Last week, my mom sent me a video on Instagram Reels. It showed a baby talking to its parents, and she thought it was real. Plot twist (well, not really), the entire video was AI-generated.
Like her, many people today are being fooled by what they see online, especially those who are a bit older. This includes simple AI videos, edited images, and even fake news. The problem is only getting worse as technology continues to advance every day. However, one of the main reasons behind this isn’t just that “they’re old and bad at technology.” It’s also about how they were raised and the environment they grew up in.
First of all, they didn’t grow up with this kind of technology. Even the creation of the iPhone felt groundbreaking to many of them, and the pace of innovation back then was much slower compared to today. Now, there are constant developments across multiple fields including AI, medicine, and almost every area of technology imaginable. It’s just like a completely different landscape.
Second, they tend to trust what they see online because they were never taught to question it in the same way. They had no real reason to doubt what they saw. Technology was introduced as something meant to improve lives, and the idea that it could be used to deceive or manipulate people wasn’t as prominent. As a result, the instinct to question digital content didn’t develop as strongly.
This becomes a bigger issue because it starts to affect how people understand the world around them. When it’s difficult to tell what’s real and what’s fake, it’s easier to believe misinformation or be misled by false content. This can shape opinions, create confusion, and even impact important decisions people make in their daily lives. As technology continues to improve, the line between real and fake is becoming less clear, making it harder for anyone (not just older adults) to fully trust what they see online.
Here are some tips for anyone in general to not get scammed by what they see online:
- Don’t blindly trust everything you see. Check for the source of information and decide whether or not it is credible
- Look for odd movements. Like an audio that doesn’t line up with the mouth or just wording and grammar that feels off
- Extra caution when dealing with emotional content. Fake content usually tries to cover itself in emotional wording and create urgency such as through saying “Act now to save a life”
- Don’t click random links. You usually can click links but never do it when you get it from an unknown sender
- Ask someone else: a second opinion usually helps a lot for this (and in pretty much any decision in life)
Stay safe!