Are video games and Facebook the key to staying young?

Surfing the web, logging on to Facebook, dancing, texting, flirting, crushing on a celeb, getting drunk — no, we’re not talking about the teenager you just grounded for the conceivable future. It may be that your parents — the empty nesters with the rapidly silvering hair — are the ones who need grounding, or a stern talking-to anyway.

A recent study, conducted in the U.K. by Beneden, a healthcare specialist, explored the many ways in which older adults retain their youthful enthusiasm for life. According to an article in the Daily Mail, which explored the results of the survey, staying young has a whole lot to do with acting young.

One thousand participants, drawn from both sexes, and with a minimum age of 59, were quizzed about how young they felt — most reported feeling an average 18 years younger than their biological age — and what it was that helped them fight the good fight against encroaching malaise and personal and cultural irrelevance.

Most of the 40 secrets read like a variation on how to keep up with the Kardashians and include, among other decidedly adolescent interests and pursuits, wearing a short skirt, going to nightclubs, staying up late, eating chocolate, gossiping and trying to attract the attention of a younger partner.

Ninety percent of those polled expressed the view that age is dependent on outlook rather than time — attitude, as they say, is all. If you act young and take up youthful interests and pursuits then chances are you'll feel young, too.

Seventy percent also pointed to the value of having a sense of humour — laughter is more potent than botox, it would seem, for smoothing out those intrusive psychological wrinkles.

What do you do to make yourself feel younger?