Can Social Media Cure Loneliness in Seniors?
A senior couple video calling on a phone
Loneliness is one of the leading concerns for older adults.
Could online social networking offer a simple solution? More people over 60 years old are scrolling, liking, and sharing online than ever before. In fact, Statistics Canada estimates that 7 in 10 people aged 50 - 64 and 5 in 10 people aged 65+ are regular social media users!
Is social media helping older adults feel more connected or reinforcing loneliness?
Research has taken a run at answering this question.
Read on to learn if Facebook could be the answer to keeping your parents, friends, or grandparents connected.
Which Older Adults Are More Likely to Feel Lonely?
This study found that women and participants with more than one health condition experienced more mental health problems. This doesn’t predict everything, though! They also found that people who lived alone did not suffer from worse loneliness or mental health.
What’s clear is that it is not the absence of relationships that leads to loneliness, but the absence of meaningful relationships. Equipped with this knowledge, we can take action to keep loneliness at bay.
Can Social Media Improve Seniors’ Mental Health?
A research team surveyed 626 adults over 60 in the Netherlands. More than half of the survey participants reported using social media at least several times per week. They found that the way older adults feel while using social media could be what makes a difference.
New research has found that social media use in seniors has been associated with a perception of greater social support and social contact. This, in turn, decreases loneliness and feelings of isolation.
How Can Social Media Connect Seniors?
Discussion boards
Online communities
Sharing personal thoughts and feelings online
Actively using social media (posting, commenting, sharing, messaging)
Connecting directly with friends and family
From joining an online group focused on a hobby, to reading to grandchildren over a Facebook video call, to sharing life updates with family and friends, it feels good to make connections with other people—even if it's through a screen. If used correctly, social media could be an important tool for ageing adults looking to stay connected.
Study Objective & Methods
The Relation Between Social Network Site Usage and Loneliness and Mental health in Community-Dwelling Older Adults
Sil Aarts, PhD; Sebastiaan T.M. Peek, PhD; Eveline J. Wouters, PhD
Published in International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2015. Aarts, Peek, and Wouters randomly sampled 10,000 people from a database that was representative of Dutch speaking adults in the Netherlands. They surveyed 626 adults over 60 from this group. Aarts, Peek, and Wouters supplied computers and/or internet access to participants who did not have them to allow for findings that could be applied to all of the Netherlands' ageing citizens.
Participants rated the frequency of their social media use on a scale from 1 to 7 (1 being never and 7 being several times per day). They also answered questions that assessed their loneliness and mental health. Several other characteristics such as sex, age, educational level, living arrangement, and medical conditions were recorded as well so the researchers could gauge whether these factors were influencing their results.
Become E Certified
This research (and all our social media and well-being articles) have laid the foundation for our E Certification training: a 3-course program for anyone wanting to approach social media and communications in a way that protects well-being and puts people first. Learn more here.
