There are other ways to keep older minds active. These other activities involve contributing to society rather than hiding out with a word puzzle.
I am really getting tired of reading articles that advise “elderly” people to pass the hours doing crossword puzzles in order to keep their minds healthy and active. It’s really hard to think of anything more self-centered or useless then sitting at home, alone, and filling in the little squares to pass the time. Maybe it’s the sort of thing you would do if stranded in a lifeboat, waiting to be rescued, but why spend your precious hours on Earth this way when there are so many valuable ways to spend your time?
Am I exaggerating when I suggest there is a lot of this misguided crossword puzzle advice directed to elderly people? Not at all. You can spend an entire day reading articles if you Google “elderly crossword puzzle mind.” Check out this story from NPR. And take a look at this and this and this.
Who are the “elderly” in the context of these articles? Presumably everyone who’s elderly or becoming elderly. Presumably, that includes everyone who’s not “young.” The bottom line of these articles is that we must do crossword puzzles or else our minds will atrophy. These article argue that our brains won’t shrivel up as long as we contemplate “14 across” and “43 down” (at least until we give up and look up the answer). Telling a person to play crossword puzzles has that same snake-oil ring that recently publicized “mind development technique,” Baby Einstein.
I am aware that by dissing crossword puzzles I risk incurring the wrath of the millions of people who love doing crossword puzzles. And I realize that some crossword puzzles do require some quite a bit of work. But those who excel at these puzzles are not necessarily well-rounded. They merely have the skill of being able to seek out and retain inert facts–facts that don’t require one to have an integrated view of what it means to be alive. In this respect, crossword puzzles are akin to trivia contests. Both activities are opportunities to feel as though one has accomplished something merely by flinging about inert facts.
I am not saying that all people should stop doing crossword puzzles. If you like doing it, have at it. All of us like to take breaks from the stress of the real world. But we don’t usually honor the way we take those breaks. For instance, I occasionally play Tetris to “escape.” I would be flabbergasted, though, were someone to tell me that I need to keep my mind sharp by playing a video game.
To the extent we truly value our senior citizens, there are numerous meaningful and mind-exercising activities available to them. Why do we keep insulting them as though they are half-brain-dead when most of them aren’t? Certainly, there are some elderly folks who have serious conditions (Alzheimer’s) that limit their ability to stay connected with their communities and to contribute to their society. Perhaps word puzzles give them relief and I am not criticizing them. For those who are not limited in their abilities, though (and many elderly people never face any form of dementia), it is not necessary to do crossword puzzles to maintain an active mind. There are hundreds of other activities that both challenge the mind but also contribute to society.
It seems insulting and stereotyped, however, to tell elderly folks that they should diddle around with crossword puzzles instead of encouraging them to stay active by participating firsthand in critically important community activities. What are some other activities they can do to keep their minds active? There are hundreds of ways. Here are a few:
1. Volunteer your time and energy to help others in your community. It doesn’t have to be your own children or your own children’s children. Truly, there are thousands of people in your community who need your help in thousands of ways, and you might already have the skills to lend a hand. You could help tutor a young child who is struggling to learn to read—the schools are full of such children. You could assist people through numerous volunteer information services, by training to be a credit counselor or a crisis counselor. There are dozens of things you can do to help people in hospitals and schools. You can work at a state historical site or a state or local government agency assisting in numerous ways. You can serve as a volunteer at one of the local museums or a zoo or library. A retired cardiologist started up a successful organization, in my neighborhood, to teach low-income at-risk neighborhood children how to use computers. I know that he keeps his mind active by running this benevolent organization.
2. You can become the eyes and ears for all of your fellow citizens by attending meetings of public boards, such as your local school board or meetings of the boards of local or regional cultural or government agencies and institutions. You can show up and help all of the rest of us by asking a few basic questions about how the money is being spent, especially when public money is involved. You could spend a day at your state capital, to attend an important hearing and report back to your relatives and friends about it. You can even blog about your private fact-finding (blogs are free and easy now-there is no excuse for not providing important information to others through a free website of your own, or writing a letter to the editor to inform the community at large). For more ideas, just Google “ways to volunteer.”
3. You can read extensively and take classes with regard to academic topics that interest you. In this way, you can work toward becoming an “expert” in that field, enabling you to give lectures to community groups and to write articles and op-ed pieces with regard to that field. How much effort you have to put into learning in order to become an “expert”? In order to become a qualified expert, it is likely that you need to comply with the “10,000 hour rule.” This is a rule of thumb that applies in numerous fields: spend about 10,000 hours of serious study on a field and you will become a bona fide expert. This works out to three hours per day for 10 years. If you want to know more about this rule of thumb, listen to this lecture by Malcolm Gladwell or read about the rule here. on the one hand, this sounds like a lot of hours to invest. Many elderly people are currently encouraged to spend enormous amounts of time doing crossword puzzles when they could be spending that time developing an expertise. I’m certain that many elderly people have spent 10,000 hours doing crossword puzzles. I am certain that most elderly people spend many multiples of that time watching television (they spend between three to six hours per day watching television). Why not take some of that time to learn a new skill and to do something to be proud hiding out in your house?
4. You can do research on the Internet to investigate the many bogus claims made by government officials, and then publicize discrepancies on the Internet. You can attend important government hearings posted by agencies like the FCC. You can go to your local courthouse and watch the courts in action. Again, you can then report your findings by writing a letter to your newspaper or blogging on it. We are now firmly in the age of Web 2.0, the age of citizen journalism. Every one of us can serve as eyes and ears for the rest of us.
5. You could also help your children raise their children. You have much wisdom you can contribute to your grandchildren’s lives and this is certainly work that will keep your mind active. Many young parents who are currently raising children are struggling to do so. Isn’t it possible that those grandparents could help out with this shopping, cleaning or child care?
I think it’s sad when we so blithely recommend that our elderly citizens spend so much time doing an activity that amounts to mental masturbation, as though all elderly people have been reduced to incompetence by age alone. Yes, it’s true that some brilliant people do crossword puzzles. On the other hand, there are brilliant people who have no interest in crossword puzzles because such puzzles take away significant time from other activities they consider much more important. Many of these people stay sharp by engaging with the real world as world-class scientists, authors, doctors and teachers. In order to contribute to society, there is no need to do any crossword puzzles or to engage in any other mostly passive amusement.
If we value our elderly citizens, we won’t disparage them by telling them to retire from community life and to cloister themselves with crossword puzzles. Instead, we will urge them to stay connected to their communities in important ways so that the rest of us can benefit from their life experiences and wisdom. When we tell our elderly citizens to focus on things like crossword puzzles, we are setting up glass ceilings for them; we are engaged in a form of bigotry. Instead, we should tell them that their lives are not over until they are over and that we value their abilities to contribute to society. The new 75 is the old 50 (or something like that), so life is just beginning for many people who are being tricked by crossword puzzle advocates to think otherwise.
To tell “old folks” to go do crossword puzzles in order to keep their minds active is to tell them that there is no longer any place for them out in the real world and that they should spend their time doing something that won’t hurt anybody if they screw it up. Telling older folks to do crossword puzzles to stay alert is barely better than telling them that it’s time to put them out to pasture. Shame on everyone who has given this horrible advice to senior citizens.
Couldn't let the Baby Einstein comment pass without a brief letter of endorsement for the product. While I definitely do not buy into the whole "Baby Einstein will turn your kid into a genius" idea, I do have to note that my 4 year old son has watched Baby Einsten videos and listened to tapes of the music (along with other classical music) since the day he was born ( 1 or 2 20 minute shows a day, and that's it… no other television at all) and he 1. began reading at 2 1/2 years of age and today, at 4, he can read and understand, literally, anything, and 2. he recognizes by ear and enjoys the music of over a dozen classical composers. He also loves to pick out melodies on a his toy keyboard, and insistes that he wants to learn to play the cello. For what it's worth… (and my apologies for changing the subject…)
Kelly: As you correctly sensed, I was picking on Baby Einstein. See here here and here.
I'm glad your son is blooming so well. Based on the information in the above posts, I'd suspect that it was your conscientious parenting that deserves for far more credit for your son's accomplishments. I'd love to do some rigorous twin studies regarding the Baby Einstein claims, however . . .
"I would be flabbergasted, though, were someone to tell me that I need to keep my mind sharp by playing a video game."
Experienced players of these games are 30 percent to 50 percent better than non-players at taking in *everything* that happens around them, according to the research, which appears today in the journal Nature. They identify objects in their peripheral vision, perceiving numerous objects without having to count them, switch attention rapidly and track many items at once.
Nor are players simply faster at these tasks, said Dr. Daphne Bavelier, an associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Rochester, who led the study. First-person action games increase the brain's capacity to spread attention over a wide range of events. Other types of action games, including those that focus on strategy or role playing, do not produce the same effect.
Flabbergasted… 😛
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E…
Ben: I was obscure in my phrasing. I'm not surprised that playing video games can tune up reflexes and perception skills. I fully expect that. What I was trying to say is that I don't believe that you need a particular type of activity (video games) to maintain good reflexes. Perhaps you could work out by playing racquetball or take up juggling or play a musical instrument.
With regard to playing crossword puzzles, I suspect that playing them makes you better at being a crossword puzzle player. But with regard to keeping your mind active, why focus on crossword puzzles when there are a host of activities that will A) keep your mind active AND B) benefit you and society as well.
I think Erich made a good point, if I wanted to stay mentally alert when getting older I'd also prefer to do something else than crossword puzzles. I know I have said something similar in another post, but am I really the only one who thinks they are boring? I think the Times crossword puzzle is the famous one for being so difficult, but most I have seen as far as now are really boring. I'm really not sure what you are going to train here… Scrabble and chess usually strike me as more intellectually demanding.
Thanks, Erich, for the kind comments regarding our son (and our parenting). As the father of (older) twin daughters, I've often wondered at the whole "nature v. nurture" thing, and many times was amazed at the ways in which their personalities unfolded in unique ways as they grew up, even though we attempted to treat the girls equally. A "twin study" using any one of the many educational products for babies would be fascinating. Perhaps it HAS already been attempted. Here in Ohio we have a town called Twinsburg, where an annual Twins' Day festival draws thousands of pairs of twins and the researchers who want to study their unique attributes.
I think that you hit the nail on the head by crediting our son's development to factors beyond the influence of the Baby Einstein products. Our son loves viewing the videos, but they are just one very small part of the environment that we seek to cultivate in our home, where we have striven to create a stimulating yet peaceful place filled with grace and beauty. I suspect that most parents who really care to enliven their children's minds provide many things beyond a few educational videos.
And in a way, that get us back, somewhat circuitously, to the original topic. We all need, no matter what our age, to be totally immersed in a vibrant, challenging, stimulating environment where our minds can expand and grow (or remain) strong.
"…we won’t disparage them by telling them to retire from community life and to cloister themselves with crossword puzzles. "
re: emphasized: Is society in general really doing this? I remember reading about a study done using very elderly nuns that tried to determine preventive measures against dementia. One finding was that an activity some of the sharpest tacks in the group had in common was doing crossword puzzles. I do not recall that finding having been perceived by the clinicians or put forth in the study as being some kind of miraculous panacea for the aging brain, rather more as just something notable and interesting enough. My thinking is that the notion has spread, meme-like, through the years, much like a homespun remedy or urban myth might.
I very much doubt that there is some grand scale American suggestion to older people that if they don't feel like playing shuffleboard, they should just go sit on the patio and grab a pencil.
On the other hand, I could not agree more with your greater point; people of all ages can use great advice like that.
On the other other hand, some rather elderly peeps would chuckle at you for assuming they needed any ideas for how to be vital and thriving!
🙂
TMOL wrote to say that he finished yet another century bicycle ride, but that he didn't have time to discuss it further because he "doing crossword puzzles." I'm sure it's those crossword puzzles that are keeping his mind active . . .
I'm going to take issue with Erich on this one. First, I know of elderly people who simply don't have the physical stamina to do the alternate activities he suggests, and other seniors who, understandably I think, simply would not want to spend all of their free time doing what, in their minds, would amount to "work."
Second, while I recognize that correlation does not prove causation, I know of elderly people who did crosswords who also remained mentally sharp well past their 100th birthdays. Whether they did crosswords because they remained sharp, or whether the remained sharp because they did crosswords is a question I cannot answer.
In sum, I think it all depends upon what you think the word "elderly" means. Someone who is 70 will (in general) have very different abilities than someone who is 90 or older. In my case, I have known people over 100 whom I would not consider "elderly," and some much younger whom I would.
Let me chime in with grumpypilgrim here and advocate that people of all ages leave time in their schedules for non-goal-directed activities — aka "play".
Also, I haven't read the studies that about crossword puzzles and aging, but it seems to me that the quintessential senior moment involves anomia – the temporary inability to retrieve a particular word. And since crossword puzzles are all about retrieving particular words, they might help more than say, sudoku or bridge. Also, figuring out the clues on the more difficult crosswords involves way more than just recalling facts.
Anyway, it's not like it's an either/or proposition. You can do a crossword while waiting for your agenda item to come up at a public meeting – or doodle caricatures of the council members or compose scurrilous political limericks or pass notes to other activists or make faces at the cable TV camera…
Seriously though, my town (Santa Cruz) would be a lot less pleasant place to live if not for all the dedicated senior activists we have. A lot of them are "red diaper babies" – children born to radical leftists in the 20's and 30's who were later blacklisted by McCarthy.
Erich does not seem to oppose doing crossword puzzles as a play activity. As far as I understood it, he opposes the suggestion that people do it in order to stay mentally alert, because there are better ways to do it.
projektleiterin (& everyone else): I agree with you. I don't oppose down-time–activities. I understand why we can't be "on" during every waking hour. I'm "guilty" of this–I sometimes play Tetris. I sometimes use a computerized helicopter simulation (Search and Rescue 4) where you fly a helicopter to rescue people (non-existent people on my computer screen). I sometimes watch Scrubs on TV. I play the guitar or keyboard. I could go on and on. These activities, in moderation, are not only consistent with mental health but prerequisite to it.
I'm objecting to the implied disparagement accompanying the advice–to older folks AS A GROUP–that THE way (or a GOOD way) to keep their minds "active" is to do crossword puzzles. This advice suggests that they aren't any longer of use out in the real world, where there are actually many other ways to keep one's mind active (many of these ways have the added benefit of being socially responsible).
Some people (not all of them older people) suffer mental limitations. They are not capable of engaging with the world –they find the process upsetting and disorienting. They are prisoners in their homes or they have tried other mental activities and find little joy or benefit to engaging in those other activities. For those people, because many other activities are off-limits, they might find that things like crossword puzzles are the only things left that they can successfully use to keep their minds active. I would never suggest that they give up one of the few things that brings them joy and a feeling of accomplishment.
For the rest of us, though, the hundreds of articles out there suggesting crossword puzzles as a first/best strategy for keeping our minds active are silly, insulting and irresponsible.
Boy, do you not understand what you're talking about! You don't seem to get it that there is a big difference between "keeping their minds active" and "staving off, or retarding the progress of, senile dementia or Alzheimer's Disease."
The activities you recommend would certainly help elderly people have a more active mental life by increased engagement with the world. The purpose of doing word games, however, has nothing to do with quality of life. Whether they are an enjoyable pastime or not is secondary. The purpose of word games for the elderly is that they stimulate certain areas of the brain in very specific ways which result in a neurological benefit, helping keep neural circuits from deteriorating. Doing word games –not just crossword puzzles– should be viewed not as an end in itself but as an exercise, meant to strengthen an area of the brain that tends to atrophy as the body ages.
You should research a topic about which you give an opinion.
Jack: I haven't seen a single study to suggest that doodling around with word puzzles is a better way of staving off mental deterioration than using words to accomplish important objectives in the real world (nor do you cite any such studies). I maintain my position, which is that it's insulting to "old" folks to tell them to do word puzzles to stay sharp when many of them are capable of much much more.
oh, speaking of word games…
i found a nice free scrabble website, if any of you folks are interested
sign up is easy too, then you can play online against people of your skill level
http://www.scrabulous.com/scrabulous_game.php
and of course, i am accepting all challenges. 🙂
(i am near tournament skill level, i think, so bring your a-game and still be ready to lose by 100 pts)
Erich: The fact the you haven't seen such a study does not mean that there are no such studies. Here is one example:
"The Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE)
This nationwide clinical trial is so far the nation's largest study of cognitive training. Researchers found that improvements in cognitive ability roughly counteract the degree of long-term cognitive decline typical among older people without dementia. The results, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2002, showed significant percentages of the 2,802 participants age 65 and older who trained for five weeks for about 2 1/2 hours per week improved their memory, reasoning and information-processing speed.
Joe Verghese, M.D. found that people could reduce their risk of Alzheimer’s by 64% simply by raising their activity score by 1 point, and a 1-point increase corresponded to a reduction of dementia risk by 7%. That means that people could lower their dementia risk by 7% simply by adding one activity per week (such as doing a crossword puzzle or playing a board game) to their schedule. According to the findings of that same study, subjects who did crossword puzzles four days a week had a 47% lower risk of dementia than subjects who did a crossword puzzle just once a week."
You appear to believe that people are being suggested to engage in word games to the exclusion of other activities. That is simply not the case. The use of cognitive stimulation to prevent dementia, memory loss and Alzheimer's is precisely so that aging persons can ~remain~ "capable of much much more."
Jack: the study you cited does not compare these two groups A) those who do crosswords 4 days per week and B) those who (instead of doing any crossword puzzles), actually go out into the community and spend some time helping to make the community a better place, e.g., volunteering in the administrative office of a charity, which would expose the volunteer to lots of practical, hands-on language and math, in addition to social interactions, which exercise the brain too.
The ubiquitous advice I see invites "old" people to do crosswords X hours per week cloistered in their homes, which means they have X hours per week fewer to make a real difference in their community.
And I really would like to see the study I am suggesting, which would anwswer my concern once and for all.
If I had to do something with words in order to stay mentally alert I'd choose scrabble and learning a new language where the training effect would be way higher.
Ben, why should some go from the Yahoo play room to this new website? What are the advantages? What's your user name in case I feel like playing? 🙂
Oh, it's funny that you're having this discussion on the day that Erich chose "opsimath" as the word for the day – I first encountered it in Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled where he recommends learning to express oneself in traditional poetic forms as an alternative to crossword puzzles.
I highly recommend this book, as it's a great antidote to the way poetry is (not) taught to most English-speakers today. As he puts it very entertainingly, no one puts a 10 year old in front of a piano and says "just express yourself." But because poetry uses language, the tool with which we order pizza and go about our everyday business, nobody thinks it important to teach kids basic English prosody and meter. And it's not only about going by the rules either. he very entertainingly points out how poets like William Blake can break every rule in the book and still create great poetry.
So if you''re tempted to go out and buy one of those crossword puzzle books, go out and buy Fry's book intstead: http://tinyurl.com/ytglzz
Erich wrote:
"And I really would like to see the study I am suggesting, which would anwswer my concern once and for all."
So, even though there is an absence of any study which would show that elders going out and making the community a better place causes them to reduce their risk of Alzheimer's, a truly horrible disease, you still strongly advise that activity, rather than doing crossword puzzles, which have been demonstrated in a scientific study as reducing that risk by nearly half. A more prudent, more rational course of action would be for people at risk of Alzheimer's or dementia to do crossword puzzles (as well as board games and other related brain-stretching exercises) until a study is done that shows, scientifically, that there is equal neurological benefit in community activities.
On further thought, an even ~more~ prudent course of action would be to encourage people to engage in word-play activities multiple times during the week, ~and~ encourage them to go out into the community and actively participate. The word-play has proven results in helping to prevent or stave off degeneration of mental faculties. The community-based activities may or may not have neurological benefits, but even if they don't, they would stimulate other aspects of the mind and improve the quality of life.
Jack: If someone has a diagnosed medical condition that is causing mental deterioration, they should, by all means, follow the medical advice of their doctor.
My criticism of the advice (to do crossword puzzles) is that it is ubiquitous and that it is aimed at all older folks as a good way to keep your faculties.
If you are an older person (whatever that means these days) you are not diagnosed with any medical condition leading to mental deterioration, get off your butt and stay active in the world. Don't just hunker down with crossword puzzles (per the common advice) and figure that you are keeping your mind sharp. That is my point.
If someone wants to do crossword puzzles for fun, fine. I have no problem with that.
I object to the notion that doing crosswords is a commendable way for healthy older people or (in the absence of studies comparing the benefits of crossword puzzles versus staying active in one's community) a preferable way to keep one's mind sharp. Sitting in the corner of one's house and doing crossword puzzles is solipsistic and self-absorbed. Crosswords have the same general downside as an activity often enjoyed by otherwise healthy youngsters: sitting around playing video games.
I guess I'm doing a poor job of conveying information, since I have obviously failed to communicate that Alzheimer's Disease and senile dementia are neurological disorders. They are progressive— which means that by the time they have become "a diagnosed medical condition" it is too late for treatment. The entire purpose of doing word games is, hopefully, to ~prevent~ the mental deterioration that may result from aging physical systems. Science has discovered that there are certain activities which have been proven effective in combatting such deterioration. Your suggestion is that, because some of those activities are solitary pursuits rather than social ones, that persons at risk of aging-related neurological disorder should avoid them. I suggest that such advice is irresponsible.
Brushing your teeth is a solitary activity. You do it by yourself, and because the mouth is full of foaming toothpaste, it renders social intercourse impossible. Its momentary benefit is that it refreshes the mouth, but that's not why people should do it. The larger purpose of brushing our teeth is to prevent tooth decay and loss. Word play provides similar benefits. It may provide the immediate gratification of indulging in a game, but its larger purpose is to help prevent neurological degeneration.
"But," you may protest, "brushing your teeth is something that only takes up a limited part of your time, leaving the rest of the day open to social activities."
That's certainly true. And the same is also true of doing crossword puzzles and other games that stimulate the hippocampus. There has been NO suggestion that people spend their entire day indulging in word games! Persons at risk of neurological degeneration are NOT told to sit "in a corner" of their house doing word games, isolating themselves from the society of other people. They are merely advised to devote some small portion of their day to the pursuit, leaving the entire rest of the day to engage in more extroverted activities.
I should have thought that that would be obvious.
I assume that when Erich talks about older people engaging in more social activities and contributing to societies he is convinced that by doing they so they do exercise their brain and do stay mentally alert. If someone has to do brain exercises in order to avoid brain deterioration it's because the rest of his life is so dull that he needs artificial stimulation (although I will not yield an inch and still claim that crossword puzzles are boring :D). That's like taking dozens of vitamin supplements in order to make up for your lousy chips-and-coke-diet instead of eating something fresh and healthy. There's no need to treat old people like fragile senile dolls that need to stay at home, where they deteriorate even more (unless they do crossword puzzles of course) when they still can lead an active life with interesting challenges.
Watch some older bodybuilders:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAUQd1xfyPs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUvjXQHt6QQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfWAjJinySI
These guys are old, but they defy the common belief that with age you lose your energy and become weaker.
Projextleiterin, I'm not sure how the idea has gotten around that people who do a crossword puzzle do nothing else all day. Is it so hard to imagine a person who enjoys a full day of social activities, then, after dinner, does a crossword puzzle?
You say that "If someone has to do brain exercises in order to avoid brain deterioration it's because the rest of his life is so dull that he needs artificial stimulation". You must not have had any first-hand experience of persons with senile dementia or Alzheimer's Disease. My mother-in-law was enjoying a very full social life, active in her church. Alzheimer's Disease slowly robbed her of that. The onset was so gradual we didn't know that her forgetfulness and occasional confusion was the start of something quite devastating. She had mental stimulation in the form of socialization, but there was no activity in her life that stimulated her brain in the ways that science has found can forestall mental deterioration. Read these lines again, please:
" people could lower their dementia risk by 7% simply by adding one activity per week (such as doing a crossword puzzle or playing a board game) to their schedule. According to the findings of that same study, subjects who did crossword puzzles four days a week had a 47% lower risk of dementia than subjects who did a crossword puzzle just once a week.”
Whether crossword puzzles are boring or not has nothing to do with the therapeutic outcome of doing them.
Perhaps it's too difficult for people to realize that, as we age, aspects of our physical health can diminish. That's pretty much what defines "aging."