Silver scrollers: What is screen time like for seniors?
The article explores how seniors, particularly those in their 70s and 80s, have adapted to digital technology. While some older individuals remain hesitant about engaging with online devices, research indicates that a significant majority are active internet users. The benefits of connectivity for seniors include improved mental health and reduced isolation, although concerns about safety and diminished face-to-face interactions persist.
- ▪A 2020 survey found that 90 percent of New Zealanders aged 65-74 used the internet.
- ▪Over a third of New Zealanders aged over 70 spend more than four hours a day online.
- ▪Benefits of being connected for seniors include improved mental health and greater independence.
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Record
| Original publisher | RNZ |
| Canonical URL | https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/wellbeing/silver-scrollers-what-is-screen-time-like-for-seniors |
| Publication time | Sun, 17 May 2026 20:48:12 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-17T21:03:21.008Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-17T21:03:21.008Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | QKD3OAEMFVzq |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
Rights status (four layers)
WeSearch handling by dimension
| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
LifeWellbeingSilver scrollers: What is screen time like for seniors?‘Digital natives’ can’t imagine a time when they weren’t connected to the world. But what about those who grew up without digital devices. We ask people in their 70s and 80s how they have adapted to online life – or not.Venetia ShersonContributor18 May 202612 min readVenetia ShersonContributor18 May 202612 min readPhoto credit:RNZIn 1985, the internet was two, Motorola’s 1kg cellular phone known as the “brick" was appearing in workplaces across the world and Nintendo had just launched its first Super Mario Brothers game about a tribe of Mushroom People. Kingsley Field, then a 40-year-old reporter in the Waikato Times’ newsroom, remembers lugging the “brick” around on assignments.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at RNZ.