Stay sharp in your older years: Join Facebook!

The older you get, the more your brain wants to basically shrivel up and die. Once you pass a certain point, you become engaged in a fight to the death with entropy. (I should know… yesterday I spent ten minutes searching for a particular shirt, before I realized that I was wearing it.)

There are a lot of ways to keep your mind sharp, and all of them basically involve "using it." Crossword puzzles and Scrabble (or Words With Friends) are often cited as great ways to keep your mind sharp. But a new study has another suggestion: Join and use Facebook. Researchers from the University of Arizona found that using Facebook regularly had a strong positive effect on cognitive abilities, much more so than just surfing the web or not using the Internet at all.

The study took adults 65 years of age and older, and split them into two groups. The first group was set up with a Facebook account, friended everyone else in the group, and instructed to post to Facebook at least once a day. The second group was set up with a private anonymous online diary service, and instructed to post a diary entry at least once a day.

At the end of the study, researchers tested the participants' ability to "continuously monitor and quickly add or delete the contents of their working memory - a function known as updating." Updating is an excellent indicator of overall cognitive ability and mental quickness.

The Facebook users posted a 25 percent increase in their ability to perform mental updating. The researchers theorize that it could be because of Facebook's constant rolling site changes, which require you to stay on your toes in order to keep abreast of what your friends are doing. There could be a social component to the increase as well, since social interactions are another way to work your cognitive skills.

Either way, the message is clear - older people should "Like" this news!

Image courtesy of Flickr/auntjojo