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Posted by tartoran 5 hours ago

Grandparents are glued to their phones, families are worried [video](www.bbc.com)
145 points | 101 commentspage 3
hsuduebc2 3 hours ago|
I must admit. My parents we're right the whole time. Staring at the screen for a whole day is truly unhealthy and they should go to play outside instead.

This whole thing is beyond ironic.

exo762 4 hours ago||
Amazing opportunity! One more demographic to save via age verification laws, with a side dish of reliable personalized advertisement profiles.
HackerThemAll 3 hours ago||
Old people are wonderful relays from paid trolls and propaganda to their peers, unwittingly spreading and amplifying lies and political agenda in social media. They're often retired, having entire days at their disposal, wasting them on forwarding sh*t back and forth.
nolist_policy 4 hours ago||
Wait till you see the grandparents glued to the TV.
50208 5 hours ago||
Seniors are the most vulnerable people on the internet, the most likely to be fooled by disinformation, the most likely to vote, and are one of the biggest threats to civil society. Boomers are destroying what previous generations have built.
allendoerfer 4 hours ago||
Here in Germany they also ignored the demographics, so our social insurance systems (retirement but also health) are heading towards a catastrophe, because there is no capital backing them. They are fundamentally relying on the next generation being bigger or at least equal. This has turned them essentially into Ponzi schemes. The taxpayer has to jump in, making the state less and less able to do anything at all. Of course they now collectively avoid responsibility and slowly milk the young - their own children - dry.

It is truly the most egoistic generation ever.

boelboel 1 hour ago|||
Are they the most egoistic generation ever? The ones who decided to go on this path weren't the boomers but the generation before (as with some other things boomers are blamed for). A capital backed social insurance system is a "ponzi" scheme in different ways from a PAYG system it's really not some holy grail. The problem is just demographics
heraldgeezer 3 hours ago||||
You are describing every pension system in the world.
tossandthrow 2 hours ago|||
Well, he explains all deferred spend.

Deferred spending is quite unnatural. That I can work 1 hour today and buy youghurt in 2 years is an artifact of our system.

But this also relies on someone making that youghurt in 2 years from now.

It is that key dogma that will likely be under pressure for future pensioners.

allendoerfer 2 hours ago|||
ChatGPT thinks, that in the US social security makes up about 30-40% of the retirement income of a typical American, while the German system makes up about 80-85% of a retired German. Home ownership rate in Germany is also way lower.

Germany is an outlier in that there is no capital backing for that generation whatsover. The problem has been known for 30 years, they just chose to ignore it.

mech422 2 hours ago|||
It's going to be interesting when the Millenials retire - IIRC, that generation was almost as large as the boomers. Gen-Z/Gen-Alpha that are going to be supporting them are a LOT smaller.
rrr_oh_man 5 hours ago|||
> the most likely to vote

Well... who's fault is that.

HNisCIS 4 hours ago||
It's because election day is a weekday and the rest of us have to keep up with the grind. It's entirely because they don't have jobs
SoftTalker 4 hours ago|||
It's been this way for 100+ years (probably much longer) and people found a way to vote. It's easier than ever in most places today, with early voting, mail-in voting, whatever other options are available.
dabinat 3 hours ago||
In some states it’s easier now; in some it’s much harder.

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/chao...

ViktorRay 4 hours ago|||
Early voting exists in many states. Even in these states you’ll find that younger folks hardly vote.
k2enemy 4 hours ago||
And also the most likely to fall victims to scams. An elderly family friend lost millions to a pig butchering scam.
Simulacra 5 hours ago||
Maybe a solution is to spend more time with grandparents, so that they have something more than just technology to keep them company.
AngryData 5 hours ago||
As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
eYrKEC2 4 hours ago||
In our household, the worst offenders of phones at the dinner tables are the grandparents.

It's as gross as 2 knuckles deep in your nose.

gedy 4 hours ago|||
Sure, but I've seen since the 70s old folks just staring at TV all day, so it's not just a mobile phenomenon either.
HerbManic 4 hours ago||
Very true, phone addiction is that taken to a new level but the same underlaying issues remain.
analog8374 5 hours ago|||
I know a lot of old bored retired people.

They need something physical and social. Like softball or something. But compatible with their decripitude.

I hook them up with each other. There are parties.

Still working on the softball part.

Ideas are welcome

rationalist 5 hours ago|||
> I hook them up with each other. There are parties.

OnlyGrandparents.com?

(I looked it up, the domain name was registered six days ago!)

alwa 3 hours ago|||
If anybody wants to do something with instagran.org, I know somebody who would be willing to part with it for a good cause…
rrr_oh_man 5 hours ago|||
OnlyGrans.com is available for only $50k
Wistar 4 hours ago||
That’s worth about $5
behringer 3 hours ago|||
bulletball
foobarchu 5 hours ago|||
Doesn't always help. My mother (of grandparent age but coincidentally had 5 kids who didn't want to procreate) stares at her phone 95% of the time when I visit. I'll be telling a story and she's on Facebook, doesn't even look up. She's even been called out in it by my sibling who lives with them, to no avail.

Luckily she doesn't fall for right wing propaganda all over the Internet, but she sure does fall for every single piece of Trump rage bait out there.

p2detar 5 hours ago|||
Yes, but no. From personal experience, even around grandchildren, TikTok/FB have precedence. It’s getting sickening and we need to educate our parents about the harm that "the algorithm" causes. I just ask myself whether we are even in the position to do so.

edit: typo

joe_mamba 5 hours ago|||
I'd love to. The issue is grandparents are in a town with no jobs ruled by a corrupt government that only steals and embezzles money and provides no benefits to local taxpayers.

There's a reason youth migrate away to live with roommates in overpriced big metro areas. That's where all the white collar jobs are created for college educated people. And everyone in the last 20+ years has been groomed to go to college and take white collar jobs, plus deindustrialization and offshoring of manufacturing jobs meaning there's not much in-between well paying white collar jobs and dead-end neo-slavery food delivery jobs. Maybe I'll be a plumber one day and move back to my grandparent place if Claude takes my job, who knows.

toomuchtodo 5 hours ago|||
If someone would like to and is willing to make the time, that’s fine, but you don’t owe them this if they are not a good person or worth spending time with imho. Connection and community is earned, not a given. My lived experience is there are some good old people you strive to make time with, some who are fine but I wouldn’t go out of my way to make time for, and some who are just terrible people who are going to die alone because of who they are. Your life experience and decisioning process about how and with whom to spend precious, non renewable time may differ.

Don’t set yourself on fire to keep someone else warm.

serial_dev 4 hours ago||
It’s all fine, but in that case also do not worry about this hypothetical old person spending time the way they like to.
toomuchtodo 4 hours ago||
Certainly, how they spend their time is their choice, concepts of free will and all that.
chronic20001 5 hours ago||
[flagged]
behringer 5 hours ago||
I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind"\

He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time\

You see my new job's a hassle and the kids have the flu\

But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad\

It's been sure nice talking to you"\

And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me\

He'd grown up just like me\

My boy was just like me

wortelefant 5 hours ago|
Taking grandmas unpaid care work for granted - no longer possible. Outrage!
gammalost 4 hours ago|
More: If you want to spend time with your grandkid please do not just sit besides him, phone in hand. If you do not want to then that's fine