Yes, there is still a pandemic
It's weird living in an age where there is so much information to be had right at our fingertips that it's become difficult to narrow down what information is reliable and what is inaccurate and what is outright disinformation. The pandemic seems to have thrown that into especially stark relief, too: there is so much we don't know about the virus (or, more specifically, what we know about the virus is changing from day to day as more data comes to light), and it feels like the internet is bursting at the seams with people claiming to have found THE answer to everything.
In some instances, it's not too difficult for someone in my position to make reasonably informed decisions, but I'm also seeing a lot of people who are a lot like me falling into disinformation traps. I've fallen prey to a few disinformation traps in the last year as well, but I was lucky to have well-informed friends and colleagues and a decent capacity for independent critical thought, so I was able to self-correct, and I try to be vigilant about that sort of thing now.
One of my mother's friends, however, seems to have fallen right off the weirdo racist conspiracy theory cliff. She's been sending my mother "articles" (I use the word loosely) that are absolutely BONKERS. Many of them have nothing to do with the coronavirus, but all of them are just batshit bananas stuff worthy of Q Anon, some of them barely even coherent, let alone based in science. This is my mother's best friend from childhood, and it doesn't occur to my mother that her friend would be sending her things that aren't true, so I've been spending a fair bit of time de-bunking these articles (oh, and videos too), while my mother looks at me dubiously, because her friend is much older than me and therefore wiser in the ways of the world. Luckily my father backs me up on these things, but it really makes me worry about her--she's fallen prey to scammers in the past, and I fear that she's getting more vulnerable as she gets older.
I ended up going to bed later than I intended last night, so after my Skype date with my parents tonight I will be hitting the hay like a good worker bee. At least, that's the plan. Wish me luck!
This entry was originally posted at https://mousme.dreamwidth.org/1462905.html, where there are currently
comments. Feel free to comment wherever you'd like!
In some instances, it's not too difficult for someone in my position to make reasonably informed decisions, but I'm also seeing a lot of people who are a lot like me falling into disinformation traps. I've fallen prey to a few disinformation traps in the last year as well, but I was lucky to have well-informed friends and colleagues and a decent capacity for independent critical thought, so I was able to self-correct, and I try to be vigilant about that sort of thing now.
One of my mother's friends, however, seems to have fallen right off the weirdo racist conspiracy theory cliff. She's been sending my mother "articles" (I use the word loosely) that are absolutely BONKERS. Many of them have nothing to do with the coronavirus, but all of them are just batshit bananas stuff worthy of Q Anon, some of them barely even coherent, let alone based in science. This is my mother's best friend from childhood, and it doesn't occur to my mother that her friend would be sending her things that aren't true, so I've been spending a fair bit of time de-bunking these articles (oh, and videos too), while my mother looks at me dubiously, because her friend is much older than me and therefore wiser in the ways of the world. Luckily my father backs me up on these things, but it really makes me worry about her--she's fallen prey to scammers in the past, and I fear that she's getting more vulnerable as she gets older.
I ended up going to bed later than I intended last night, so after my Skype date with my parents tonight I will be hitting the hay like a good worker bee. At least, that's the plan. Wish me luck!
This entry was originally posted at https://mousme.dreamwidth.org/1462905.html, where there are currently
comments. Feel free to comment wherever you'd like!