JASLEEN MANN
Virtual spaces have been targeted towards young people and teenagers, with only a few older adults active on social media. These platforms provided a certain kind of (filial) space to exchange messages, send “forwarded” messages, like their children’s pictures, share recipes, and stay connected through WhatsApp calling, and FB messenger. A Pew Research Center study suggests that the consumption of YouTube videos and TikToks, i.e., mainly video content, has surged for the age group of fifty-five years plus (2022). Many thought of social media as emancipatory and equal for all- a place where older adults were heard and respected (as in our Indian culture).
This “utopian” social order imagined in the context of these platforms created a certain kind of user- who is “westernized”, young, and able-bodied person. Marketing, distribution, design, and discourses on “new” apps, and software have made them inaccessible and exclusionary for older people. Applying a social construction approach to the discourse reveals that while aging is a biological process, it is often given derogatory connotations like “sagging,” “useless,” and “wasted” bodies. Ageism is a form of categorization and discrimination. For feminist theorist, Judith Butler, ageism is the “systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old, just as racism and sexism accomplish this with skin color and gender” (1969, p 243).
No surprise older women start facing such discrimination early, as traditionally, their worth is linked to their looks. Media and socio-cultural contexts reaffirm the notion that women’s bodies are the objects of the male gaze, specifically the “gaze of youth”. Age stereotyping and moral policing of old celebrity actors (e.g., “Look at what Aunty is wearing at this age?”) are common on these platforms.
An example of this stereotyping was the trending meme “Boomer Remover” on various social media platforms. The nihilistic catchphrase used by millennials celebrated the connection between the pandemic and the death of baby boomers, or those aged between 55 and 75. Explanations given ranged from millennial indifference, progressive pushback in the face of environmental and social crises, and entitlement to the extreme nature of internet humor. Though the rhetoric was later, rightfully, condemned as ageist, mean, rude, and wrong.
Proliferation and consumption of such harmful content and stigma have been linked to a reduced sense of self-efficacy, increased risk of depression, and effects that overload both the immune and cardiovascular system, for older adults. The political and economic aspects of these platforms enable further social vacuuming and online invisibilization of aging bodies.
Only a handful of initiatives address these discriminatory discourses. Some research shows that older people, commonly women, use blogs as an avenue to garner greater visibility online, sharing strategies on how to navigate exclusion and challenge negative age stereotypes. These small steps may dismantle the beliefs that older adults are inherently “dumb” in using technology or are merely passive users. Encouraging them to share their stories online may embolden a more active role in age-based advocacy.
Further, attempts to include older adults in the process of designing social media platforms and digital technologies in general should be bolstered. Perhaps, building intergenerational solidarity and undoing echo chambers that alienate them through re-thinking design, is the way forward. Surely, we value our older generations’ experiences and opinions, and as an Indian millennial, I think we can do better than these memes. Social media as an ever-changing space should then mean, undoing the ageism embedded in its platform logic.
