A comparative critical analysis of official and personal social media videos on being and becoming old in China

This study delves into ageing as it is depicted through social media videos in China. Through a critical analysis of 40 short-form videos, it compares how older people are discursively constructed by official agents and individual content creators to uncover their underlying ideological interests. Findings show that official videos tend to portray older people as socially disconnected and lonely whereas personal videos tend to showcase the jovial and inspirational aspects of growing old. They also reveal that official videos are exclusively situated in urban settings while personal videos also depict older people in rural and relatively modest settings. These findings reflect and reinforce the pathologisation and othering of older people and reveal ideologies linked to communitarianism and governmentality and the commodification of old age in the Chinese socio-political and socio-cultural ecosystem.