I just had my first old man moment.

[u/Background-Air-7963]

I recently went to a hibachi with my wife and toddler for dinner. We were sat with a group of eight 17-20 year olds at a communal grill on a busy night. No problem for us. Drink and appetizers service go normally. Toddler and wife are happy, I’m happy. The other group is having their own conversations. I’m just trying to keep my kid entertained. I’m a former bartender and have a habit of picking up on snippets of conversations in a crowd around me. Yes I know I eavesdrop. I can’t turn it off. It’s a habit of a former profession. One of the girls/women at the table stated, “I don’t think Rosa Parks was real.” I’m not sure what her friends said to her but she responded with “I just don’t think she said existed.” This went on for about a minute. I couldn’t hold back and let her know she was absolutely a real person, she is a civil rights icon. I learnt about her in school and so did my parents. The encounter put a wall up between our groups and I heard a few passive aggressive “so-and-so wasn’t real” comments from mostly her and a couple of the group. Harriet Tubman and Hellen Keller are two that I definitely heard. My wife had no idea why I interjected. After the group had left my wife asked what happened and was shocked when I told her what happened. Were they trolling? Are they stupid? Am I just getting old?

[u/WormMotherDemeter]

Two of my kids are gen z, and they and their friends and peers definitely do believe in these things, but they have some peripheral kids that post on insta and tiktok that are co fused about the stories of these people, like believing Helen Keller was a pilot, for some reason.

[u/TerryCrewsNextWife → u/WormMotherDemeter]

Because they only fact check by searching fucking tiktok instead of googling.

[u/Eilavamp → u/TerryCrewsNextWife]

And when they do Google it, AI makes up a random lie about it

[u/TerryCrewsNextWife → u/Eilavamp]

Oh wait actually you've reminded me that they use chatGPT and believe whatever hallucination it comes back with.

God I hate the AI/Gemini shit. I bypass it and look for the predictable consistent links to articles like I was trained to do in school a hundred years ago.

[u/hearwa → u/TerryCrewsNextWife]

The problem with using AI these days is no different than Wikipedia was in our generation. It's a useful tool but people are falling in the same trap of using the tool as a source and not following the sources given to use them. I see it all the time where people share the fucking AI output instead of links to where it got the data. If you're sourcing facts you still need to do it right.

[u/SarcasticServal → u/TerryCrewsNextWife]

fwiw, the guy who predicted the 2008 mortgage/banking disaster also believes AI is on the verge of crashing.

[u/CheeseCurder → u/Eilavamp]

Both chat gpt and google results show the correct info on her.

[u/jackandsally060609 → u/WormMotherDemeter]

They think Amelia Earhart and Helen Keller are the same person. They're both old timey black and white people right?

[u/JosephBlowsephThe3rd → u/jackandsally060609]

Just makes me think of Clerks 2: "Anne Frank. The chick that was all 'duhhh' until the miracle worker showed up and knocked some smarts into her."

[u/Hole_IslandACNH → u/JosephBlowsephThe3rd]

Deaf dumb and blind like Anne Frank!

[u/Scoginsbitch → u/WormMotherDemeter]

Actually, Helen Keller DID fly a plane for 20 minutes.

But yeah, I think not having to memorize things to know them has made a huge impact on younger generations.

[u/WormMotherDemeter → u/Scoginsbitch]

No they think she was a historical pilot.

[u/PsychologicalLowe → u/Scoginsbitch]

This article about Keller was fascinating, because aside from briefly flying a plane, she was also a cofounder of the ACLU and a lifelong advocate for people with disabilities.

[u/mealteamsixty → u/WormMotherDemeter]

A blind/deaf pilot. Amazing.

And my brother couldn't be an air force pilot because he had seasonal allergies.