Gen Z falls for online scams more than their boomer grandparents do. The generation that grew up with the internet isn’t invulnerable to becoming the victim of online hackers and scammers.::undefined

  • @Chriswild@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    510 months ago

    I’m not sure that is any different than any other generation. Hell, I doubt you know the age of all the people you’re talking about.

    If you ask my grandparents the whole US is being destroyed by immigrants despite their day-to-day being the same for decades.

    All I gotta do is point out Newsmax and Fox News viewership to counter this stupid Zoomer vs Boomer shit. Just because they are less terminally online doesn’t mean they are less gullible.

        • @rwhitisissle@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          210 months ago

          By the source I assume you mean me, and not the article. Because I’m not being sensationalist. I’m being unfair and judgmental. Very different things.

            • @rwhitisissle@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              210 months ago

              Vox is being charitable to the Zoomers, though, observing that “Gen Z simply uses technology more than any other generation and is therefore more likely to be scammed via that technology.” The original study is also in a peer reviewed journal. It’s not making judgment calls about Zoomers. It’s aggregating statistical data. You can read the article here: https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=ijcic

              From the discussion of findings at the end of the article, the researchers observed that

              “It is reasonable to assume that the safer practices the older group self-reported is accompanied by greater knowledge of information security simply because of the additional years of being engaged in a digital-technology world. Specifically, it was hypothesized that Generation Y would rank higher than Generation Z adults on the OSBBQ Cybersecurity Awareness subscale, and significant differences were observed for half of the items included in the analysis.”

              And also that

              “From a developmental perspective, it is possible that the normal adaptations that occur throughout one’s life impacted how individuals in this study perceived the literal meaning of the items. This could be due to cultural differences inherent to their generational cohort and the individual experiences that occur over time with age. For example, people tend to lose their sense of invulnerability as hey age (Denscombe & Drucquer, 1999) and generation Y adults grew up in a world where adapting to privacy and cybersecurity threats were first becoming more commonplace. These individuals are now at an age where the realities of (online) risk have become part of their conscious awareness as it relates to their lack of invulnerability.”

              Like, this formal study is incredibly generous in its discussion of why Gen. Z might be shown to be more statistically likely to fall for online scams than other cohorts. It also goes into great detail to explain its own limitations as a study.

              • @Chriswild@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                1
                edit-2
                10 months ago

                That study seems to be a survey of college students knowledge of cyber security not anything to do with what you were claiming before as there are no boomers in question.

                • @rwhitisissle@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  110 months ago

                  Yes, they acknowledge that as well when they discuss the sample population. Baby Boomers are literally not a part of it. The title of the Vox article is just drawn from a Deloitte industry survey. Which has no real context or judgment around it - it’s purely a reporting of aggregate statistics. The Vox article just attempts to explain why Zoomers, a generational cohort that grew up with the internet, might be more statistically prevalent for succumbing to those scams compared to Baby Boomers, who were fully adult when the internet became widespread. The superficial presumption is that you would expect the opposite - the older generations have little to no familiarity with modern technology and are more easily victimized by it. That presumption is all the Vox article is discussing, really, and why it’s probably not correct.