Scaring seniors -- the hyping of falls, fraud, and weather
Listening to the weather channel could make an isolated senior nervous. Nearly 46% of women aged 75+ (around 11 million) live alone -- and one in three of them will live until 90 (2 million are aged 90+ now). If they listen to the news or the weather channel, they have quite a bit of opportunity to be frightened about the prospect of tornados, hurricanes, flash floods, excessive heat, poor air quality, wildfires. Or perhaps they're watching TV and they see that horrendous Life Alert ad. That's it for going down to the basement. Then the telephone or doorbell rings -- a nice distraction from the 4+ hours per day spent watching TV or perhaps spending a few minutes online if there is a computer around.