Elderly adults are usually considered a technologically averse population.
But many seniors are becoming increasingly enthusiastic about social media – and recent research suggests this trend could yield mental and physical health benefits.
Social media use in older adults is linked to less loneliness and fewer chronic illnesses, according to a new study from Michigan State University.
The paper, published in the September issue of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, contends that social media helps cultivate personal relationships between older adults and leads to numerous health benefits.
Before diving into the study, here’s a quick summary of the research via Michigan State University:
“Older adults think the benefits of social technology greatly outweigh the costs and challenges of technology,” said [William] Chopik, assistant professor of psychology. “And the use of this technology could benefit their mental and physical health over time.”
Using data from 591 participants in the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study, Chopik examined the benefits of using technology for social connection among older adults (participants’ average age was about 68). Social technology included email; social networks such as Facebook and Twitter; online video or phone calls, such as Skype; online chatting or instant messaging; and smartphones.
Previous research on technology use across the life span has focused on the digital divide – or the disparities between younger and older adults – painting a rather bleak picture of seniors’ ability and motivation to adapt to a changing technological landscape.
But Chopik’s findings challenge this interpretation. More than 95 percent of participants said they were either “somewhat” or “very” satisfied with technology, while 72 percent said they were not opposed to learning new technologies.
Further discussion of results, pulled from the study itself:
The link between technology use and mental and physical health was mediated by loneliness, such that technology use predicted lower loneliness, which predicted better mental and physical health.
The observation that social technology confers health benefits through decreases in loneliness is consistent with disparate literatures on technology use and health among older adults.The mediating link of loneliness clarifies the association between technology and mental health, which may help explain why some previous studies failed to find an association between the two.
The current study also revealed that social technology has physical health benefits as well. The fact that older adults’ attitudes toward technology were positive also dispels the perception that older adults lack the motivation to use and learn about technology or that technology may be particularly “harmful” for older adults’ social relationships. To the contrary, older adults recognized the benefits of technology use for social relationships and increasing capacity for convenience—it made communication easier and saved time. Older adults also expressed a willingness to learn new technologies. This finding should give practitioners hope—it means that older adults are willing and able to learn new technologies, and the use of these technologies could benefit their mental and physical health over time.
More from the study:
Perhaps the clearest application of social technology use to successful aging is through its ability to keep older adults engaged with life. Although the current study focused on loneliness as the mechanism linking technology use to better mental and physical health, the possibility that technology could increase social support is an additional consideration. The benefits of engaging with life are particularly evident with respect to older adults’ relationships with other people. Social networks provide individuals with multiple sources of support—both emotional and instrumental. Emotional support involves providing individuals with nontangible support, like helping someone feel valued, supported, and accepted. Social technology can also be a source of instrumental support, which is a more tangible form of support that involves concrete ways that individuals can help one another, like financial assistance or services. Unfortunately, emotional and instrumental support were not measured in HRS, but examining how technology further embeds older adults within their existing social networks is an exciting avenue for future research.
