Have seniors become the new screenagers?

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These days, Sherry Bagnato’s phone is almost never out of her hands.

“I wake up in the morning, and the first thing I do is check my phone for messages,” Bagnato told The Current’s Matt Galloway. “After breakfast, after I take the dog for a walk, I come back in and I’m on my phone — for the rest of the day.”

And before you jump to conclusions, Bagnato is neither a millennial nor a “screenager.” She is, in fact, a 67-year-old retired Toronto mother-of-two, and her scrolling habits have flipped the script at home. Now, she admits, it’s her adult children telling her to put the device down.

“I’ll be dressed and ready to go somewhere, and I have to wait on her and she’ll just be doomscrolling half the time,” said her 33-year-old son, Matt Cira. 

Cira’s frustrations are mirrored both in the online grumblings of other millennials — and recent data tracking smartphone use, which shows a jump among seniors.

In 2014, just 13 per cent of adults 65 and older owned a smartphone, according to Statistics Canada. Now, recent estimates by the data agency place that figure closer to 55 per cent. In the U.S. that number is even higher, with estimates ranging from 70 to 80 per cent.

And they’re not just buying them; research shows that seniors are using smartphones far more than before. Social media use has grown in the 65-plus demographic, too, from 11 percent in 2010 to 45 per cent in 2021, according to the Pew Research Center, a think-tank based in Washington.

For some, including Cira, it signals a worrying shift: some parents and grandparents may be becoming dependent on their screens.

Why the spike

Nicole Dalmer, an associate professor in the department of health, aging and society at McMaster University, says several factors may be driving the uptick.

Baby boomers have lived with technology longer than did previous generations, she says.

“They’ve worked with it, they’ve played with it, so it’s just a natural extension of the different technologies that they’ve been using in their work and now into their everyday lives.”

She also notes that daily life is “shepherding” people to use screens and digital technology — from banking to grocery shopping to filling out government forms.

Many seniors are also using technology to support healthy aging: tracking steps, monitoring blood sugar or accessing health information, she says.

And then, of course, there’s connection: FaceTiming grandchildren, keeping up with friends on social media or joining online communities. 

Those very things are what keep Bagnato scrolling away, she says. 

“I’m on social media,” she says. “I have a hiking club, which I respond to … I take a painting course online and I Google everything. I want to know everything, because I have the time.”

Those reasons earn a tick mark in the positive column, for Dr. Howard Chertkow, a neurologist and senior scientist at the Baycrest Academy for Research and Education in Toronto.

The upside of screen time

He says for older adults who might be more isolated, screen time may be their only form of stimulation and connection throughout the day. 

“There are also constructive digital engagement programs with online learning and puzzles and games,” said Chertkow. “All those things stimulate cognitive activity, so you can use screens to provide a major boost in your cognitive stimulation.”

But it’s not just about playing Candy Crush or doing Sudoku — screen time can also help combat loneliness, which is common among older adults, especially those with mobility challenges, says Patrick Raue.

Raue, a researcher at the University of Washington who studies loneliness in seniors, says that feeling lonely can lead to serious health consequences, from high blood pressure to increased risk of depression and even premature death.

So using screen time for connection can actually improve someone’s health and longevity, he said.

The downsides

Still, experts agree there is a tipping point. 

Spending 10 hours a day on YouTube for instance, is too much; people still need exercise and other healthy points of connection in the day, Chertkow notes.

“If you’re replacing real interaction with online interaction or just passive searching the internet, that’s taking away from social stimulation and cognitive stimulation,” he said. 

And it can have a negative effect on sleep — something he says many seniors already struggle with.

Most screens emit a blue light, which interferes with the amount of the sleep-regulating hormone known as melatonin that your brain produces, Chertkow says. 

“The brain interprets that as saying it’s time to wake up; so if you watch a blue screen in the middle of the night for more than half an hour, you’re interfering with your sleep.”

Dalmer notes that older adults might also be vulnerable to misinformation and the so-called “grandparent scams” that target them. But she notes that younger seniors are more tech savvy, so her worry may be misplaced.

“I’m curious to see [what happens] as incoming cohorts of older adults who perhaps have spent more time online, have more nuance, perhaps digital literacy skills.” 

When there’s a problem

Dalmer says there are ways families can tell the difference between heavy screen use and an addiction. 

“I’d be looking for signs of neglect of self-care, neglecting relationships … and if they are perhaps not telling the whole truth about how much technology they’re using,” she said.

If concerns arise, Dalmer recommends having a conversation — not a confrontation.

“Even sharing your own struggles with technologies can be helpful,” she suggested in how to get the conversation going.

She also suggests helping family members find ways to align their online hobbies with an in-person activity — think using an e-reader and then going to a book club, for instance.

As for Bagnato, she says she has no plans of unplugging.

“I’ve stopped working and it’s, right now, a stop gap,” she said. “It fills time until I find that thing that’s going to ultimately consume my energy.”