AT SOME point, we have encountered boomers sharing fake news and chain messages or even spewing out offensive comments on Facebook for everyone to see - much to the embarrassment of whoever the comment was aimed at.
Facebook and other social networking sites were originally created to connect with other people whether they’re near or located on the other side of the globe. But through time, these sites had also started to address the constant need for news and people’s craving for what’s trending.
Social media has evolved from growing virtual farms with friends online to sharing epidemic news and marking safe from a recent natural calamity in the area. This extension and growth of communication purpose had been so fast it became out of control.
Facebook may not have anticipated this evolution as they have very minimal means to guard users from sharing and posting news and information considered fake. If there were even any, the intervention from Facebook management was only recent when the problem on fake news had already blew up.
In an article published by The New York Times on January 10, 2019, it was reported that the older generation (specifically the Boomers) have the unintentional tendency to share fake news without first verifying the content and whether or not the website it was from is legitimate.
“When it came to sharing fake news on Facebook news during the 2016 election, no age group was quite as active as those aged 65 and older, according to a study published by Science Advances,” said the Times articles.
It is in these situations among others that the younger generation find difficult to deal. Aside from fake news, it is also the members of the older generation who share chain messages such as “Let’s pray for Mt. Taal. Pass this message to five groups and your wish will come true. Type amen.” The younger generation has seen these types of messages when they were in grade school and high school and hopefully would know better than to believe this to be true.
In situations like this that Facebook is slowly being tagged as “baduy” or not cool anymore. This is why millennials and Gen Z shift to more stylish mediums as Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, and many others that perhaps only a few Boomers have penetrated.
But not all who share fake news are Boomers in the same way that not all Millennials and Gen Z have left Facebook.
But there is perhaps a sense of positive inclusivity to be in a circle whose members are more or less within your wavelength - who doesn’t share obviously fake news, ridiculous chain messages, and who doesn’t publicly scold strangers on the comment sections.
After all, what is social media for?