So I (42F)just had a minor fight with my mum (75F) and I need some help. We are both in canada and she has become completely obsessed with American politics. In her defense at least it’s not right leaning. Lately though I have been finding her watching AI generated slop content. This is after we just watched the John Oliver video on the same subject. Im also in infosec so i get exposed to alot of this stuff regularly. This last time I got a little more flustered then I should have. And she told me I’m being controlling. (I asked her to pause the video and reminded her of what we just watched)I don’t think I am controlling her but I am concerned about her being manipulated by this made-up junk. How can I approach this better so she doesn’t feel like I’m telling her what to do?
One other point i think is relevant I’m highly technical and she refuses to learn more then the absolute basics about tech and this probably colours my opinions to some degree.
Also apologies for gramer and word choice I’m on mobile.
Comments
Maybe just show her how it’s made? Since I know the process of making AI videos I am much more aware of what to look out for
You know what to do with her router, go to town
I hear yah! It’s a challenge with my folks too. They eat it up so willingly but get super defensive when you remind them it’s nonsense.
Corridor Crew recently released a video on youtube called “Can We Teach our Moms to Spot Fake Ai Videos?”. Maybe you can watch with her.
This option might have sailed already because you put her on the defensive, but instead of getting her to stop, why not reframe the conversation to get her to figure out if what she’s watching is AI? Older people don’t like to be infantilized or made to feel like they can’t figure things out on their own. Make a game of it. Get her to figure it out on her own and she’ll be invested. Watch things together to see who spots the AI’s inconsistencies first, and make sure she wins sometimes. Have her send you videos that she knows are AI, along with videos that are real, and see if she can fool you. That sort of thing.
If you are fine being a little sneaky/underhanded, any time you are at her device, just start blocking accounts that post that slop. More will always pop up, but at least you can weed the garden some.
You can’t force your mom to change her social media browsing habits. Like, it sucks, but the only thing you can maybe do is show her the videos are fake and redirect her to better sources. Even that would probably backfire as she’s likely to just think everything is AI or nothing is. Imagine how you’d feel if someone tried to force you to stop using Reddit or whatever… it would just make you annoyed with them and not trust them anymore.
Try sending her legit videos more often to untaint her feed a little.
In my experience it takes long term, gentle nudges to change how people feel about their media sources. Reality rarely matters much in the face of people’s psychological comfort.
Could you watch something like The Social Dilemma and/or Agents of Chaos with her? If she’s interested in news, she may be interested in the latter to see how other countries are using the internet to influence us.
Those are both older, but the premise is the same. AI is just the next iteration.
Your mother is probably frustrated and feels like you are treating her like a child. You can have a conversation with her but try not to infantilize her. I recommend asking her questions about the content she is watching and why. Come at it from a place of curiosity and she will likely be more receptive to your input. Nobody likes to be dismissed or made to feel dumb.
Make some AI slop dedicated to her to show her how fake it is.
Unpopular opinion, but only way I’ve found to deal with terrible social media habits of parents is to just go on to their devices and change their algo and block accounts. (Or change their router to a child-locked proxy depending on the severity of their tech stupidity.) Otherwise they complain you’re disrespecting their intelligence or treating them like children… and yet they won’t actually listen to your expert advice at all, and just continue to repeat the same dumbass thing that they should know not to do–like a child.
A lot of our parents didn’t grow up with tech and if they never kept up with it, they don’t know how to handle the current propaganda and fake posts. It draws people in, and then fucks with their heads.
If your mom isn’t usually like this, it may be worth asking her doctor to do a brain health check to make sure she’s firing on all cylinders, but this behavior does sound pretty typical for plenty of folks in your mom’s age bracket.