An exploration of older adults’motivations for creating content onTikTok and the role this plays forfostering new social connections

Sammanfattning: Older adults are typically seen as passive consumers of content rather than active contributors, andlittle is known about their digital content creation practices. This ethnographic study explores thepresence of people over 60 as content creators on TikTok, an emerging social media app favored byteenagers in the US. Drawing on the Uses and Gratifications approach and the concept of affordance,this research is a first step in understanding the motivations older adults have for producing videoson TikTok and how the specific affordances of the app support creators in fostering new socialconnections. The study identifies several distinct motivations related to initial and sustainedcontribution and shows how older adults use TikTok not only for fun and recreation, but also for civicengagement and community building. Additionally, parallels emerge between older adults’motivation to blog and to produce TikTok videos, suggesting that the gratifications they derive fromshort-form, audiovisual content are similar to those received from long-form, written content. It isfurther argued that TikTok’s algorithm and the Duet feature are among the features that help olderadults to forge new connections, while Live Streams and Questions-and-Answers play a big role indeepening the dialogue and maintaining these relationships.