Representation of Old Age on the Internet: A Typology of Social Media Activities of Older Adults in an Emancipatory Context

Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss the activities and self-representations of individuals over the age of 60 on social media. Nowadays, messaging apps and online platforms constitute one of the main forms of participation in social life, making exclusion from their use a barrier that prevents full engagement in the co-creation of social reality. Many previous studies had examined the prevalence of such platforms among older adults or identified the barriers that seniors encounter when interacting with this technology. However, relatively little attention has been paid to seniors who actively publish contents on social media. The exploratory study conducted here, focusing on mapping and describing the social media activities of older adults, seeks to at least partially fill this gap. Based on a qualitative analysis of 45 accounts of individuals aged over 60, six types of activities were identified, covering the following areas: art, modelling, beauty, lifestyle, entertainment, and para-social relationships. Although not all activities carried out on the analysed accounts can be considered unambiguously emancipatory, they present alternative visions of old age that diverge from prevalent stereotypes and contribute to constructing a more diverse image of senior women and men.