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Psychology says older adults who scroll the most in the evening usually aren’t the loneliest people in the house. They’re often the ones who found it, quietly, the safest substitute they have left for calling someone directly.
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Researchers who studied older adults’ internet use over time expected to find what most people assume: that the heaviest scrollers in the evening would turn out to be the loneliest.
What the data actually showedJeroen Janssen and colleagues tracked older adults’ internet use, the size of their contact networks, and their loneliness across multiple survey waves.
They expected social internet use to reduce loneliness mainly by helping people maintain more contacts, and built their analysis around that expectation.
Research on older adults and communication has repeatedly found that direct contact, in person or by phone, carries a more reliable loneliness benefit than passive browsing does.
The call that does not happenWhat the research does not resolve is why the call gets skipped in favor of the scroll on a given night.