Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly
64 comments
·October 25, 2025ceronman
palata
> The biggest one humanity has ever seen.
Sugar, anyone?
rolisz
Did you ever go and eat a bag of pure sugar? Or rather a bag of sweets, which usually contain other stuff, not just sugar.
We're not addicted to sugar, the "sugar cravings" are mostly to combos of carbs and fats.
Eating enough turns off my "sugar cravings". Eating lots of protein makes any craving for sugar disappear (I survived last Christmas by not eating any cakes, just lots of meat).
InMice
Thank you for saying it. Ever be around to watch kids grow up or have them yourself? The exposure and cultural, regulatory control that the junk food industry has here in USA is kind of amazing. Especially in schools. It's really insane but it's become accepted here it's normal for kids, toddlers to consume hundreds of grams of added/free sugars per day.
badgersnake
Breathing
palata
Not sure I would call that an addiction. Sugar is one: almost everybody consumes way too much sugar and would be incapable of reducing that to a healthy amount. I am including myself, pretty sure you're part of the club.
I wouldn't say that we breath "too much".
fragmede
The reason it isn't, is because it's automatic. Your brain keeps you breathing as much as it can (if you hold your breath until you pass out, your brain will start breathing again for you). Breathing isn't reward driven. It doesn't engage the dopamine system the same way, eg cocaine does. You don't become tolerant to breathing the same way you do, eg cocaine. Lastly, for something to qualify for Substance Use Disorder (SUD), they need to keep doing it, despite social and health ramifications of continued use in the face of developing a tolerance for it. Other than some edgelord shit, no one's gonna give you shit for continuing to breath.
unkulunkulu
thinking then, that requires the extra oxygen
blfr
This explains too much. I remember the Internet before corporate dominance and it was just as, if not more, magical then.
There's just something about having a beautiful OLED screen, the tablet-like shape, touch interface, and access to all of human knowledge/news/entertainment. I remember when people used to have a tv on when they lounged around the house, or cooked, or cleaned. My parents even had a little special splash proof CRT TV in the kitchen.
The modern screens are just that, except also much more convenient and with million times more content, and personalized, and wireless ANC headphones if you like. This is it, this is peak human information environment. It's not a conspiracy of corporations.
Much like obesity is primarily driven by abundance of calories, another fight we won with our natural environment. The highly processed foods and marketing are just barely making a dent at the edge, and are largely a zero-sum game between food manufacturers.
kace91
I have noticed that better devices just lead me to more time spent in apps I don’t really enjoy, just because I like the device itself.
I’ve had success consciously worsening my experience, doing stuff like reducing color intensity with accessibility options or using the web version of an app for added friction, which is ridiculous but here we are.
aziaziazi
I had a similar experience rebooting my 9yo iPhone [0] after a more recent one went out of service. Hours of screen procrastination got replaced with IRL activities/thinking. I decided to not repair the fancy LCD and keep the little friend. It’s been two years and I don’t feel going back soon.
Reducing color intensity is a great idea to worsen the experience, I’ll give it a go. Yet first thing I do after wake up is checking Hacker News and the design is probably not at fault. Still some self improvement to do.
0 still security updated! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45270108
myaccountonhn
It's a good idea. Companies try really hard to optimize and make everything they want you to do as easy and smooth as possible (and vice versa). Personally I avoid things like Apple Pay for this reason, it's there to remove friction from purchasing stuff, which results in us doing more of it.
noduerme
Can we stop redefining-down the word "pandemic" please? I think enough people are already going to stick their fingers in their ears and go "na na na" when the next actual pandemic virus comes along. Maybe just skip the comparison and say screen addiction is the most dangerous addiction humanity's ever seen. Then it just sounds like a normal hyperbole. Or try these:
"Screen addiction is an apocalypse"
"Screen addiction is a genocide"
...
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zwnow
If people dont know what to do with themselves its kinda their own issue. They could just explore hobbies or live with being bored. This kinda addiction is a choice compared to different types of addiction.
Same reason as to why a lot of people smoke, they cant bear being bored for 5 minutes. Its incredibly easy to quit too, people just lack discipline.
Broken_Hippo
> If people dont know what to do with themselves its kinda their own issue.
That "kinda" is important. I didn't have the freedom to just do what I wanted to when I was a young teen. 14-year old me couldn't just take a walk. I'm in my late 40s now - my mother was particularly strict for the time period.
People have children. Some folks really are stuck at home, taking care of someone, with a life peppered with boredom. You know, like parents. Screens have a way of decorating those bits of time and lessening the monotony of it all.
Not to mention the effects of being poor - I'm not even talking outright poverty here. Just a point that you simply have to budget somewhat carefully and don't have a lot of extra money. One of the great things about the internet is the entertainment built right in. You pay for the communication access society and businesses expect from you, you get entertainment as well.
Societal expectations might also keep you in. If you need an app to make sure that your child isn't left out, it might mean that you don't have the same options to simply quit something without harming innocent folks along the way.
Other folks have touched on the addiction bit, so no need to repeat here.
palata
The one thing to know about addiction is that everyone is different. If you think that it's easy not to be an addict, you may just lack empathy.
It's easy for you to quit smoking? Good for you. But it's very clearly not the case for most people. Feels to me a bit like saying "it's easy to be rich, you just have to be born in a rich family like me".
itsalwaysgood
Smoking addiction and screen addiction are two very different things.
It's everyone's own problem of course. But it becomes society's problem when everyone is affected.
fragmede
They are and they aren't. They're both a form of escapism, for the user to deny reality while in an altered state of consciousness. Users do it to their detriment, despite social and health consequences. Thus, some of the techniques used to help people with substance use disorder (SUD) are also applicable to screen addiction. fwiw, gambling addiction is another different but same addiction with similar treatment plans. No, gambler's aren't shooting up heroin the the bathroom, nor are screen addicts, but at some level they are comparable. The first thing you reach for in the morning and the last thing you think about before bed.
zwnow
In both cases the whole society is affected. I have to pay into my countries health system for people who got sick by choice. Thankfully this isnt the case for people addicted to screens.
dns_snek
This is an incredibly ignorant take on addiction. It's never a choice - by definition.
> Its incredibly easy to quit too, people just lack discipline.
Hey, do you want to chat about how when I tried to quit nicotine, I went through 2 weeks of physical and mental hell, how exhausted I felt not being able to sleep more than an hour without waking up, still feeling exhausted, with mental fog so severe that made quitting feel impossible?
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FlameRobot
> This is an incredibly ignorant take on addiction. It's never a choice - by definition.
It isn't that clear cut either way IME.
I had a big drinking problem. I was the one that choose to start drinking. I was the one chose to stop drinking. Nobody forced me to go to the bar or the off-licence.
I accept for other people it isn't that simple.
> Hey, do you want to chat about how when I tried to quit nicotine, I went through 2 weeks of physical and mental hell, how exhausted I felt not being able to sleep more than an hour without waking up, still feeling exhausted, with mental fog so severe that made quitting feel impossible?
I had similar issues when I quit drink. Sleep was irregular, I went hot and cold for the first month. I had this like weird wave feeling go through me one night (it the only way I can describe it). I think that took like a month or two.
blfr
Absolutely, because they have the time for it and fewer alternatives. I got my mom a tablet, set her up with ReVanced YouTube & Twitter plus VLC, and now she is by far the heaviest user of our NAS, last Kindle user on our Amazon account, and reachable on Signal pretty much always.
Would it be better if she sat at home with the TV on and a paper book? No, I don't think so.
This is also where the leisure time went. Keynes predicted 15 hour workweek, we decided to just have kids and the elderly not work at all.
dewey
> because they have the time for it and fewer alternatives
What are you referring to by fewer alternatives? Isn't there way more ways / activities / infrastructure to spend your time these days than before?
gtsop
> This is also where the leisure time went. Keynes predicted 15 hour workweek, we decided to just have kids and the elderly not work at all.
Amazing analysis.
noduerme
Just got back from Reno, and I can confirm that there are hundreds of old ladies there addicted to playing video games all day. (But I grew up in Vegas, and this ain't news... The Economist should check their local slot parlor, or fruit machines or whatever they call it there).
dv_dt
It gives a feeling of Screen addiction is when people are looking at things I don't approve of.
Many older people I work with would love to have more required interactions move away from the phone screen.
spacedoutman
I see this every day, elderly brain rotting watching fake ai generated videos on youtube.
Youtube and big tech will have to answer for this eventually.
ssnistfajen
If they didn't have to answer for iPad babies then unfortunately they won't have to answer for this either.
I've resolved to accepting the fact that most people are just content with any form of brain rot because the alternatives are too mentally taxing. Technology has just enabled brain rot to distill into its current form, but the demand has always been there.
ZephyrBlu
I wouldn't really call it "demand". It's more like one-shotting humans with a product which maximally stimulates them through what is basically a psychological hack.
We were not built with the capacity to handle the sheer amount of stimulation the modern world has. You have to put in a lot of effort to not succumb to natural desires that would have been adaptive behaviours until recent history.
noduerme
Succumbing to constant distraction, even if a natural desire, would never have been a successful evolutionary strategy for an individual organism. Spending large amounts of time absorbing and repeating bullshit has proven to be a pretty successful group survival strategy throughout human history, though.
jbjbjbjb
The article suggests there’s evidence that screen time has the opposite effect. A little surprising but I guess for a lot of people it is more stimulating than watching the news or soaps all day
makeitdouble
Did anyone ever have to answer for all the shit that is/was on TV and news rags?
If no one ever did, why would YouTube be different ?
bkolobara
I have noticed the same trend with my parents. The people that were insisting that I was spending too much time as a child in front of the computer and should get out, are now retired and permanently glued to their phones.
aussieguy1234
If you're mobility is limited physically, what else is there to do other than computer/screen based activities?
Hopefully full dive VR will be ready by the time I'm that old.
ekjhgkejhgk
Meh. I see this in my own mom, now. But 20 years ago before phones were huge, she already spent an absurd amount of time each day watching soap operas on TV.
simonh
My maternal grandparents spent day after day for most of their retirement sitting in front of the TV.
khelavastr
Doctors who're legally entrusted to handle addiction care...aren"t. It's a total scandal.
mikepurvis
Surely the responsibility here is broader than treating it after the fact? Perhaps it’s an over the top comparison but most places outlaw dangerous drugs— you can treat the after-effects but by that point a lot of the damage has already been done. Making tech companies answerable for having developed algorithms that serve up hours of obvious brainrot content at a time would go a long way.
(And like with many of these things, holding senior executives personally liable helps ensure that the fines or whatever are not just waved away as a cost of doing business.)
FlameRobot
Yes it is an over the top comparison. I am a recovered / former addict (alcohol). I would never compare the two. I was spending too much time on Twitter a few years ago. I deleted my account. The problem was solved. It took me an entire year to accept that I had a serious problem and then another 9 months to finally stop drinking.
The brewery, the bar nor the bar ever made me drink. I chose to drink. I also was the one that chose to stop drinking. BTW drink is as dangerous or more dangerous as many illegal drugs IMO.
> Making tech companies answerable for having developed algorithms that serve up hours of obvious brainrot content at a time would go a long way.
You get recommended what you already watch. Most of my YouTube feed is things like old guys repairing old cars, guys writing a JSON parse in haskell and stuff about how exploits work and some music. That is because that is what I already watched on the platform.
mikepurvis
Right, and recommendations for old car repair videos that you watch a few of per week is reasonable.
The argument I’m making is that it’s not beyond the pale for YouTube to detect “hey it’s been over an hour of ai bullshit / political rage bait / thirst traps / whatever, the algorithm is going to intentionally steer you in a different direction for the next little bit.”
Traubenfuchs
My mom fell for an SMS scam and can‘t recognize obvious AI videos where cats on two legs dance with human babies.
Old people can‘t be left alone with internet devices and online banking.
I wonder if I will ever become that dumb too when I am old…
palata
> I wonder if I will ever become that dumb too when I am old…
It's not very nice to call that "being dumb". Imagine that you live for 60 years in a country speaking English, and in a matter of a couple years, most of society switches to Mandarin. You may well struggle learning Mandarin as a 60 years old, and you wouldn't like being called "dumb" by young people who grow up with it.
logicchains
It's factually accurate; the converse of the Flynn effect (IQ increasing over time), plus the negative effect on intelligence of lead in the paints and fuels that they were exposed to, means that particular generation is on average lower IQ than the younger generations.
KernalSanders
It's a pity that they are missing a hugely troubled audience - elderly hooked on YouTube, specifically.
It's an ugly addiction that mirrors what we've seen with alcoholics and schizophrenics, whereby they point a finger at anything but the actual problem, and any remedy that the have, or are given, they adamantly avoid and refuse.
YouTube, like other social media, is driven by pushing and pulling on the right emotions in the right way to get you hooked. Sexy, funny, happy, cute, sensational, sad, scary, angry. Enough Sophia Vergara, cat videos, UFOs, doom and gloom, bias-confirming politics, etc, and you'll have someone watching all day long. It's not like what it was when an elderly person watched daytime soap operas and gameshows, this is a dopamine-fueled additive binge. We've seen several really bad cases where it's almost everything that the lonely elderly person does. There's no more "journey" or "investment" when you can simply flick to the next video that tickles your fancy in that moment.
These are the people I'm sincerely concerned about, and they have zero reason to go seek help. It's not an issue to them. In fact, they'll fight tooth and nail to claim anything else is their problem except this.
It's almost as though the first generations to enjoy television weren't ready for something this addictive.
Personally, I despise YouTube, despite growing up in the heart of the Silicon Valley. That platform serves a handful of purposes for me, such as helpful tutorials the rare time that I need them and epic Mongolian folk metal music videos.
FlameRobot
YouTube recommendations are tailored to what you watch. I end up being recommended car repair videos, security/hacking/surveillance videos, repairing old vintage computers and some like comedy and music stuff I like.
The stuff that you mention. You can literally say "Not Interested" on the video and it will show you less of content. I see none of it.
kace91
Why YouTube specifically? In my experience it is the tamest of all feeds.
Not that they have any more morals or self control, they just seem to have a comparatively awful algorithm that brings up the same 14 videos over and over.
atoav
Youtube is one of those platforms I would probably never have used if my feed wouldn't be adjusted to me.
There is real gold on youtube, like for example the math explainers by 3blue1brown. But if you ever tries opening a private browser window and opening and see the video recommendations it looks like a platform only containing mindless trash, with the mental nutritents contained in a piece of cardboard.
And there are people who like precisely that: Mindnumbing somethings that just keep your brain from having a single thought.
the_af
Agreed. YouTube shines with personalized feed, and is unusable without it.
The elderly, the kids, the teenagers, the adults. Screen addiction is a pandemic. The biggest one humanity has ever seen.
The richest, most powerful organizations are spending billions every month to make it more addictive, to reach more people.