135 10 Using Technology to Advance Social Health Hiroko H. Dodge INTRODUCTION Although the World Wide Web was developed less than 40 years ago, our societies, cultures, and way of life have been heavily impacted by this new information system. Many are now facing information overload through email, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media. If we want to, we can surf the Internet and spend all day reading news and articles, post- ing comments, sharing pictures, and receiving comments from other people around the globe. In this chapter, social media is defined broadly by includ- ing any human interactions through the Internet such as email, group net- working sites, and any commercial Internet network sites (e.g., dating sites), not limiting to big social media sites (e.g., YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter). According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 65% of American adults used social media in 2005. This number has increased rapidly over the last 10 years and the trend includes seniors. In 2005, 2% of seniors (age 65 and older) used social media compared with 35% more recently (Perrin, 2015). Digital social networking is essentially limitless, but it requires an Internet connection, a device, and the ability to use the technology. The questions to be addressed in this chapter include the following: (a) To what extent do older adults take advantage of the Internet and social media for their social interactions? (b) Is it possible to reduce the epidemic of social This work is supported by R01AG051628, R01AG056102, R01AG033581, P30AG008017, and P30AG053760 from the National Institute of Health. I would like to thank Ms. Nora Mattek for her editing and proofreading. Copyright Springer Publishing Company. All Rights Reserved. From: Social Isolation of Older Adults DOI: 10.1891/9780826146991.0010