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The Not-So-Positive Side of TikTok’s ‘#Positive Aging’ Messaging

Some promote the idea that ‘aging well’ means not aging at all

Vicki Larson
Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

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Screenshot of Silver Liberation’s TikTok account

We all absorb messages about aging from various sources, from friends and family to children’s books that often reinforce ageist and sexist narratives, to movies and TV shows, to advertising, to social media and everything in between. And, in the past few years, TikTok, which is used by 170 million Americans alone— about half of the population.

To say that the video platform is influential is an understatement.

So what kind of messages do TikTok’s videos have to say about aging, especially about older women since the majority — 53.4 percent — of TikTok users are women?

That’s what researcher Amanda Cooper, an assistant professor of interpersonal communication at the University of Connecticut, wanted to explore. So she combed through 270 videos using the top five most-viewed “positive aging” hashtags — #aginggracefully, #greyhairdontcare, #agingwell #agpositive and #PositiveAging — mostly posted by older women, to see if they are truly positive about aging.

What she found in her study “#PositiveAging: A Content Analysis of Positive Aging TikTok Videos” was enlightening.

“Messages about appearance and…

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