Social media sites should have 'reverse' Parental Controls; where adult children can block their boomer/senior parents' accounts from viewing conspiracy and radicalizing content.
My mom mentioned that my dad has been watching some concerning (in her words, "annoying") YouTube content lately. Last time she said that it was America's Got Talent, but this time it's white men arguing with cops. I visited and asked if he would show me. He jokingly said "are you gonna violate my rights?" And I very seriously said "yes. I need to make sure it's not Jordan Peterson or Joe Rogan or someone even worse". He got a little bit offended and said "you know me better than that, I'm smarter than that". But the thing is, you start by watching something innocuous like some idiot sovcit arguing with cops and the algorithm pipeline feeds you nazi shit from there and you don't even know it.
For context, my parents are the kind of leftists that don't know what leftists are. My mom calls herself a bleeding heart liberal, and my dad sees the media say things like "radical liberals" and jumps up off the couch screaming "you bet your ass im a radical liberal!" But they're left of liberal, they just don't have the language for it.
I'm not worried that my dad is gonna seek out nazi propaganda, im worried it's gonna find him anyway and I want to throw his phone in a lake.
Maybe shower thoughts wasn't the right community for me to have my existential crisis. But I wish i could block "sovcit" on my dad's phone and "trad-anything" on my mom's phone, not because I think they're dumb (okay maybe a little) but because this shit is so toxic and intrinsic and scary and my parents are so dumb.
Take care of yourself and your loved ones xx
I was interested in Diablo IV when it was released which, after a few videos, led YouTube to recommend Asmondgold. I watched one or two of his videos and the next thing I know my feed is full of maga and manosphere trash. Most of it had innocuous titles and thumbnails but a few minutes in I was being bombarded with lies, bad faith arguments, logical fallacies. Don't even get me started with where funny Garand Thumb videos will lead. All I could think of was how Al Queda and ISIS recruited people with videos posted online.
EDIT: For the most part, I liked Asmondgold, but the algorithm leads from him to very dark places.
Same thing happened with me and Shadiversity. I like medieval stuff and fantasy so i thought he’d be interesting.
Noooope. Just another fash scumbag.
Imo Asmongold is good to mid, until he starts getting political, then it plummets into awful. Also yeah I think the garand thumb to far right pipeline is very real, the guy is actually quite extreme iirc.
Leftists really do need to do more gaming content.Thats all I'll say.
Must be nice to have parents that haven't turned out to be fascist sociopaths.
Sending love, you’re awesome
Any time you hear Republicans argue 18 year olds shouldn't be able to vote, and they want to increase the age to 21/25, tell them "OK - then anybody over 65 isn't allowed to vote either."
I constantly refer to my parents and in-laws as children. Why? Because they behave exactly like my 11 year old. They have no critical reasoning skills, no emotional intelligence, are easily offended, and can not be reliability left on their own without screwing something up.
At some point around retirement age, humans seem to cognitively revert back to children and those of us in middle adulthood are left to parent our actual children and our childish parents.
Unfortunately I think that's just our parents and not all old people. My parents are the same way, but it seems to me more that maturing is a choice and active process that requires effort, and many people are unwilling to put in the work and vigilance required and it leads to the above
I don't think they're children, I think they're selfish lazy assholes, but the result that they need to be treated like children is the same
At some point around retirement age, humans seem to cognitively revert back to children
I haven’t seen that happen to everyone I know around that age. Many still have their wits about them and see the current state of affairs as a clown show. Some are even out here on the streets protesting.
At some point around retirement age, humans seem to cognitively revert back to children
I know someone who works in a elderly care home, she says roughly the same: "Ouderen verkindsen" (elderly turn into children)
Your cognitive abilities really do seem to diminish after a certain point, no matter where. It's annoying they think they're adults and demand respect...
My great grandmother (meemaw) had severe dementia, and one time in a moment of clarity she said I believe that you're a child twice, at the beginning and the end.
She lived to 96. Luckily my grandparents that I loved, her daughter (mamaw) and her daughter's husband (papaw), died relatively sooner once dementia set it. Unfortunately my grandpa lived with it for about ten years but it was only a couple years for my grandma. In great grandma's case, she was falling into dementia around the time I was born.
At some point around retirement age, humans seem to cognitively revert back to children and those of us in middle adulthood are left to parent our actual children and our childish parents.
Is this true, or is this just (mostly) boomers?
I just keep their Facebook accounts logged in on my phone. Every few months, I will go onto their profiles and unlike pages like "Wear your poppy with pride" and deradicalize their algorithm. Poppies for British boomers on Facebook are like Elsa and Spiderman on YouTube for babies.
Facebook slowly pushing more shit and you shoveling the shit away. Nicely done!
Very good idea there. I'm starting to have to keep track of my parents passwords (because they don't) and removing spam/disinformation from their Facebook/email/YouTube regularly might resolve many issues.
Like someone mentioned, shoveling the shit. Can't stopped it from getting there, but I can remove it.
Simpler still: disenfranchise senile boomers. Of course you don't target boomers specifically, any old person with very little time left to live and severe disconnect from reality shouldn't be allowed to vote on what affects the rest of the world long after they are dead.
severe disconnect from reality
Something about that doesn't sit right with me. Seeing how far the definition of an "illegal alien" is being stretched for deportation, I have a feeling people with autism, ADHD, depression, etc, would all be added to the list of people who are "disconnected from reality"
Not to mention some people are dumb enough to argue being trans is a mental illness aswell. (dysphoria is NVM it's a diagnosis, being trans is not)
The better solution imo is to inform people about what's going on around them and how to watch out for pipelines.
They did specifically say senile in conviction with a severe disconnect from reality.
I would say many people with ADHD and milder autism have a more true perception of reality than neurotypicals, but I'm biased.
I feel the need to offer a correction. Dysphoria is a diagnosis, and is not considered to be a mental illness.
inform people about what’s going on around them
I have lived all my life around retirees, people 50+ years old. I can tell you from that experience, you can inform them all you want, they're not likely to change their opinions about anything.
Neuroplasticity goes to hell after 40, faster when you drink and/or smoke.
That's what router settings do. Sorry, X is not reachable from here.
My wife stayed at an Airbnb last week, I tried to convince her to turn the parental controls on and block OAN and Fox.
What's OAN? Never heard of that.
Farther right than Fox. Yes, it's possible.
One America News. They used to be a fringe right-wing conspiracy website. Now they have a "news" broadcast on cable TV and a presidential administration that boosts them. It's basically your drunk Qanon uncle rambling about lizard people, but with professional production.
Another far-right shit hole
no, WE THE PEOPLE should have global networks that simply remove that kind of brain rot and delete the people that perpetuate it.
The first step in trustable networks is securely validated identity.
On the internet nobody knows if you're a dog, a Russian Troll, or a corporate shill.
This is the one thing I hoped for out of crypto/blockchain.
You, commenter, don't need to know that I'm "Brian Brianson, a citizen living at 123 Abenue Avenue". But, it's good to know that the person commenting is a real person who has been seen and verified by someone, as a simple true/false flag. If there were good ways of verifying basic conditions of people you interact with online, without exposing personal details, then it could curb botnet opinionation as well as be useful for a lot of things.
You can be all three at the same time!
Jokes apart, how would you prevent trolls and shills from trolling and shilling?
We already have a problem where real accounts get stolen because they have a history so it's harder to be flagged as bots. And one person can open multiple accounts in multiple networks. Hell, Facebook forces people to have phone numbers and there's still so many bots and shills there.
I don't want this to sound like a straw man, I think there's so many ways for bots to happen that it's like playing wack a mole.
The squad has taken care of the hacker
Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't think we should kill large amounts of people just because they follow a different political ideology than us. 🙄 We have to be better than these extremists to truly show them a better way...
... I think he meant delete accounts, not delete actual people, but I could be wrong lol
Edit: nope, dude's just an asshole lol
just because they follow a different political ideology than us
Good thing the actual reason is the being Nazi thing, not just having a different opinion then!
Fuck Nazis and anyone who thinks they don't deserve a slow and agonizing death
I think it would be better to make social media unprofitable with heavy regularion on data collection, trading and sharing.
Totally agree. Especially since in my country, young people are swallowing far-right propaganda at a higher rate than boomers. Canada's Tater Tots are trying to elect a MAGA candidate right now. Age is not the problem - the well of information has been poisoned.
True. I also wanted a senior mode on Apple family groups.
south park did it.
And they all started playing Minecraft unironically.
Love that episode.
i do, too, but their portrayal of minecraft was hilariously bad
It’s the right idea, but too narrow of a demographic. It’s not the old people that seem to be the problem. At least not only them. It’s the uneducated or intellect impaired that should be reined in. The ones that are just smart enough to use Facebook, but would struggle to understand the concept of the Dunning–Kruger effect
The amount of younger people that are sucked in hook, line, sinker, rod, boat, trailer and truck is staggering.
It’s like they decided that reality didn’t work for them, so let’s just ignore it in favour of “insert discriminatory slogan or catchphrase here”.
It’s bonkers.
The amount of younger people that are sucked in hook, line, sinker, rod, boat, trailer and truck is staggering.
That demographic is a whole other problem that requires a whole other solution. Conservatives have spent a decade building the online right-wing pipeline with podcast bro's and streamers aiming their content at young teenage boys. Now all those kids are of voting age, and a big chunk of them have spent half their lives being raised on manosphere bullshit that taught them that they are owed the world on a silver platter.
I will hand it to conservatives; they are frighteningly good at organizing and staying on message in ways that the Left can only dream of. If we could get half as organized as them, they'd never win another election.
JK Rowling is doing something extremely similar to teenage girls, and this isn’t really on many’s radar.
Yeah, there's a reason the orange overlord is targeting universities now. He knows that election wins come from the uneducated and poor. They either truly don't know, or don't care enough since they have no investments worth mentioning.
You give him too much credit. He doesn't know any of this. But the right-wing think tanks that have been waiting for this moment do, and he's easily manipulated into following their agenda.
It’s the uneducated or intellect impaired that should be reined in.
Are you aware that this genuinely sounds like some nazi shit? Let's maybe not start controlling what the "intellect impaired" can do with their lives...
I think you are confusing Nazism with genuine concern. Careful with that. Hating people for opposing views is more dangerously close to what you so easily accuse me of, and your tiny tough guy attempt to mask your own bigotry just highlights that you may need to reflect a little.
To my previous point, not somehow mitigating the easily duped portion of our formerly democratic systems is a big part of what’s driving the Nazi ideals back into popularity. As long as untamed propaganda is allowed into the thoughts of the weak minded, the rest of us face an uphill battle.
If you read my previous statement about this again. You’ll notice that I didn’t say anyone should be controlled. Whether we bring facts back into law and punish those who spread lies, or bolster education to teach people how to spot the lies, it doesn’t really matter. But splitting hairs over how I said it won’t change that it is a problem.
Trying to deflect, blame or sidestep that is playing right into the MAGA/Nazi mindset. Division of the people and spooky non-issues to rally fear in the populace is what gives them control.
I can’t speak for everyone but I raised my mom right and kept her away from that trash.
My parents are already fully indoctrinated. I don't think there's a way back
What they should do is one of those replace-words add-ons making rightwingers talk positive about DEI or talk shit about anti-immigration, see how quick people above 60 nationally change their mind
That’s a feature, not a bug. They show that stuff intentionally.
Social media sites thrive on the engagement that comes from those people doom scrolling so this whole premise is antithetical to the purpose of social media sites and the only reason they aren't doing the same to children is because the law prevents them from doing so wholesale (but they will try to edge around the law every chance they get).
Lol, this is literally a south park episode.
I would whole-heartedly support this.
So, you mean like childish controls?
I’m so tired of this rampant paternalism across society. It’s exhausting.
How do you propose to counteract the spread of facism through the internet?
paternalism
Whenever I see someone complaining about this on the internet, I imagine they're an angsty teenager mad that their mom doesn't let them get a face tattoo.
Man so much hate in this thread I'm not about what's happened at all with the USA but I'll still protect my family and show them a better way rather than let them rot and die. So many self righteous people thinking they know whats good.
Ok but adults controlling other adults isn't "reverse" tho.
The "reverse" here is in the context: "parental controls" is conventionally allows parents to restrict offspring.
Yeah I get the attempted use, but it's not a reverse because adults can only restrict minors, not "offspring". And yes, I am fun at parties.
The opposite of parental controls would be blocking content made for kids
I wish I could do that with my own and from what I can tell my algorithms don't even put them in as much as other folks.
Sorry guys, that also happened 40 years ago in the form of "retired guy has some free time and starts buying 2 newspapers, one of which is just political propagabda"... That's definitely not on social media, they just amplified the phenomena
I feel like we are glossing over the fact that I doesn't matter that fact if someone is young or old, we can all have good ideas! But the fact of the matter is we need teem limits in congress and SUPREME COURT. We have a problem with stale ideas.
I feel like we are glossing over the fact that I doesn’t matter that fact if someone is young or old,
Actually if you're talking about congress and the supreme court, I think age limits would make a lot of sense. After all, the people in these positions are deciding how the rest of us get to live. If they don't represent the generations they're governing over, it's inherently unfair. I think anybody who isn't of working age shouldn't be allowed to govern, as that's always the most important demographic for the country.
I guess you don't think much of your parents then if you feel like you're a better judge of that.
Massive amount of hypocrisy and double standards going on ITT. Imagine the outrage if someone suggested doing that to your feed.
I mean... Have you seen the stuff my parents share...?
I'm just thankful that my kids will never be embarrassed by me. (This is sarcasm. Of course they will!)
I actually hope my kids are at least a little embarrassed by me, someday. I hope they will embrace new kinds of pragmatic effective compassion and community, even if I'm unable up adapt.
My mom embarrassed me all the time as a kid, but only because she's a boisterous, loud personality. She never really did anything on purpose, and I was never the one to throw a tantrum in public so there was no need.
Lol. What controls?
China, now the leading global super-power, took drastic measures decades ago to make sure their population wasn't getting indoctrinated by outside influences.
They also used this power to cover up genocides and such, but I feel like a healthier balance could be maintained if we could just get our population to understand that their unfettered access to literally anything is like opening up a wound to the world's bacteria.
China didn't do that cause they care about their citizens. They did it so only they can control what propoganda their citizens consume, teaching children critical thinking and emotional regulation early in their life is a better approach than trying to turn the external world into some safe walled garden
Yes, let's normalize censorship.
If the majority of people cannot handle information on their own, how can we maintain democracy?
Are senior cititzens more stupid? Otherwise how do we know that we believe the right things, and not just what is acceptable by the mainstream which will change for the next generation?
Yes, senior citizens are more stupid. That's why scams targetting them exist. You can tell them about something being a scam and they will fall for it anyway. They will get fished by "huge savings" and "sales" despite being millionaires. Once someone starts "sliding back", it doesn't matter how smart they used to be.
And so nothing changes and probably continues to get worse.
Also, this is an attempt to block malicious influence, outright lies, and distorted reality. You’re free to access actual reality anytime.
People who say this are usually consuming misinformation and propaganda and don't know it. Anyone outside of those echo chambers can clearly see how it's dangerous and harmful to democracy.
Yeah, stripping adult people from some of their basic rights sound like a perfectly fine idea.
It's better than the alternative. Trust me.
So what basic rights should we strip them also? The right to vote? I mean, if they are not capable of making valid decisions about what to watch/read/think then they can't be capable of making valid decisions to vote! And lets remove Freedom of Speech fully, it only gets misused to enable nasty opinions and thoughts that "the correct and good" people don't like.
No rights are being removed. If they choose to come to you for free IT support, they are choosing to accept how you set up their devices...
We can influence the behavior of our loved ones, we can't meaningfully influence sociopathic corporations. While not feasible, it still feels like the best of a bunch of shitty options.
you should realize this is half a joke
When someone talks about murdering everyone he doesn't agrees with or taking away basic human rights only because of the demographic then it stops to be a joke in my eyes. We have seen times and times again how it ends, and it is never good.
But yes, I think enough words have been said here, everything else is pointless redundancy.
If you set up parental controls on your parent's devices I can guarantee they won't find a way around it.
They will, usually by accident. Source: my father in law.
You block Fox News using a Pi-hole?
my grandpa with dementia installed OVER 40 solitaire apps because he would go to the app store and install one every time instead of opening the ones he "couldn't find"
now he has parental controls blocking app downloading
I hope you guys checked for subscriptions he may have added. Might still be paying for a dozen of those games.
I’m glad he has you/y’all Toadski
<3
Thats all good for kids since they dont know any better to begin with. Parents will bitch and complain they can no longer watch Fox news to enough people, and 'the problem' will get fixed.