Professor Stacey WoodProfessor of Psychology Stacey Wood was recently quoted in a New York Post article regarding the susceptibility of elderly people to the harms of social media use. A 12-year study of almost 90,000 adults found excessive use of social media to be associated with “poorer cognitive functioning,” a concerning metric considering 90 percent of Americans over 50 are active users of social media.
“Older people are less aware of the algorithm’s power… It’s really hard [for them] to discern what’s credible,” Wood said in the article.
With the advent of AI use in scams, older people are being targeted even more. Wood regularly consults with older clients who have been scammed out of their money by AI-enhanced tactics, saying “these people have been destroyed.”
Read about the issue and Wood’s contribution here.