Older TikTokers in Digital Capitalism: Construction of Persona and Agency

Edit  Pauló

doi:10.21153/psj2025vol11noart2177

Authors

Edit Pauló https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1985-283X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/psj2025vol11noart2177

Keywords:

Older Adults, Goffman, Online Persona, TikTok

Abstract

Social media platforms allow users to intentionally present themselves and engage with narrower and broader audiences, which has resulted in the proliferation of online personas. However, these online personas often align with existing social norms regarding primary axes of social stratification to achieve high publicity. What options are available for users who are not the primary target group due to their age? By what means can someone considered an older content creator gain publicity?

This study examines how content creators over sixty construct their online personas on Hungarian-speaking TikTok. Is it possible to categorise and typify them? How do these personas reflect the experience of ageing? What different social roles do they emphasise as part of their online persona?

This research uses a framework based on Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical model to examine the short TikTok videos, supplemented by visual and verbal video analysis and discourse analysis. Five distinct online personas were identified as constructed by older content creators, each with different goals, themes, tools, and reflections on ageing. Gender issues emerged as a key finding of the research, as did how these TikTokers engage with the platform’s capitalist dynamics.

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