Radicalisation of older people

Can anyone open this it's behind a pay wall. I think the gist of it is that AI fools older people

I mean you asked the below

"How can that be a thing?" hence why I was trying to answer 😆😆

I understood that you are saying the DM and similar has nothing to do with the rise in conspiracy theories and how that is hitting more older people. Fair enough.

I don't understand what you're not understanding either 😂
I think we must be talking at cross purposes 🙂

But I was referring to the online version in my original comment. I genuinely don't understand what you are not understanding

No of course not. I'm not an idiot. The DM has been around for donkeys years IN PRINT.

We go on it at work and laugh/cry at the articles.

Our employers did research on what the staff 300 of us logged into for personal reasons. The top three were the DM, dating sites and FB we all got a slap on the wrist.

😆😆

It's ironic that the www. Has been encouraged for the elderly. Because it's a means of communicating, staying in touch, shopping, banking. And yet they've managed to find all the nutters on you tube etc. We spend time worrying about our children being exposed, set up safety barriers, age appropriate blocks

All the while the grand parents are vanished down the scariest rabbit holes unfettered

"Of the world’s top-10 news websites, MailOnline was one of only two to grow by number of visits in July, according to Press Gazette’s monthly ranking of global online traffic. Visits to dailymail.co.ukk_ were up 3% year-on-year to 429.6 million, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb."

It has a huge reach & rolling news means constant stories and clickbait.

When I referred to it upthread I wasn't talking about the physical paper.

@JasmineAllen do you think the DM was always online?

And my point is the DM doesn't have to talk about every single conspiracy theory in order to feed into the lying mainstream media argument.

I agree with you that the DM prints a lot of nonsense.

My point though is that the DM has been around for donkeys years and it's only since the advent of social media (and the modern Internet) that there's been a big increase in crazy conspiracy theories. That's why I generally point the finger at social media and not the DM.

www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5047853/amp/10-Americans-think-chemtrails-conspiracy-true.html

www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/fb-5638235/amp/WHAT-CHEMTRAILS-CONSPIRACY-THEORY.html

www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5605449/amp/Users-shocked-Amazons-Alexa-says-chemtrails-government-conspiracy-theory.html

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11390321/amp/British-conspiracy-theorist-banned-Europe.html

www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1308572/Karl-Stefanovic-Lisa-Wilkinson-clash-David-Icke.html

www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1307735/David-Icke-secret-society-controlling-world.html

🤔

Tabloids don't talk about chem trails, lizard people and the like. So where does this guff appear?

I mean the DM definitely contributed to Brexit 😆

@JasmineAllen it's a general point though and media outlets like DM & GB news contribute to the increase in conspiracy theories but you don't have to agree.

It's not social media in FiL's case. I still think it's loss, his world changing after the end of a 55 year marriage, grief, a shrinking world, and GB news filling the silence of his home. It's so sad to see.

I've seen similar with my mother and my PILs. Maybe not the exact same conspiracy theories you list OP, but some similar ones.

In both these family cases it seems to come from consuming more and more content from YouTube, and a lack of awareness about how the algorithms work to direct you to watch more and more material that 'confirms' what you've already watched. They have huge amounts of time on their hands and seem to spend an enormous amount of it watching YouTube.

I wonder if greater social isolation amongst older people also contributes to this as people don't have enough people in RL to put these things in perspective. That's certainly the case for many I think - though maybe not in the OP's case.

My 80 year old mum has gone this way. It's funny because my dad would be fairly conservative and always has been and is maintaining his conservative views.

But my mum, who was more lefty and a believer in the good in the world has done a total 180 to being anti immigration, right wing, racist and Trump and conspiracy supporting. For her she was always into ' wellness' and holistic therapies so she's followed that WELL worn path from natural remedies to anti vax to full blown conspiracies.

My 11 year old nephew was afraid to brush his teeth the other night because Nana had told him the fluoride was poisonous.

It's so sad and so frustrating but it's also a product of loneliness. My dad doesn't listen to her so she spends her time on YouTube and Facebook with nothing else to do.

I know the title of the thread and I was referring to the list of things the OP said her parents now believe. Someone suggested they believe these things because they've read them in the DM and I pointed out the DM can be crazy, but it's not printing all the lunacy in the OPs list. I quoted the 3 most 'unusual' conspiracy claims in the list.

I think it's more likely the change in ideas have been encouraged by social media.

@MzHz your explanation was much better than mine, thank you.

And the DM loves scaremongering which isn't helping