Think hours of screen time are ruining your brain? Think again. Rally reveals the surprising research about older adults and scrolling online content—plus the ONE difference between healthy and harmful screen time. And wait till you hear about the $28 billion AI scams targeting seniors that most people can’t detect.
Episode Transcript
Rally VO:
Hey Beautiful People…welcome to the Silver Beast Podcast!
Come on in – make yourself at home
I’m Rally Preston.
So have you ever caught yourself mindlessly scrolling stuff on your smartphone? Yeah, pretty sure we’ve all done that. Some of us more than others.
But I wonder, is that actually a problem? I mean as responsible, full grown adults here, is that really something we should be concerned about?
For kids, yeah, you gotta set some limits there I think – can’t be easy parenting kids and their smartphones too these days.
But for us older adults, should we worry about our screen time? How much is too much? Are our smartphones making us dumber?
I’m not sure I’ve got a good answer for that. So let’s look at some expert research on this…and see if we can get a better handle on it.
So I’ll start with some stats here for you … Us older adults — uh 65 and up — we’re spending around 4 to 5 hours a day on screens, y’know, on average. And that includes TV watching. Now that’s not as much as younger generations — they’re racking up close to 7, 8 hours of screen time a day.
So those 4 to 5 hours on our screens – well the experts say it’s not all bad.
Plenty of studies, like the Health and Retirement Study, University of Michigan, research groups like that… They say older adults who are online for social reasons — you know, email, video calls, yeah even social media — it says they report better overall health, less symptoms of depression, and a higher satisfaction with life.
And here’s the main reason it’s a good thing: Screentime can reduce loneliness. Which makes sense. I mean, how many of us have family spread out all over the country? Without FaceTime or Zoom or whatever, I’d hardly ever see their faces. So that’s good screen time, obviously. And with many older adults who are less mobile than they used to be, screen time can be a real lifeline.
One study even says seniors had better mental health outcomes than non-phone users over a two-year period. So the phone – or whatever screen you use – it’s not the enemy here… not technically anyway.
OK … but let’s go a little further here … here’s where things get interesting…
Turns out there’s a big difference between ACTIVE screen time and PASSIVE screen time. Active is when you’re actually doing something positive — like messaging friends, learning something new, having a video chat with your grandkids, ordering your groceries online, whatever – those kind of things. That’s generally good. OK.
But passive screen time — that’s the endless scrolling. Doom scrolling. Going down a rabbit hole of videos you don’t really care about. I guess you could lump TV into this too – why not. Countless hours of Netflix maybe – just because the TV’s on you plop yourself in front of it. Maybe not so good.
Research shows that excessive TV watching — like 4, 5, 6 hours a day — has been linked to more psychological distress and lower quality of life for older adults. So if you’re watching three straight hours of cable news every night – and yeah, I used to do that – probably not a great thing.I know it wasn’t for me.
Now here’s where it gets a little scary, and I gotta talk about this because…it’s important. There’s some new threats out there popping up on our screens we need to watch out for.
You’ve know about AI, right? Artificial Intelligence? Yeah well, it’s making some things online really, really hard to trust anymore. I’m talking about fake videos that look completely real. Then there are the fake voice recordings of people you know well — these voice clones might sound exactly like one of your grandkids — calling and asking for money. It’s demented really.
There’s this recent study – it found that older adults can detect AI-generated content — fake photos, fake videos, fake audio — only about 50-percent of the time. That’s disturbing, right. And scammers know this…they’ve got a really good shot of faking us out. Americans over 60 lose $28 billion — that’s BILLION with a B — every year to scams. Many of the scammers now use AI technology to rip us off.
And then there’s what’s called AI slop now — just tons of fake content on social media. Made up news stories, manipulated images, completely bogus medical advice. And a lot of us — I’ve got suckered into this — we see something that confirms what we already believe or makes us angry, and we share it without checking if it’s real or fake.
So where does all this leave us?
Well here’s what the experts say — it’s not really about how MUCH time we spend on screens. It’s about HOW we’re spending that time.
The research is pretty clear…for teenagers and young people, online time is often linked to worse mental health, more isolation, more depression. So what about us older adults? Well, it’s actually the opposite. Screen time helps protect us from isolation and loneliness.
But that’s assuming we’re using it responsibly for the most part. Mindlessly scrolling through rage-bait political posts for three hours? Watching endless AI-generated nonsense videos? Getting sucked into conspiracy theories about who knows what? That’s…not so great.
So here’s my take on all this, and here’s what I’m gonna try to do differently myself:
First — and I think this is the most important thing — ask yourself this question: Is my screen time making me MORE connected to real life and real people, or LESS connected?
If you’re using your phone to stay in touch with people you care about, to learn new things, to manage your health, to make your life easier — that’s awesome. Keep doing that.
But if you’re finding the hours disappearing into scrolling through stuff you don’t remember five minutes later, or you’re getting more anxious and worked up the more time you spend online, or you’re choosing the screen over actual face-to-face time with people…maybe it’s time to rethink a few things.
OK, second thing — and this is a must with all the scam stuff out there — take a second to question things. Be suspicious. If something seems too good to be true, you know the saying. If something makes you really angry or scared, take a breath before you share it. Is it real or fake?
And third — this one’s tough but important — try to notice when you’re being ACTIVE versus PASSIVE with your screen time. Active is engaging. Passive is just…consuming content. Being a digital zombie or something.
Maybe set some boundaries for yourself. Like, I’m gonna try this: no phone for the first hour I’m awake in the morning. And when a kid comes over, my phone goes in the other room. Face-to-face time matters more, you know?
Look, I don’t want to sound like I’m wagging my finger at anybody here. I’ve gone down the rabbit hole many times.
But here’s what I know for sure: Technology like our phones, iPads, our computers — they’re tools. Pretty powerful tools. They can keep us connected, help us learn, make our lives better. Or they can suck up our time, fill our heads with garbage, and leave us feeling worse about ourselves or other people.
And that’s not the digital world’s fault. This one’s on us.
I’d say the bottom line is: Be more intentional about your screen time. Use it to enhance your life, not replace it. Stay connected to people, but always be skeptical about what you see and hear.
And make an effort to put the phone down once in a while – take a good look at the world right in front of you. It may not be as slick or eye-catching as the next thing you scroll, but at least it’s real.
Because here’s the thing, Silver Beasties — we didn’t make it this far to spend most of our time staring at a little glowing rectangle. We’ve got better things to do than that. Alright, my friends, that’s it for today’s Silver Beast Podcast.
Thanks so much for stopping by the Silver Beast Podcast. Love your comments…keep them coming.
I’ll see you next time! Take care!