Grow Old Along With Me...

ME & THE DANCER

I love everything about my Gramps; his incredible humor, his astounding intelligence and his endless energy.  That’s right; my 88 year young Gramps runs circles around most of my friends, both intellectually and physically. In fact, on October 16 he even earned the title of ‘The Dancer’ at my wedding (mind you, there were 200+ people competing for that title!). This past weekend I spent some time with Gramps. I learned some valuable lessons about power walking, horse racing and living blackberry-free!

The first thing I noticed this weekend was Gramps’ impressive, busy time – at one point he was bored with me and left me at Starbucks while he made his daily rounds walking the mall. I was literally ditched. After 4 rounds of power walking he yanked my Twittering hand from my blackberry and dragged me along. During our trot he told me that I am going to get Arthritis from texting too much and my social skills will be gone by 40 if I keep my nose in my blackberry. This conversation got me thinking… so on the way home from the mall-a-thon, I of course took out my blackberry and Googled “shopping effects on longevity” and boy was I surprised by the results.

The first link I clicked was a news clip that reported a study done on shopping and longevity. Researchers found that elderly who walk the mall everyday have 27% less risk of death than the least frequent “shoppers”. I imagine my Gramps’ daily rounds through JCPenney are keeping around longer because of the physical component that the report stresses is vital to growing old.

The more I researched this topic, the more I got to thinking about how the world of social media and technology will change the way we grow old. Let’s face it, I like to shop but if I can buy something online I am MUCH more likely to click and credit then drive and park. And socially I am much more likely to email or text a friend then pick up a phone like Gramps and chat about the horse races.

As the world learns more about iPhone apps and Twitter feeds, the world may also need to learn more about balancing our lives both physically and socially. It may be important to further our knowledge in the tech world but it may also be just as important to remain active and ditch the crackberry for a power walk every day.

The facts are already there, a poll by the Institute of Medicine and Public Health found that Americans spend on average of 56 hours a week behind a computer being physically inactive. I know that my Gramps is not one of those Americans and if he is spending 8 hours a day doing anything it is cruising around in his Cadi or power walking the mall.

ME & GRAMPS

As leaders in this social media evolution, let’s be sure to value balance as we take on new mediums and let’s not forget the importance of a power walk or a breath of fresh air. Because as we grow older we will never regret the time we took to be healthy. I am going to follow in the footsteps of my Gramps, maybe not literally since his stride is a lot bigger than mine, but figuratively, without a doubt!