A new study published in The Journals of Gerontology suggests that Internet use can reduce the probability of depression among retirees who live alone by 33 percent.
The study was authored by Shelia Cotten of Michigan State University, George Ford of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies, Sherry Ford of the University of Montevallo, and Timothy Hale of Harvard Medical School. They used information gathered during the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal survey collecting data from more than 20,000 older and retired Americans.
The authors noted “[r]etired persons are a population of interest, particularly because one mechanism by which Internet use may affect depression is to counter the effects of isolation and loneliness, which are more common among older adults.”
They found “that for retired older adults in the United States, Internet use was found to reduce the probability of a depressed state by about 33 percent.”
Makes sense. After all hanging out here with all of you always brightens my day.
WHO you callin old, Gryph? (j/k)
ReplyDeleteMy mom is 83, and lives with my sister, a rapid Republican. If she didn't have the internet, she'd go crazy! She writes letters to several local papers, fact checks things she hears from my sister, and fights back! I am so proud of her, because my husband's dad was widowed a year ago, and he does not use the internet at all, and IS lonely. He talks your ear off if you visit or call.
ReplyDeleteThen there's non-retired who sneak onto IM when they should be working.....
ReplyDeleteHey, you're pretty cool to hang out with too Uncle Gryph!
ReplyDeleteI'm 59,my mom is 86 and right now is in a skilled nursing facility recovering from a broken hip.It's such a nice place,free wifi and very hotel lobbyish,nice people,that I told her if I needed to go stay somewhere,please send me there.She told me that she can see me now,leading a World of Warcraft raiding guild made up of a bunch of senior citizens from the facility.
ReplyDeleteI bet she's right.
O/T but have you seen this, Gryphen? What a twerp this idiot is. Really flat-footed in his eager drive for attention so now he's in full damage control, but it's not likely to do much good, the die has been cast and he's a traitor to the core.
ReplyDeleteSnowden’s Camp: Staged Putin Q&A Was a Screw-Up
Even the NSA leaker’s closest advisers now say his appearance on a Kremlin call-in show, which touched off yet another international firestorm, was a mistake.
NSA leaker Edward Snowden instantly regretted asking Russian President Vladimir Putin a softball question on live television about the Kremlin’s mass surveillance effort, two sources close to the leaker tell The Daily Beast.
“It certainly didn’t go as he would’ve hoped,” one of these sources said.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/20/snowden-s-camp-staged-putin-q-a-was-a-screw-up.html
IM is one of my first internet stops every day when my retired ass finally hauls itself out of bed! (Not because I'm depressed but because I've stayed until the wee hours reading and playing games on my tablet.)
ReplyDeleteau contrare...........I prefered the good old days......ignorance was bliss........or a close approximation.........now,only disappointment.......the shining promise of the future is tarnished beyond recognition........
ReplyDeleteMy mom's in her eighties and on dialysis, she stays connected with people she grew up with, or lost touch with over the years in America, Italy, Argentina and Germany. When I taught her to use skype, it was like watching the first lunar landing! Now I got her a tablet and connect it to her big screen because her eyes are starting to go, but it's made a tremendous difference in her life since my dad passed. That, and it keeps her out of my and my siblings hair.
ReplyDeleteShe does crosswords, word finds and plays Mah Jong constantly, keeps her mind engaged.