1w ago

Older people who use smartphones ‘have lower rates of cognitive decline’

www.theguardian.com

More work is needed to explain the findings, but the researchers suspect a two-way relationship underpins the results. In this scenario, people with better thinking skills are more likely to use digital devices, but there are also cognitive benefits to be had from embracing the technology.

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1w ago

22 year old girl uses neurolink for the first time.

www.theguardian.com /science/2025/apr/14/older-people-use-smartphones-lower-rates-cognitive-decline

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1w ago

Article

Older people who use smartphones ‘have lower rates of cognitive decline’

www.theguardian.com /science/2025/apr/14/older-people-use-smartphones-lower-rates-cognitive-decline

56 comments

“It is unclear whether the technology staves off mental decline, or whether people with better cognitive skills simply use them more.”
It’s very early stages of the research then. In my experience elderly people use smartphones very differently to kids. Also, their personal development has past the formative stages so I imagine the devices cause less disruption.
There’s no doubt that they ruin the brains and lives of our kids though, as the research video posted on Lemmy.world recently makes clear.
Edit: Here it is. Brain scans show that screen addiction is the same as drug addiction as far as development of brain pathway changes and brain chemistry are concerned. Only difference is we haven’t had addicts this young and at this scale before. Memory, empathy, cognition and impulsivity are all impacted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ViT6LyLm6E
- I think definitely causation correlation.
  Working geek squad the people who were more with it tech wise were people just willing to learn. If you maintain the ability to learn then you'll be fine, and it makes sense that those elderly people who learn their smartphones are doing better. I don't think it's because of smartphones. I think them able to use their smartphones is because they are okay with adaptation and change
- Could you link that video?
  
  Okay. I updated my original comment.
- “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”- Socrates
  
  Misattributed to Socrates. Mis/disinformation spreads quickly over the Internet, so it's up to all of us not to be vectors for it.
  We have increasingly extensive bodies of scientific evidence indicating the harms of giving young kids the sort of near-unrestricted access to smart devices and social media that are common in society today.
  That one person said "something similar bad" but it wasn't actually that bad in the past (or even that this is a pattern) doesn't invalidate scientific evidence. If kids started smoking cigarettes en masse, you could pull up this exact same quote, and it would be just as strong an argument as it is here.
- Addiction is fascist rhetoric. Even councillors who help people with drug use problems are rethinking the addiction model
  
  Are you sure that they are doubting the very idea that one could become addicted?
  
  Addiction is fascist 😂😂 Jesus Christ man, touch some grass

I'd like a cross study with those that read books, plz

Everything is better for your cognivity than watching TV all day, even staring at a blank wall.

I wrote about this when I was getting my masters. I remember that it was due to being able to communicate and not feel so isolated. Social interactions have a huge impact on cognition in elderly subjects.

I was told phone bad.
- They say that because kids can read banned books about gay people and talk about gaza
- The article says "digital technology" and mentions phones, tablets, computers, etc. But headline writers are lazy.
  
  anecdotally the seniors I know all just use phones
- Why much word when few do trick

But higher rates of doomscrolling and despair.

Fixed title :
Older people with ‘lower rates of cognitive decline’ more likely to have smartphones.

I guess falling into a far-right Q-anon hole is more intellectually stimulating that watching TV..

My mother must be an outlier then. She went from Fox News 100% of the time, to Fox News on in the background while she watches reels on FB or plays candy crush.

There's a causality issue here.
It's using speakerphone and FaceTime in public that causes lower rates of cognitive loss
- Those aren't the typical senior smartphone habits at all. (What even does using speakerphone matter?)

I knew there was a reason I was here!

Learning something new trains your brain, yes.

Too bad I'm not an older person

So is it brainrot or brain nourishment??
- Depends on what you do with it
  
  I use it for brainrot ☹️
- Depends what you use it for.

I'm 57 and my smartphone has absolutely frazzled my brain.

This is bullcrap.
What, using smartphones is cognitively beneficial in old age? Like, the total opposite of young people, though?
Smart phones cognitively stunt young folks but improve cognitive ability for the older?
Something isn't right here. Some information is missing or something.
- They said drinking coffee improves your bloodstream, so I drank 50 and got hospitalized. Lies and propaganda all the way!
  \ There is no way that one thing can have positive and negative effects depending on context, good and bad are the only two categories to choose from.
- That young brains are still highly actively developing, perhaps? Like why minors shouldn’t drink coffee or weed?
- Because for older people it's about learning new things. I've just gotten my 80yo mum onto using a smart phone and it's baby steps but she's learning how to use it. She's learning something new. Before I had a falling out with my father, he had a tantrum at me using big fancy words that he doesn't understand, like app, play-store, email, dns, etc. If you can't fix it with a spanner or hammer he doesn't want anything to do with it, so he watches free2air tv, sips coffee and smokes weed; from what I can tell that's all he does.

It's probably the reverse for younger folks, lol.

Young people, conversely...

Looks like im in trouble. H8 smartphones.

Study funded with a grant from Apple, Inc. and Google… please buy their tariffed phones.
- That's just wrong. If it's a joke please mark it as such because there's nothing to indicate it's a joke.
  Support was provided by the National Institutes of Health (R01AG082783; M.K.S., J.F.B.), the National Science Foundation (1920730 and 1943323; M.K.S.) and the Alzheimer’s Association (AARG-22-924771; J.F.B.). The funders had no role in study design,
  data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of
  the paper.
  The authors declare no competing interests.
  Plus it's a meta-analysis review.

56 comments