Key misinformation “superspreaders” on Twitter: Older women
Key misinformation “superspreaders” on Twitter: Older women
Some of our fellow citizens seem to voluntarily do the work of spreading fake news.
It was played up for the show but I think many of us have a Peggy in our life.
Pretty sure she's supposed to be in like her thirties, maybe forty-ish.
I have an aunt that one of my brothers described as
"She is like Peggy Hill but doesn't make me laugh"
Me langua de la espenil
Students: confused staring
We just call them Karens these days
Karens are different imo. Peggy would never call the cops on a black person, or present some distorted/dishonest version of events to a store manager/911. Shes just a narcissist. I could see an B plot of her getting pulled into a Karen's orbit though.
Kahn I could definitely see doing some straight up Karen shit.
My aunt.
Yep
i worked on a pc used by an older, very "conservative" woman awhile back. needed help with her facebook accounts (plural), among other things. she had vpn clients, multiple browsers. tor, the whole bit on there.
it would be one thing if she was just passing tracts, but she was all-in on the fake news, trump, anti-vax, the border, jan 6 and 'the steal'.. basically the whole far-right agenda. and she was spreading that manure far and wide.
the kicker: she's an employee of a local catholic parish.
the kicker: she's an employee of a local catholic parish.
Not surprising at all, without misleading and lying to people no religion would gain mass traction
This is actually the most shocking thing of all. We raise little misinformation spreaders all over the world, base their entire worldview on dogmatic believes and act surprised when they grow up and spread misinformation.
So, it's clear that a small subpopulation is preferentially tweeting links to sources of misinformation, and for many users, they're the most significant source of exposure to these sites. So who are these people?
They're a bit more likely to be female. While both the comparison groups were roughly evenly split between male and female, the superspreaders were 60 percent female. They're also older, on average 58 years old, nearly 20 years older than the sample as a whole. And, while much of the misinformation about the election largely circulated within Republican circles, only 64 percent of the superspreaders were registered Republicans (nearly 20 percent were registered as Democrats).
This is hardly new phenomenon. Before Twitter and Facebook, it was email chains. I still have some from my mom claiming Obama was the Antichrist.
Before that it was fliers and classifieds in the paper for groups to meet up and discuss or have mailing chains.
Although, I would have to admit that back when people who wanted to gather around a single idea had to make an effort and have leadership and infrastructure, you saw a LOT less bullshit nonsense in the world, people just kept their shit to themselves most of the time and it was a little better.
Someone compare these stats with lead paint exposure stats. I'm so curious if we can finally get positive correlation.
More honestly, it's easier to accept that people we love are brain damaged, than just plain gullible.
I'm going to guess a big part of the reason that older women spread misinformation more than older men do is that women are more chronically online at that age as opposed to trying to be active and out of the house, and/or less likely to be employed and therefore have a lot of time on their hands with no kids to take care of now that they're all grown up.
I think you're right - women are also socialized to seek out social/interpersonal connections more than men; this is a big factor in why the suicide rate for elderly men tends to be significantly higher than for elderly women.
This doesn't explain the 60 year olds but with the elderly (70+) women in my life, the vulnerability to misinformation is also an artifact of their comparatively poor levels of education. They were schooled with the expectation that they would be SAHMs.
FWD: FWD: RE: RE: RE: FWD: RE: RE:
So the demo that likes to spread malicious gossip (and lies) in real life also does so online? I’m shocked…
I was actually shocked when I found the quiet lady in accounting was actually a huge Twitter user who spewed such wild shit, at the level of JK Rowling toxicity.
Well you know what they say. A superspreader in the streets and a demon in the spreadsheets.
That well known phrase.
Ole chatty Cathy.
Wrong c-word
Send 'em this:
Didnt need a study to tell you this. They may as well be bots for all the critical thinking they got
Simply yet more proof of Twitter being a terrible platform.
Social media, not just Twitter. The key issue here is human nature. These platforms are just the force multiplier. Misinformation is alive and well on Lemmy as well. It just flies under the radar for the most part because it doesn't go against your prior beliefs.
Boomers are intimidated by tech (which, fine...) and FULL of unearned pride and an always churning fear of being exposed as frauds who don't deserve allv they have.
The combination means they need to performatively "do tech" to prove to the kids (and to themselves, because of course they are also raging narcissists) that they "have the memes" too and can "do a post".
So they will do this misinfo spreading, likely often unknowingly, bit not for the obvious reason.
AKA, idiots with declining cognitive ability.
Watching my parents age has made me incredibly ageist in my political views.
People in their 60s and 70s should not be in office.
Now it is people in the 70s and 80s and soon in the 80s and 90s.
Women☕
Its all yo momma's fault!
Yo grammy's fault
That depends on my age's fault