A 2025 publication in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Human Behaviour claims to show that people over 50 who use technology regularly are less likely to suffer from cognitive decline and dementia. Woohoo! Since nearly all of us use technology daily, it means watching more Netflix or Hulu will keep our brains as sharp as a Ginsu knife.

Except it won't.

Similar excitement surrounded published research a decade ago claiming that those who regularly did crossword puzzles were less likely to become demented. Unfortunately, that correlation did not denote causation. In fact, older people with more brain health—that is, those with more cognitive reserve—were those who did crossword puzzles, skewing the purported relationship. Similarly, seniors who are technologically adept are likely to be those with higher cognitive reserve. The authors of the 2025 research did try to take this into account using "proxies" for cognitive reserve, but they did not specify what these proxies were and this notion is hard to measure so we must be skeptical of the results.

There is another problem with this study. Technology use in the last two decades has been on an exponential tear, with nearly 100% of those in developing countries using at least one type of technology every day. The strong upward trend in technology use means that it is statistically difficult to isolate technology use from cognitive issues.

There is another problem: this research was a meta-analysis, a study of previous studies. Nearly all of these studies assessed technology use and cognitive abilities at a single point in time. Better analyses are longitudinal, they follow individuals over time and can directly relate changes in technology use with changes in cognitive skills. "Technology use" was also measured in many different ways in the many studies they meta-analyzed, so this adds a lot of uncertainty to the results.

If crosswords and screen time won't protect you from Alzheimer's, what should you do?

There are two well-established answers in the scientific literature: new experiences and social engagement. To keep your brain sharp, you need to push yourself into moderately uncomfortable situations. Learn a new skill, travel to new places, volunteer to mentor a young person. All these require recruiting cognitive and emotional resources that force your lazy brain into strengthening neural connections—and can even stimulate new neuron growth. This is the same reason exercise is necessary to maintain physical health. Exercise that is moderately uncomfortable pushes the cardiovascular system and muscles to improve their functioning, providing protection from illness.

The double whammy occurs when you add a social component to new experiences. Adding social-emotional complexity to what you are doing helps the brain remain healthy. It also just makes new experiences more fun and interesting. Think of when you were a teenager or college student—and everything in the world was new and kind of scary. Both of my kids complained about how hard it was to be "adulting" when they moved away to go to college. Challenge is essential for brain health.

The next step is to measure what to do—and who to do it with—to ensure you most effectively stimulate brain health. This is where Immersion's free app SIX comes in. SIX measures the value the brain gets from social-emotional experiences. Peak value occurs exactly for those experiences that promote neural regeneration and resilience. The brain is exquisitely adaptive—and by making choices, you can cause it to adapt to sustain its brain resilience.

Which things should you do? The SIX app identifies those activities, which we call Key Moments, that promote brain health. If you get regularly six or more Key Moments a day, your brain is investing the metabolic resources necessary to sustain resilience. Use the information from SIX to do more of those experiences that are most valuable neurologically—and do more things with those who give you the most Key Moments.

But there is a catch. The adaptive brain adapts to experiences we regularly repeat. To ensure you maintain cognitive and emotional health, you need to find new experiences to do. The SIX app will tell you if these were Key Moments—and you should repeat them for some time. But, after a while, you'll need to innovate and find new experiences again. Find new challenges, find new people, go new places. Struggle a bit—and you'll grow. And SIX will be there all along the brain health journey with you. Start using SIX today—it’s free, so there is no downside to trying it.

Or you can just watch more Netflix and hope that keeps your brain healthy.