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Senior Rescue

Generally good idea to protect kids from the being manipulated and marketed to on social media. The "new bill to limit manipulative marketing, dark patterns, and harmful content being pushed to younger users". Seems like the same standards should apply to seniors as well. Not all of them need to be protected but some can be vulnerable. They can be bullied and manipulated much the same as kids and yet be hesitant to come forward and ask for help. 

My parents are being inundated with misinformation on social media generated by people who are much younger. But the messages come through channels they trust - their peer-age friends and relatives who are blithely passing around what they are being sent. It creates an atmosphere of confusion and uncertainty about the world they are no longer activity engaging with every day as they did in their pre-retirement lives. 

When I hear their new found beliefs, it takes effort to make them see issues more critically. They would much rather latch on the digestible soundbite than work out for themselves whether it is right or wrong. Growing old in today's world seems harder than it was for my grandparents. I remember them at my parents' age. The only source of information they had were the newspaper and radio. TV was a novel idea and there was only one station anyway. There was very little that separated the sources of data. They did not have to deal with as much spin, obfuscation and click-baiting. It must have given them greater confidence about their place in the world than it does my parents' generation.

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