We’re all worried about our kids’ screen time, but maybe we should actually be worried about Grandma’s Instagram Reels habit.
In California, large numbers of older Americans work from home online, see their doctors through telehealth — or just scroll the hours away.
I’ve noticed that everywhere I go, older folks are now more glued to their phones than younger people.
That’s crazy.
And it might be time for a gentle intervention.
We need our elders to stay connected to us, to share their time and experience with us, to help us learn and connect and grow.
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And we live in Southern California: among the most beautiful spots on earth. Here, fall is temperate, in contrast with most of the rest of the country. What’s more, the holidays are almost here.
That makes it a great time to find an older person you love, pry them from their screens and go do something with them.
Eat lunch and people watch, tour a museum, visit the beach and talk.
Connect as humans.
Recently, at a restaurant in La Jolla, I noted that every older person’s head was glued to a screen. Driving down my country road in Temecula in the morning, I passed a grandma walking along a busy stretch without once looking up from her phone.
And it’s not just grandparents. I drove to my sister’s house in LA, and I helped pick up my niece from school in Beverly Hills. One dad strolled down the street, carefree as a bird, his head in his phone — apparently confident that he’d be seen by the roving Waymos.
But when I see kids on the street, they’re skateboarding, or riding their e-bikes, or in a circle of friends at the mall.
Are kids losing interest in their phones, as older folks are getting more hooked?
Nationwide, people over 50 spend 22 hours on their screens each week, which is basically a part-time job.
We worry about the kids and blame the parents for letting screen time get out of hand, while grandparents at the playground are doomscrolling while little Johnny pulls a stranger’s dog by the tail.
It’s almost a role reversal — and it seems to be getting worse.
Some say screens help seniors connect to their doctors, relive fond memories or stay up on the news.
Fair enough.
But the problem, for seniors and the rest of us, is that too much scrolling eats into their social and family time — and social connections have been shown to keep older folks healthier.
Too often, screens cause grandparents to tune out their families, and retreat into a world of their own.
Look, I’m no angel either. I get sucked into my Instagram or TikTok all the time. We’re all at risk of becoming catatonic digital residents, and ignoring our loved ones or avoiding the things we used to love to do.
This condition is so prevalent that California has “digital detox retreats” from Newport Beach to Julian to Joshua Tree.
But there’s a simpler answer — and it’s reconnecting with humans IRL. It’s reaching out to seniors, rather than leaving them to their own devices. And it’s setting an example ourselves.
Lately, I’ve been bringing an actual book or Kindle everywhere I go, so that if I’m alone and feel like scrolling I open a book instead. I try to talk to people more. When I go to my parents’ house in the valley, I let my phone battery drain all the way.
I even bought a little gadget that bricks my phone so that it doesn’t work at certain times of the day.
This holiday season, maybe we gift these items to the elders we love. And maybe we take them to a play, out for coffee, or shopping for something (without a screen) that they’d love.
And maybe we ask ourselves if they’re on their screens so much in part because they feel marginalized as we’re consumed with ours.
Ann Dunning is an author and entrepreneur in SoCal wine country.
The post Boomers are now the screen-addicted generation they love to complain about appeared first on New York Post.
