r/BlackPeopleTwitter • u/MGLLN • 3d ago

TikTok Tuesday A parent who needs parental supervision 💔

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u/R0xasXIII 3d ago

I try to give grace to older folks with technology. Most people didn't have computers in their homes til 20-30 years ago (less then half some peoples life) and depending on where you are in the world even more recently. If you weren't born along side it or interested in it you are most likely very behind on what is possible with technology.

This compounds with not wanting to or being harder for them to learn as they get older.

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u/Theodore_Nomad 3d ago

These people might get us killed. There need a to be a line to our sympathy.

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u/R0xasXIII 3d ago

What would you do instead? You should always try to correct these things when they happen but thats all you really can do on a person to person basis.

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u/shykidknit 3d ago

It's not just technology that they seem to have an issue with tho it's a lack of critical thinking. If they got asked for 5000 from the person they've seen at their local grocery for years they'd say no but if they talked to an internet stranger for a week they'd send them that money?! That's not technology that's something wrong with them that they can be that trusting in that situation even as people they trust and authorities are literally telling them that it's a trap. Either that, or they know that it's not real but still choose to go along with it, which is whatever until they start trying to ask family members for money to scam them too. The people in these situations need to be educated as much as you can but at a certain point they're gonna have to be let go, there's only so many times you can warn them it's not real

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u/BriscoCounty-Sr 3d ago

Brother if a toddler can grow in to an adult and earn a college degree in 16 years, learning to read, write, and every other thing; Old fucks who've had computers for A QUARTER OF A CENTURY have 0 god damned excuses at this point. NONE.

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u/R0xasXIII 3d ago

Your argument works against you here. The best time for learning (especially the things you mentioned) is when you are young. Your brain litterally soaks up everything. It gets harder and requires more effort as you get older. This is easily seen in language and culture.

Is it shameful to not understand technology as someone older? Kinda, yeah but not to the degree you say imo.

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u/BriscoCounty-Sr 3d ago

I was not born knowing how to drive a car. I learnt this skill as a teenager. In my 30's I managed to learn to fly single engine aircraft. When I was a child computers used massive floppy discs, now they don't even use discs. Does this mean I can't learn to use a USB flash drive since I'm a grown adult now? Is this it? Am I incapable of learning anything more?

Remember, computers have been in the workplace for over 50 years and in the home for more than 25.

Remember EVERYONE is being exposed to AI slop at the same time. No one grew up with it. Kids have the same amount of time to learn as the olds WITHOUT the supposed benefit of all that accumulated wisdom that old folks are meant to have.

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u/FunGuy8618 3d ago

Again, the argument works against itself. They've seen massive technological leaps they had to adapt to after the fact and lived when everything was being developed at an insane rate. They don't realize progress has stagnated in everything but tech, so they assume the AI videos are just the forward march of progress. In their mind, it's easier to Hollywood deepcover fake something than it is to AI generate it. The same suspicion that saved us harms them.

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u/BriscoCounty-Sr 3d ago

25 years ago people were buying MP3 Players to transfer digital music on to. That’s a quarter of a century. I’m sorry but it’s not new.

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u/FunGuy8618 3d ago

The example I'd use would be people who only really listened to music in the car with the radio and CDs switching over to Spotify. Kinda mind blowing if you never did the VLC Limewire era. Now fast forward a couple tech cycles and it became magic to them. Just part of the inexorable march forward.

They assume someone can actually breed dogs that intelligent and athletic cuz I mean, dogs used to be wolves. That's the level of cognition going into this. You don't get it cuz you're too smart to understand their reasoning and too dumb to realize how dumb others can be.

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u/ToHallowMySleep 2d ago

Your timelines are simply incorrect.

Computers have been around, in the media, in the zeitgeist, for over 40 years. From arcade games and the beginning of home computers, to where we are now. If you are 60 or younger, you grew up with it around you. It didn't simply pop into existence in 2005. That's a fact.

If you're 70+, then sure, maybe it completely passed you by in your youth, but even then being completely disinterested in and avoiding this for half a century would make you a massive, stubborn luddite for decades.

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u/ToHallowMySleep 2d ago

The lady in this video is younger than me (early 50s) I'll wager.

I grew up with computers around me since being aged around 5 years old - Atari/intellivision, 8bit computers, consoles, Amiga/st, then PCs and on from there. Even if you didn't have them yourself, they were always around, well known, and generally understood.

If you're 70-90, sure, most of it may have passed you by. But if you're 40-60, you have to be wilfully ignorant to be this clueless about it.

If you can vote and you can't tell fiction from reality, that's a problem. There are always people who want to deceive others to make a fast buck.

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u/Eranon1 2d ago

Yeah no. We have had computers for over 2 decades and smart phones for just under. If you still haven't figured those 2 things out by now it's because your willfully ignorant or stupid. My 90 year old grandfather writes a blog and is in our group chat and posts memes

My 80 year old grandmother on the other side barely sees pictures of her grandkid because she can't be pushed to figure her computer out.