Boomers & Misinformation

I’ve just read an article telling me, with the sort of breezy certainty you’d expect from a lifestyle website, that boomers like me are prime targets for misinformation. Apparently, because I grew up in an age when Walter Cronkite and the BBC wore sober ties and spoke in plummy tones, I’m now a lamb to the slaughter when I see a Facebook post about Bill Gates hiding microchips in marmalade.

Really? Pull the other one – it’s got bells on.

Let’s get this straight. Yes, my generation were raised on news bulletins that assumed you were only half listening, because you were simultaneously carving a joint of beef or smoking a Woodbine. But to say we lack scepticism? This is the same cohort that marched against Vietnam, toppled Nixon, and spent years assuming “what the government says” is probably the opposite of the truth. We invented scepticism.

What the article misses is that gullibility is not a birthright – it’s a habit. Some people get theirs from Facebook groups full of memes with Comic Sans fonts. Others from columnists who can’t tell correlation from causation but still draw a graph. I’ve seen Gen Z kids sharing QAnon theories about lizard people while smugly telling me I don’t “get” the internet. Misinformation is equal-opportunity nonsense.

Boomers aren’t uniquely susceptible – we’re just visible. We share stuff on Facebook because that’s where our kids put the photos of the grandchildren. Meanwhile, younger generations pump out TikToks about chemtrails and astrology, and somehow that isn’t classed as misinformation, it’s “content.”

And here’s the rub: the reason so much rubbish spreads online isn’t that boomers believe everything they read. It’s that the business model of the platforms rewards anything that makes people angry, scared, or self-righteous. If you design a system that thrives on outrage, don’t be surprised when outrage becomes the dominant export.

So no – I don’t buy the story that my age group is uniquely gullible. I’ve spent a lifetime at sea, in boardrooms, and in the pub, and the same rule has always applied: when someone tells you they alone have the truth, keep one hand on your wallet and the other on the exit.

If anything, the best defence against misinformation is precisely what the Upworthy piece lacked – a bit of life experience, a nose for cant, and a willingness to laugh at the absurd.