Screen use by the elderly is an overlooked issue

Eva Rustad


info@bemerk.nu

It's not just children and young people who have a challenge in relation to screen time. The use of screens and social media by older people can also be problematic – however, the older generation is often a hidden factor in the debate around screen use and mental health.

 

When we talk about screen time, it is almost always in relation to children and young people's use of screens, the internet and social media. But what about the older generation, who are increasingly using smartphones, tablets and computers?

 

American research shows that the elderly's entry into the digital world has a number of benefits, but also entails risks – sometimes at the serious end of the spectrum.

 

SoMe and mental well-being

 

As older people become increasingly comfortable using digital communication channels and social media, research shows that older people experience less loneliness and social isolation as they can more easily connect with their family. Overall, older people find that using the internet can contribute to feelings of support and belonging – a contrast to feelings of loneliness.

 

However, there is a noticeable difference between the group of older people who have over 7+ hours of screen time per day and the group who spend less time in front of the screen. For the group with increased screen time, the correlation between screen time and low psychological well-being appears to be greater than is the case for young people with comparable time spent.

 

Older adults who spend more time on screens experience twice the risk of being diagnosed with anxiety or depression compared to older adults who spend only 1 hour on screens per day (Twenge & Campbelle, 2018). 

Passive or active use of SoMe is relevant

 

Another important aspect of screen time for older adults is the use of social media in particular. Whether they use social media actively or passively is relevant to their well-being. It turns out that it is the active approach that presents the greatest challenges.

 

Passive consumption of social media means that the elderly person looks at and scrolls through the content without having a direct interaction with others. Active consumption, on the other hand, means that the elderly person engages in the content and creates direct contact with others – for example, by commenting on a picture.

 

While the assumption among many will certainly be that interaction and communication on social media is preferable for older people, research from Aging & Mental Health, that active social media use is associated with an increased likelihood of depressive symptoms, while passive use is associated with a reduced likelihood of depressive symptoms (Lewin et al., 2022). 

 

This contrasts with the findings from children and adolescents. The explanation for this remains unknown. However, a possible explanation could lie in the relationship between the groups that young people versus older people typically have active contact with via SoMe. In general, young people are often in physical or personal contact with the people they actively communicate with via social media, while older people are not always in daily physical or personal contact with those they actively communicate with via social media. SoMe contacts may be reserved for more peripheral acquaintances, or those who are geographically distant. Many older people have more frequent physical and personal contact with close acquaintances, where they meet or speak directly over the phone or text message. Here, the relationship with their near and dear ones may be based on more personal and direct communication, where SoMe acquaintances are more distant and less built on trust. In young people, a larger percentage of communication with close acquaintances typically takes place via social media in addition to having contact in more private forms such as physical meetings at school or phone calls. There may therefore be a possible difference in the relationship the younger generation has with SoMe contacts, compared to the older generation. .

 

The brain needs breaks

 

Older people spend more time in front of screens than before. For the older generation, screen time stands in stark contrast to the activities that used to fill their days. Many would have spent their time on physical activities such as gardening, home maintenance, crafts or regular exercise. These are pursuits that, unlike technological activities, would give the brain a break from constant stimuli and new visual impressions.  

Screen use requires continuous processing of new input, and therefore cognitive resources are used for this purpose. This means that it draws resources from processing, among other things, emotional content. For example, if you go to repair your car, you will have the cognitive surplus to simultaneously process an unpleasant episode down at the club, but this will not be the case when using social media, as this activity requires other cognitive resources. For many, screen addiction and social media can lead to an accumulation of unresolved emotional content, which in the long run can be a breeding ground for a more general state of, for example, depression or tension. This is something that is more noticeable in relation to young screen users, but a trend that is at least as relevant for older screen users. 

Face-to-face contact is preferable

 

Although the Internet and screen use can contribute to the elderly's contact with family, friends and acquaintances, there is a downside to excessive screen time. In addition to a lack of emotional processing, in SoMe interaction we miss out on important face-to-face contact that can have a calming and soothing effect on our nervous system. Our brain perceives many nonverbal signals when interacting with another person. These can be small nuances in a facial expression, tone of voice, body language and mood in the room. Care and presence conveyed by another person through these nonverbal signals can increase our psychological security, well-being and mental health. It is therefore important that all generations, including the older generation, experience physical face-to-face contact, as it reduces signs of depression and anxiety compared to digital contact.

 

The use of screens by the elderly is therefore at least as important to be aware of as the screen use of children and young people, as research suggests that in some cases they are more severely affected mentally by excessive screen use than children and young people.

 

Literature list: 

 

  • Kaitlin M. Lewin, Dar Meshi, Amy M. Schuster & Shelia R. Cotten (2022) Active and passive social media use are differentially related to depressive symptoms in older adults, Aging & Mental Health, DOI: 10.1080/13607863.2022.2068133 

 

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