How Older Adults Reap Brain Benefits From New Tech

Ubiquitous tech may be helping older Americans stay sharp

- PAULA SPAN

It started with a high school typing course. Wanda Woods enrolled because her father advised that typing proficiency would lead to jobs. Sure enough, the federal Environmental Protection Agency hired her as an after-school worker while she was still a junior.

Her supervisor "sat me down and put me on a machine called a word processor," Woods, now 67, recalled. "It was big and bulky and used magnetic cards to store information. I thought, 'I kinda like this.'"

Decades later, she was still liking it. In 2012—the first year that more than half of Americans over 65 used the internet—she started a computer training business. Now she is an instructor with Senior Planet in Denver, an AARP-supported effort to help older people learn and stay abreast of technology. Woods has no plans to retire. Staying involved with tech "keeps me in the know, too," she said.

Some neuroscientists researching the effects of technology on older adults are inclined to agree. The first cohort of seniors to have contended—not always enthusiastically—with a digital society has reached the age when cognitive impairment becomes more common.

Given decades of alarms about technology's threats to our brains and well-being—sometimes called "digital dementia"—one might expect to start seeing negative effects. The opposite appears true. "Among the digital pioneer generation, use of everyday digital technology has been associated with reduced risk of cognitive impairment and dementia," said Dr. Michael Scullin, a cognitive neuroscientist at Baylor University.

It's almost akin to hearing from a nutritionist that bacon is good for you.