Aging on Social Media - Short Answers Podcast

Social media has a significant impact on our perceptions of aging. Many young adults create content that promotes anti-aging campaigns, leading to younger generations feeling pressured to follow beauty standards. However, there are also older influencers who demonstrate graceful aging and share their hobbies. Overall, there is a fear of aging that companies exploit for profit, but things are slowly changing. Hey, you're listening to Short Answers, a podcast where I have complex questions and qualified people give simple answers. Media throughout history has affected our views, beliefs, and behavior through various means like the radio, television, movies, or podcasts, just like this one. And now, social media on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, among many others, are the way we consume media on the daily, which can be a huge factor in shaping our views. I wanted to specifically look at how social media can affect our perceptions about aging. And so, I asked this question to my sister, Omnia Gilani, who's been doing her Master's in Health and Aging at McMaster University. Since she knows way more about this topic, I'll let her take over. Hi Imad, thank you for having me and for the introduction. For the interest of time, I'm just going to get right into it. So, I think there are positive and negative portrayals of older adults in the media, as well as the concept of aging in the media. But I think the issue is that we don't have a lot of older adults that are using social media, so a lot of the content we see is created by young adults who I think are scared to age. Because when you think of getting older, you think of being frail with wrinkles or some form of impairment, and a lot of these influencers, which, by the way, are not healthcare professionals, are promoting anti-aging campaigns through anti-aging creams, and this is having a huge impact on the younger generation. I've heard of this trend of teen girls buying super expensive skin products and asking for retinol when they don't even know what it exactly does to your skin, but just because they have been influenced by what they see on social media, they just feel like they have to follow that. But I think on the bright side, there are some really amazing influencers out there that are older adults themselves, that have fitness accounts, that are makeup influencers, and these are examples of how you can age gracefully and still continue to have your hobbies and share that with the world. So, in conclusion, I think we see both sides on social media, but I personally think there's more of this fear of aging that these huge companies are using for their benefit. I think things are changing, but this is something that will certainly take time. Thank you for listening. Hope you enjoyed, and see you next time!