MediaWise for Seniors is offering free on-line courses on how to detect and combat online misinformation. The program was started in 2018, funded by Google, and aimed at teenagers and college students. The program is now directed toward seniors, mostly because of the misinformation about Covid-19.
Seniors are especially vulnerable to misinformation because many of them came to the internet late, and because they tend to be more trusting.
In what has to be one of the biggest ironies of all time, the two free MediaWise for Seniors programs are funded by Facebook.
If you wondering whether or not I will take the courses, why would I? I’m not on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat (is that a thing), Tik Tok, Tok Tik, or any of that other time-wasting crap. I never get taken in by Russian bots, although I am tempted to send money to that Nigerian prince who says I’ll get a big payoff in the end.
For the report on the program, see Paula Span, “Wising Up to the Dangers of Fake News, New York Times, (Sept. 15, 2020), p. D-7.
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