lunes, 27 de noviembre de 2017

Older netizens: being online can keep you healthy |MercatorNet|November 27, 2017|MercatorNet|

Older netizens: being online can keep you healthy

|MercatorNet|November 27, 2017|MercatorNet|




Older netizens: being online can keep 

you healthy

Studies show positive effects on mental health.
Cecilia Galatolo | Nov 27 2017 | comment 

Loneliness can be considered a disease, a malaise of the spirit (when it doesn’t also affect the mind and body). Loneliness is, in fact, one of the major causes of depression. Those most affected by loneliness are the elderly: suffering from poor health and low energy levels, they are often relegated to the margins of a fast paced society that forgets how much they still have to offer.
But there are also those older spirits who don’t want to live on the sidelines, and that, even if some of their youthful vigour and enthusiasm has faded, are keen to keep up with the times.This is demonstrated, for example, by the fact that many of them have enthusiastically taken to the Internet, which is certainly not part of their cultural background.
Connection is possible at all ages
While it is true that there is a gap between the young and the elderly when it comes to use of the Internet, the gap is decreasing year by year.
In Italy, for example, the twelfth Censis-Ucsi Report on Communication - published in March 2015 – revealed that there has been a steady increase in the use of Internet and social media within the age range of 55 to 74 years. Today in Italy there are 35 million users browsing the Internet, 50 percent of Italians are registered on Facebook, and 11 percent of them are in the older age group.
The Italian Association of Psychogeriatry (AIP) estimates that about one and a half million elders use Facebook to keep in touch with relatives and friends, and that, thanks to the network's stimuli, they have fewer memory disorders and “younger” brains .
This boom in older people’s use of the internet is backed by data from the USA, where this group’s presence on the web is even more notable: 43 percent of over-65s now use social networks, whereas in 2006, only 1 percent did so.
Why are the elderly using social media?
study conducted by two Penn State University researchers revealed the main reasons why in America older people have adapted to social media en-masse:
  • the need to maintain pre-existing social relationships;
  • the desire to "build" new relationships (albeit virtual);
  • the curiosity and the desire to "follow" the paths of growth of children and grandchildren.
All these contribute to their peace of mind.
More evidence about how social media benefits elderly persons’ health, comes from a study by Shelia Cotten of Michigan State University and published on the Journal of Gerontology. In this study the correlation between Internet use for socializing and a lower chance of suffering from depression is discussed. It shows that elderly people using social media services have 30 percent less chance of becoming depressed than those who do not use them. 
Certainly there are risks (seniors more easily become prey to phishing or other scams), but over all the data is positive: they confirm that, even for older people, life is more beautiful if shared and that, used in the right way, the internet can help people live together and feel far less alone.
Communicating: an innate human need
This should not be surprising for communicating and having friends is an innate human need. Humans are social beings, and, as Aristotle put it, "friends are necessary in prosperity as in need, in youth as in old age, in private life as in public life. Friends are the largest of the external assets; no one would choose to live without friends, even though he owned all the other assets."
The elderly, like the young and very young therefore need to keep in touch with other people, to share their own lives, their interests, their fears.
And why not do it through the internet?
Sociologist Marshall McLuhan argues that every means of communication is an extension of our physical and nervous system and amplifies our sensory and cognitive potential and helps us to develop our sociality. 
And in the last few decades the instrument that more than any other could be consider "an extension of us" - because it allows us to communicate and remain connected with others - is undoubtedly the Internet.
It seems that many older people have understood it too...
Cecilia Galatolo writes for Family and Media, where this article was first published.

MercatorNet
November 27, 2017
Uh-oh! Amazon Studios has bought the global television rights to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. According to Harley J. Sims, it’s hard to imagine how the producers will treat the beloved stories of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. With a US$750 million budget, will they be faithful to the Christian inspiration of the original, or will they imitate the gory and sensual Game of ThronesCheck out the story below.

With Christmas drawing near, I’m making an incredibly self-interested suggestion. Why not put a copy of my recent book, The Great Human Dignity Heist: how bioethicists are trashing the foundations of Western Civilization, in someone’s stocking? It’s available through the Australian publisher, at Amazon and at Book Depository. I can’t think of a better gift! 




Michael Cook
Editor
MERCATORNET
Older netizens: being online can keep you healthy
By Cecilia Galatolo
Studies show positive effects on mental health.
Read the full article
 
‘Casablanca’ at 75 – still a classic of WWII propaganda
By Stephen McVeigh
A sentimental and cinematic triumph, the film also argued for US participation in the War
Read the full article
 
Will Amazon give Tolkien the ‘Game of Thrones’ treatment?
By Harley J. Sims
The cyber giant has bought the TV rights to The Lord of the Rings.
Read the full article
 
Musical harmony in the midst of Reformation discord
By Chiara Bertoglio
From Protestant psalmody to Bach’s Catholic mass, dialogue was woven.
Read the full article
 
Nitschke designs suicide machine which doubles as a coffin
By Michael Cook
The latest in a series of DIY suicide gadgets
Read the full article
 
Struggling Japanese elderly turn to crime
By Shannon Roberts
Prisons are turning into nursing homes.
Read the full article
 
 
Why the Mike Pence dining maxim is a rule for realists
By Carolyn Moynihan
And why the people dismissing it are deluded.
Read the full article
 
Embryology and science denial
By Patrick Leeand Melissa Moschella
There's no denying life begins at conception.
Read the full article
 
Sleeping Beauty and ... the predatory Prince?
By Veronika Winkels
There are more dangerous messages for young minds than Prince Charming's kiss.
Read the full article
 
A last look at the Pacific
By Michael Cook
A great tribute to the warm-hearted care of paramedics
Read the full article
 
Kazakhstan is changing its alphabet – here’s why
By Andrew Linn
Many non-English countries plan their languages.
Read the full article



MERCATORNET | New Media Foundation
Suite 12A, Level 2, 5 George Street | North Strathfield NSW 2137 | AU | +61 2 8005 8605

No hay comentarios: