https://www.buzzfeed.com/badge/protectyourparentsfromtheinternetweek
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/young-people-worry-about-older-people-sharing-fake-news
What To Do If The Older People In Your Life Are Sharing False Or Extreme Content
Protect Your Parents From The Internet Week
“What do you do when your parents go from posting Minions to posting hard-right memes about cement milkshakes?”
By Craig Silverman
Posted on July 23, 2019, at 12:36 p.m. ET
Tap to play or pause GIF
Ben Kothe / BuzzFeed News; Getty Images
This story is part of Protect Your Parents From the Internet Week.
“Look for the magnifying glass icon,” said Patrick Costales as he pointed to a tablet showing YouTube on its screen.
Costales, 15, was teaching Michele Bianchi, 81, how to search for episodes of Bianchi’s favorite Italian TV shows. This was the fifth Saturday in a row they’d met in the basement of a Toronto library so the teenager could show Bianchi how to email, read news, listen to music, and perform other online tasks as part of a program called Cyber Seniors.
After the session, Costales sat next to his friend and fellow tutor, Mareson Suresh, 15, to discuss the online behavior of the older people in their lives. Had they ever seen an adult post something problematic on social media?
“Frequently,” said Costales.
“My mom loves taking pictures, and even if she says she won’t post it, she posts it,” Suresh said. “And the thing is, I don't follow her on Facebook or anything because I don't use Facebook, but she’s big on it.”
Be it personal photos or false or inflammatory articles and memes, young people find themselves struggling to manage, and at times confront, the extremely online adults in their lives.
Boomers and older generations are by no means the only people having trouble in our new and chaotic information environment, although research suggests they have the most pressing challenges. Younger people also face difficulty, which is why so many news literacy programs target K-12 and college students. But the rapid pace of change on online platforms — and the lack of widespread reach of programs like Cyber Seniors — have left some older adults struggling to catch up.
"Now what are you going to do about the adults?"
The challenge is to handle the situation in a way that works and doesn’t fray intergenerational relationships, according to Mike Caulfield, director of blended and networked learning at Washington State University Vancouver. He also runs the Digital Polarization Initiative, which pioneers new approaches to teaching information literacy. Caulfield said his students see the need for older people in their lives to learn the skills he’s teaching.
“Students in every class said, ‘This is great, [now] what are you going to do about the adults?’ It’s one of the consistent things that come up. And it’s not half jokingly; I feel like it’s very sincere,” he said. “I do feel when they bring this up, they have very specific people in mind.”
"Protect Your Parents From The Internet" Week
It's time you had the (tech) talk.