconstellation]

Not my mom but more so my grandma. She's always watching youtube videos and Facebook and believes in every conspiracy theory. She believes the moon landing was fake, that their are no astronauts in space at the moment and it's fake, covid is fake, wild fires are being caused by the government to kick people from their homes, that their government is playing with the weather. She started saying that they were going to kick everyone out of their house and replace them with immigrants, when's she's an immigrant herself lol. She has her phone camera taped because she thinks they are watching her and I can keep going on. 

[Vixen Eyes]

my dad believes everything republican propaganda sites/videos say

[allforyou]

My mother not so much but my dad believes in some conspiracy theories  He also every once in a while sends me those fake videos about random celebrities dying

[MistressKay]

My mom and uncle yes. I think gen x is somehow just as bad as boomers when it comes to online stuff. I'm constantly telling her stuff is AI or fake.

 

my mom not so bad but my uncle is a straight up Q ANON

Edited September 22 by MistressKay

[JonginBey]

My mom joined FB in 2011, if I remember correctly, and it's been a battle ever since

[EtherealCat]

my parents get confused trying to get on the internet so they are safe

[Patient Zero]

My mom believes everything what's written on FB

[Daddy]

Not really but I told my mom she should send me a link before purchasing anything through any app that's not Amazon. 

[PrettyHurts]

No thankfully but this thread makes me so sad. So many people are getting sucked into conspiracies lately and no one has the tools to think critically or seems to care about whether information they believe has a source or is verifiable 

[Mikeymoonshine]

No but my grandma is always falling for scams on Facebook 

[Edonis]

yes, my mother Janet fell for some of that yesterday

[Beyonnaise]

Thankfully my parents are Democrats but I've noticed a few things my mom has told me she saw on YouTube shorts that were giving Fox News'd framing  Like she really thought it was legal in Virginia to kill a baby after its birth because the video she saw made it appear like a normal news report.

[Illuminati]

Maybe not my dad but my aunt, the second closest person I have definitely is. She worked in a hospital and has been taking care of elder people for like all her life and she fell HARD for the covid conspiracies/denial back in like 2020 My guess it's only the tip of the iceberg but I try to avoid her

[terrorblade]

yes omg my mom almost got scammed once by somebody pretending to be a local celebrity i was so mad

[Mr.X]

Sometimes yes, but I feel mostly my dad cos he is friends with right-wing and liberals who LOVE to fall for any shite they receive on whatsapp groups

[Quiqui4eva]

Most of my family, yes

[getBusy]

My mom INVENTED fake news

[Khal]

Only my grandparents, unfortunately.

 

Ironically, my dad was actually the one who taught me to second-guess and check my sources for everything I see online  

[SlowGinFizzzz]

Fortunately not, my parents' media literacy and critical thinking skills are pretty good and they're very much aware of the rabbit hole of fake news that social media can be. 

[glitch]

My dad sorta is but it's normally innocuous stuff. Like a few weeks ago he told me Taylor and Beyonce were going to host a benefit concert for Kamala's campaign, and I had to tell him that wasn't true 

 

My mum is very well read but kinda stuck in her ways on certain issues (TERF and a Zionist ).

[Pop Life]

But seriously, why is this so common? I'm sure most agree that older people aren't somehow less intelligent, so what gives?

[John Slayne]

my dad is kinda, but he does have at least some remnants of common sense and does not fully subscribe to the far-right conspiracies (yet). luckily my mum does not go online (other than for clothes shopping and netflix). they have both always been conservative though

 

i think my aunt is the worst - she fully caught the facebook brainrot and passed it onto my grandparents because she lives with them  but i think it's also exacerbated by the fact that many politicians preach this nonsense on tv now so they really cannot escape some of the wild conspiracy theories, about covid for example