Dr. Sue Varma

I'm a professional.

I have children, right?

Like mom and dad, I cannot be your source of entertainment and joy all the time.

But still asking them open-ended questions, spending time with them, even if it's a weekend, they're home to be like, what does this person do?

What does my parent do?

A lot of times they've got the TV on literally from morning until night.

And it's just this idea of having another person's voice.

It calms them down.

It soothes them.

They do not see this as a problem.

That's the problem.

And you can say, I love you.

I totally understand that

that this is now you know your surrogate spouse if the person is widowed let's say or this is your surrogate community or friends but i want to show you the the evidence i want to show you the data and i do think that most older adults are smart they like evidence and they'll say all right sure and you can say listen above two and a half to three hours of screen time that is when it becomes

like there's a law of diminishing returns.

As pleasurable as it might be at this point, not only are you not getting the benefit, you're getting the harm that's associated with it.

How, as a result of screen time, how has your exercise habits, your sleep habits, your time in nature habits, and your connection habits, how have they changed?

Do you think that your screen time is potentially interfering with these opportunities?

What does your socialization look like?

How often are you seeing people in real life?