Deep fakes, AI job displacements, and children plastering their faces to Instagram. We’re so down on technology here at HT100 that we wrote this column with a fountain pen.
But perhaps we are a bit hasty. New research published this month in Nature Human Behavior suggests some upsides to the digital age. Researchers from the University of Texas and Baylor University reviewed more than 50 studies on adults over 50, looking at everyday tech use (computers, smartphones, internet browsing), and whether it correlated with cognitive health or dementia diagnoses. The results? Older adults who used digital tools regularly scored better on cognitive tests and were less likely to develop cognitive impairment or dementia than those who used them rarely or not at all.
As with so much research, there are open questions as to causation versus correlation. It is possible that the cumulative research simply reflects the fact that more cognitively intact older adults use technology more than those with declining cognitive ability. And differing levels of socioeconomic affluence – and access to technology – may play a causative role here. But at least, as we shake out our quill, it is modestly refreshing to contemplate some of the upsides of technology.