Chapter 1: What trends in screen time are affecting older adults?
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You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Some people get bummed out about their birthdays and say stuff like, oh, I'm getting so old. But I actually have loved getting older. The sense of perspective, of time passing. And older people are just cool. Ipsit Bahia agrees.
I think older people have the coolest stories. And I could spend the rest of our time together just telling you cool stories I've heard over the years from my patients and the people I work with.
Ipsit is from a family of psychiatrists, and all four of his grandparents lived well into their 80s and 90s.
So all four of my grandparents were at my medical school graduation, which was just unusual and really special.
And the specialty he chose was geriatric psychiatry because he wanted to care for the mental and emotional health of older people, people his grandparents age.
I started to see them lose a step as they got older. But I also saw what they retained and the ways in which they just seemed to get funnier and sharper. And they just seemed to have like wisdom and perspectives to give.
Now, as the chief of geriatric psychiatry at McLean Hospital, Ipsit has had a front row seat to one of the biggest transformations in life after 65, the explosion in screen time.
The sentinel event, I think, for all tech in all of our lives was the arrival of the smartphone that was 2007.
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Chapter 2: How has smartphone usage changed among seniors since the pandemic?
Like what happens when we pick up our phones that makes it sometimes so hard to put down or you pick it up mindlessly where you didn't even intend to pick it up? You're just like it's almost automatic. Like what is our brain doing in that moment?
That's a great question. And if you had to sum it up in one word, that word would be dopamine. Dopamine is the reward neurochemical. It's what regulates pleasure and gratification and excitement. Also apprehension. And a lot of the content, particularly on social media, is... designed to give you that quick dopamine hit.
It hooks you by creating a sharp excitement or giving you a quick laugh or just making you gasp at something shocking.
Yeah. Like when a kid eats like too much candy and they're just like... And then they crash. It's a sugar rush, yeah.
And then you want more. And then you want more.
What I'm hearing is there's a real risk for overuse when it comes to screens. But I also hear you saying there are benefits to technology, including technology use among the elderly. You spoke about social connection on WhatsApp.
Absolutely.
What are other examples of technology at its best?
So I'll give you two examples. And they're both interesting. Just so obvious, you might not even think about them, but Uber or Lyft, the rideshare services, many older adults can't or won't drive because their eyesight is failing or the response time goes down there. by their own admission, they don't feel safe driving their own car. This means that they're often limited in being able to go out.
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