Boomers' reputation on the Internet

[pbrower2a]

(10-11-2019, 05:58 PM)sbarrera Wrote:

(10-11-2019, 09:13 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(10-11-2019, 07:11 AM)sbarrera Wrote: ...

This stereotyping, of course, is unfair to the legions of Boomers who are on the political left. Not to mention those who are very savvy to the ways of the Internet. Perhaps these Boomers are not on Facebook so much; my guess is they are on Twitter instead. But this association, by a younger generation, between the Baby Boomers and the reactionary politics of Trump supporters (who are not all Baby Boomers, is my point) clearly marks the Boomer outlook as a fading thing of the past. The Internet - and thank you for it, Mr. Gore - belongs to a new generation.

I'm a cohort-47 Boomer, and have been on the Internet since '93.  I am not, however, on social media on any kind.  I find the platforms -- all of them -- insidious if a bit banal.  No, I don't need an algorithm up my butt 24/7, trying to anticipate my every move and feeding me what it thinks I need.  I was raised in an era that put that on me to decide, and 'push' tech is anathema to that model.  Give my 'pull' tech, and I'm in.

I like that idea; the old Boomer Internet was "pull" tech - you take what you want from it and make up your own mind. The new Millennial Internet is "push" tech - you tell it what's on your mind and it gives you what it decides you want.

I have limited use for social media. Someone who wants to share a recipe or family photos? Harmless. Politics? Nothing so fosters crankery as do social media. I have seen lots of "Obama isn't an American" stuff and "If you aren't for Trump you hate America" nonsense. The problem with social media is that it is easy to use (as a participant) and impossible to judge politely.

Fake social media are what used to be called black propaganda -- disinformation from entities that misrepresented their provenance. "American" sites such as TennGOP (suggesting that it was from Tennessee) operated from Russia. Some "Blacks for Trump" had Nigerian accents and were not in the United States. Black propaganda can be very effective, as the British showed with the fake German radio broadcasts of Soldatensender Calais (actually from the southeast of England) that broadcast Allied propaganda interspersed with German popular music, sports scores, and even occasional speeches by der Phooey. It worked in America because people were often able to access social media without judging the veracity of political content or news. It is easy to prove that the recipe for gingerbread cookies is good. It is not so easy to figure that pro-Trump material is garbage.