Abstract
With the growing statistics of older adults across societies, sustaining their health and well-being through active participation in sports cannot be neglected nor overlooked. This qualitative study purports to characterize the ontology of social media comments relative to older person’s engagement in sports via latent content analysis. Specifically, a set of YouTube comments (n = 7,546), extracted from select videos featuring older adults in sports (n = 62), through YouTube Data Application Programming Interface (API) Version 3, was subjected to inductive analytic procedures of content analysis. Interestingly, this study afforded the emergence of a playing field model emanating from the dualistic perspectives of aging as engagement and aged as engaged that represent how YouTube users view older adult’s continual involvement in sports. Limitations and future directions of this study are also discussed in this article.
Introduction
In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed a policy framework that aims to promote quality of life and active aging among older adults through continued engagements in different social, economic, cultural, spiritual, and civic activities (Paúl et al., 2017). Specifically, sports engagements play a vital role in achieving these global goals of healthy and active aging for the aging population. Sports engagement, or emotional and attitudinal identification and consistent participation in a sports activity performed (Mikicin, 2013), generally relates to healthier body and reduced mortality among the older adults (Lennartsson & Silverstein, 2001). In addition, highly active seniors in the biomedical perspective are considered aging successfully; however, from a social perspective, older adult athletes may differ in their views on successful aging due to differing personal values held compared with other older adults in general (Carr et al., 2017).
Noteworthily, studies have examined how aging and older people’s engagement in sports are generally viewed by different sectors of sports. For instance, a study among young taekwondo athletes found that generally, living with an old person positively influences one’s attitude toward aging (Sahin et al., 2017). Furthermore, an investigation on perception toward master athletes or special group of athletes from age 35 years with no upper age limit by physical education students revealed a positive attitude to such sports group, especially among females (Kusy et al., 2012).
YouTube, a user-generated content (UGC) site, houses several videos that feature older adults who are actively engaged in sports. Interestingly, YouTube allows opinion formation among its key features (Susarla et al., 2012) and such may come in the form of comments posted in each video watched. As such, YouTube comments may provide promising insights into how older people in sports are viewed by the public. However, it should be noted that empirical attempts that examine YouTube comments, especially on videos highlighting older adults in sports, remain unexplored in gerontological literature. Hence, as a clear and proactive response to Baker’s (2014) notion that “the resilience of the elderly provides an opportunity for many to learn of (and from) this cohort of adults, and to do what is necessary to ensure that we understand all that is involved in the aging process.” (p39), this latent content analysis (LCA) is aimed at examining the ontology of social media (YouTube) comments relative to older adults’ engagement in sports activities. Findings of this seminal investigation may expand the frontiers of the emerging and promising field of gerontalentology introduced by de Guzman et al. (2021). Also, this study may serve as a rich source for implications in sustaining sports engagements among the older population and improving the views of the general public toward one of the most vulnerable members of society.
Theoretical Background
Theoretical Framing
This empirical investigation is theoretically grounded on Rowe and Kahn’s (1997) Successful Aging Paradigm (SAP). According to Rubinstein and de Medeiros (2015), the centrality of SAP rests on three core aspects of well-being that includes avoiding disease and disability, engagement with life, and high cognitive and physical function. Impliedly, the first aspect of successful aging is reflected among the older people in this study as they actively participate in their respective sport events without manifestations of physical incapacity or ailments that may have been brought about by their continuous sports engagement, while the second aspect might be depicted through their sustenance of their autonomy in doing sports-related activities on their own and maintaining social support from family and various colleagues in sports. Finally, the last aspect of successful aging could be observed in the older people’s impressive performance in their field of sports despite their age. Summarily, this study posits that the older people’s constant sports participation is a demonstration of their successful aging.
Literature Review
Sports engagement and older adults
Guillén and Martínez-Alvarado (2014) described engagement in sports as the feeling of being fully engrossed in sports with great dedication and involvement. Interestingly, a diverse set of antecedents were found to determine a person’s engagement in sports. For instance, in a study conducted in the United Kingdom across different countries, it was found that higher educational attainment and being White positively influence engagement in sports (Buraimo et al., 2010). Furthermore, a qualitative study conducted by Gavin et al. (2016) determined four psychosocial factors that may influence adolescent’s sustained engagement in sports, namely personal considerations, school and community, parental support, and social interaction. On the contrary, age was observed to have a grave effect on sports engagement levels among individuals (Buraimo et al., 2010).
Correspondingly, sports engagement has been significantly studied among older people for its wide array of benefits in promoting health and quality of life (Gavin et al., 2016). For example, social engagement in later life (that includes sports participation) was seen to be associated with improved overall health (Croezen et al., 2009), positive subjective well-being (Wheatley & Bickerton, 2016), and better mental cognition (Fu et al., 2018), among others. It is also noteworthy that physical ailments, physical limitations, and lack of interest were reported to be barriers to sports engagement among older adults (Newson & Kemps, 2007).
Social media comments
The social web offers a wide online space that promotes sharing of information and knowledge among its users (Wang et al., 2012). Interestingly, online users’ comments, as a rich source of textual information, offer a great promise in understanding some human psychosocial processes, particularly, how the society behaves online in general (Khabiri et al., 2011).
Evidently, the effects of social media comments cannot be underestimated. For example, an online survey study revealed that reading online comments increases perceived importance of both consumer and citizen orientations among journalists (Hanusch & Tandoc, 2017). In addition, a television program’s success was found to greatly depend on viewer’s comments and expressed sentiments online (Waddell & Sundar, 2017). By and large, the opportunity and encouragement for the online users to comment on diverse online contents such as news, photos, and videos offered by social media sites opened a trove of social resources that reflect people’s attitude and interests toward an object or event (Khabiri et al., 2011), hence this empirical attempt to explore the YouTube viewer’s perception of older person’s active engagement in sports via online comments.
Method
Design
As a promising unobtrusive design, content analysis is a systematic process that involves deriving meanings, intentions, consequences, and contexts (Downe-Wamboldt, 1992). Specifically, this study employed the LCA as its research design. As a variant of content analysis, LCA determines what the text is all about and surfaces the underlying meaning from it (Graneheim & Lundman, 2004), which, in this investigation, refers to the YouTube comments posted by the viewers on videos presenting older adults engaged in sports.
Corpus of Data and Data Collection Procedure
This LCA investigation examined the deep structure of the online viewers’ comments on a select YouTube videos showcasing older adults in sports purposively chosen based on the following inclusion criteria: (a) videos published from 2005 to 2019; (b) the video should be showcasing an older adult (aged 65 years and older) or groups of older adults engaged in a sport event; (c) used English language; and (d) the comments section is not disabled. Notably, of the 82 videos collected, 62 YouTube videos met the established set of inclusion criteria with viewers’ comments subjected for analysis. Subsequently, the profile of the older adults presented in each video was collected from the video they were shown (Tables 1 & 2).
Profile of Collected YouTube Videos Featuring Older People in Sports From 2006 to 2019 (n = 62).
Profile of Older People Engaged in Sports Featured in Collected YouTube Videos (n = 77).
As indicated, most of the videos were published in the year 2017 (24.19%) with majority having more than a thousand views (93.33%). Interestingly, of the 77 older people showcased in the collected videos, most were male older adults in sports (61.04%) belonging to the old-old group (aged 85 years and older; 50.64%) hailing from the North America (United States and Canada; 57.14%). Remarkably, most of the older adults shown in the videos were mostly engaged in track and endurance type of sports (29.87%).
After gathering the profile of the older adults in sports shown in each of the videos, extraction of comments followed. Accordingly, YouTube comments were collected via YouTube Application Programming Interface (API) Tools, specifically YouTube Data API Version 3, a program used for extracting meta-data information like viewer’s comments automatically from the website (Schultes et al., 2013) on June 11, 2020. To ensure a rich set of data, only significant comments with complete thought posted with punctuation marks and directed to the older adult’s performance in the video were considered.
Mode of Analysis
Of the 12,014 comments extracted from a select group of YouTube videos showcasing older people engaged in sports, a total of 7,546 significant comments were subjected to LCA. The data analytic procedure employed in this study comprised four distinct processes of decontextualization, recontextualization, categorization, and compilation (Bengtsson, 2016). The decontextualization part involved the identification of meaning units from the significant comments selected, while the recontextualization entailed the process of including the essential meaning units and excluding the dross meaning units. Subsequently, condensed meaning units were formed in the categorization stage that eventually led to the development of themes, or the underlying meaning of the comments collected in the compilation stage. Finally, the member-checking procedure was conducted to ensure the trustworthiness of the findings in this qualitative study.
Findings
Guided by the inductive analytic approach to content analysis, this qualitative inquiry afforded the identification of intertwined and inseparable perspectives about aging and being aged. As a playing field (Figure 1), the shared perspectives of the viewers highly speak of the dualistic and paradigmatic notions of aging as engagement and aged as engaged. Explicitly, the collective idea of aging as engagement is composed of the triadic views centering on older adults as individuals who are not simply defined by physical constraints brought by aging (limited yet not limiting), withstanding the challenge of physical strength to engage in sports activities (weakened yet enduring), and still at their level best despite their old age (faded yet shining). Likewise, the cumulative concept of aged as engaged is typified by how older adults’ participation in sports activities could shape the beliefs and perspectives of the public about them as a source of pride (pride booster), motivation (optimism driver), and insight (wisdom drawer).
Aging and being aged as a playing field.
Aging as Engagement
In this qualitative investigation, the flooded comments posted on YouTube videos featuring older adults engaging in sports are a combination of mixed perspectives about their ability to conquer their physical limitations, hence yielding the notion of aging as limited yet not limiting. The limited notion of aging is typified by the expressions of doubts and mockery by the online viewers as commented: I bet she snorts lines of crushed of ibuprofen just to get through these events. (V18)
Notably, other comments posted were geared toward looking at aging as a territory that is not totally limiting as the older adults triumphed in their sports engagement as reported: The boomers are redefining aging, just as they have redefined so much else in their eventful lifetimes. (V2)
Along with the physical limitations brought by aging is the reduced physical strength to perform sports-related functions among the older adults. In the emerged perspective of weakened yet enduring, the posted YouTube comments revolve around awkwardness and fear felt in seeing the older adults still doing sports despite their seemingly weak body as revealed: I was cringing every time she did a move. (V18)
Yet, the breathtaking capability of the older adults to overcome their physical weakness when performing sporting events has greatly impressed the viewers as vividly expressed in the comments: She is really strong. Also doing some men’s disciplines there too. The parallel routine was damn impressive. (V18)
Astoundingly, the older adults whose sports engagement highly speaks of their prowess beyond their prime have gained the respect of online viewers in the domain of faded yet shining. However, it should be noted that in this notion, the shared postings in the video suggest the viewers’ common perception of the older adults as individuals who are past their glory days as tellingly expressed: 100 years? Maybe amazing, although she obviously can’t play golf anymore, I was expecting something different. (V36)
Nevertheless, the excellence of the older adults in certain sports tends to overshadow the stereotyped perspective of some viewers as the deep sense of admiration is exhibited by most of the viewers as posted: Wow, a 75 year old being able to flip over some much younger than him and 60 kilograms heavier. Mad respect. (V24)
Summarily, aging as engagement is defined by the older adults’ active and sustained participation in worthwhile activities such as sports, defying the physical restrictions of an aging body while gaining the respect and admiration of the younger counterparts.
Aged as Engaged
Completing the playing field is how the aged or older adults are interpreted from the lens of YouTube viewers’ comments. This aspect of the field encapsulates the changing and positive perspectives of online viewers toward older adults who are into sports activities. For instance, the pleasure of witnessing the awesome showcase of agility and strength of the older adults in sports boosted the pride of the online viewers. As enthusiastically expressed in the postings, Makes me proud to be a Nana!! Right on girls! I have to make it to the gym tonight! (V22)
For other viewers, witnessing the online documentation of older adults’ unceasing sports engagement encouraged them to entertain a world of possibility as mirrored in the older adults’ emerging role as optimism driver. Such role is best exemplified by comments veering toward inspiration and motivation derived from the older adults’ persistence.
Surprisingly, the drive to improve one’s self upon witnessing older adults still pursuing sports is commonly observed among the comments posted in each selected video. Viewers are one in expressing how they become inspired by the strong inclination of older adults in sports, as shared: Thank you for inspiring me, I am starting on Monday at 56 years old. (V2)
Remarkably, some comments also mirror viewer’s renewed motivation to become healthier and aspire to live longer. Some comments by viewers express their intention to continue practicing a healthy lifestyle as shared: This video encourage me to live longer and older. (V18)
In this study, the older adults’ sports engagement has brought the viewers to unfold interesting life’s lessons by looking at older adults as a valuable spring from which to draw wisdom. Interestingly, some postings echo the realization of the importance of passionately pursuing and working on a field of sports that one finds interesting as expressed: This proves that when you set your mind to something and you work hard, you can achieve it! This lady should be so proud of herself! (V18)
Notably, comments of the other viewers also indicate highly spirited impressions toward the aged as engaged individuals. As posted, Proving once again that age is in the mind. In our modern day age, we are living longer and with better health and mobility—why not enjoy every minute of life! Even if you do get injured, you are doing what you love! (V22)
By and large, the emerged perspective of aged as engaged, in this study, is indeed a graceful invitation to see the aged as a great work in progress whose constant engagement in meaningful and life-sustaining initiatives are vital forces that generate a sense of pride, optimism, and wisdom among individuals across age and other human boundaries.
Discussion
Taking into account the different comments posted by viewers on a select set of YouTube videos showing older adults who are consistently engaged in sports, this naturalist inquiry seeks to surface the ontology of these social media comments toward the continual sports participation of older adults. Notably, this study afforded the emergence of a playing field model that describes such ontology that is vividly captured by the dualistic and intertwined concepts of aging as engagement and aged as engaged. This model offers a fresh and interesting perspective on how the online public views the older adults in sports.
Aging as Engagement
This domain that characterizes aging being defined by older adults’ sports engagement commences with the notion of limited yet not limiting that indicates the impressive feat of older adults in sports overcoming limitations brought by their aging body. However, initial comments in this notion indicates mockery and doubt toward the older adults continually doing sports perhaps due to usual physical limitations observed within the aging population. Physical limitations among older adults are documented in the literature. Holmes (2009), for one, found that American adults aged 80 years and older are 2.5 times more prone to have one or more physical limitations. Moreover, these unpleasant views centering on limited physical capacity of older adults may be explained by the long-standing social problem on ageism among the younger population (Berger, 2017). Nevertheless, the older adults presented in the videos triumphantly overcome these physical limitations and consistently participated in their chosen sports event. Such success maybe supported the study of Muiños and Ballesteros (2018) indicating the power of sports activities in alleviating physical limitations brought by aging. Moreover, most of the older people in this study can be considered under the master athletes’ group or those who continue to train and compete in sports despite old age who were found to have greater physiological function and more favorable levels of risk factors on old age–related diseases (Tanaka et al., 2019); hence, it can be said that the sports played by the older participant adults in the video may have aided them to prevail over the physical limitations that come along with their aging bodies.
The second notion under the concept of aging as engagement called as weakened yet enduring describes the view on older adults in competitive sports as they get the better of their decreased strength and still be actively playing in their selected field. Some viewers in this notion expressed feelings of discomfort in seeing the seemingly weakened older adult playing sports. Accordingly, Berger’s (2017) claim of high level of negative bias toward the aging population by the younger group may support this finding. Noteworthily, weakness or frailty among older adults is observed in 20% to 30% of the older population (Topinková, 2008) and has been consistently connected with diseases of the old age affecting neural and muscular functions (Fedarko, 2011). Lang and colleagues (2009) argued that weakness or frailty can be prevented and possibly reversed. Likewise, some sports-related trainings such as resistance and endurance training (Seene & Kaasik, 2012) were found to improve weakness or frailty among older adults. Such may also explain the outstanding strength of the older adults still engaged in sports impressing the viewers.
Interestingly, both notions of limited yet not limited and weakened yet enduring gained comments reflecting awe among the viewers for the excellent talent in sports shown by the older adults in the video. This may have been caused by the wonder or amazement evoked by seeing the great feat performed by the older adults in sports witnessed by the viewers that is beyond their current frames of reference and also needs a new schema to accommodate what they previously saw (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). In sum, sports and other related activities are not only limited to providing physical rehabilitation among older adults. It can also be suggested to become an effective tool to change the prevalent negative views and stereotypes among the older population.
The last notion called faded yet shining speaks about the respect and admiration accorded to the older adults for their superb performance in sports even beyond their prime. However, a number of online comments under this notion show the usual view given among aging groups focusing on their dwindling performance brought by age. This finding corroborates with the study of Krampe and McInnes (2007) that shows the common expectation of age-related reductions affecting professional competence in the workplace. Still, it is noteworthy that majority of the online comments under this notion speak about the admiration and respect the viewers gained toward the older adults engaged in sports. Remarkably, aging does not prevent older adults to excel in different fields of expertise. In fact, several studies on successful aging have shown accomplishment and productivity as part of aging successfully among older adults (Castel, 2018). Thus, the continuous participation of the older athletes in sports might be their personal view of successful aging and this in turn, made the viewers feel a deep sense of respect and admiration toward them. Furthermore, such feelings of respect and admiration reflected in the viewer’s comments may have stemmed from positive social emotions experienced upon recognizing excellent behavior or skill witnessed from the older adults in the video (Nakatani et al., 2018). This finding suggests putting premium to implementing further sports programs that will cater to older adults as an avenue to promote respect toward them and contribute to their outlook of aging successfully.
Aged as Engaged
The second domain that centers on how the YouTube viewers interpret the older adult’s sports participation begins with view of older people engaged in sports as pride booster. This sense of pride mirrored in the comments of the viewers may be considered as vicarious pride or pride felt on behalf of the success of others (McLatchie & Piazza, 2020). In sports, vicarious pride is described as the “we” feeling, feelings of belongingness or sharing the current achievements or prestigious past of a player or a team (Decrop & Derbaix, 2009). From this, it can be inferred that the audience may have felt that they are part of the success of the older adults highlighted in the video, hence their comments exhibiting pride.
Notably, some comments posted in the YouTube videos reflect older adults as a source of inspiration and motivation, thus making them as an optimism driver. Inspiration, on one hand, gained from witnessing older adults still doing sports may be explained by Thrash and Elliot’s (2003) concept of inspiration characterized by evocation or receptivity or being inspired by others without full or direct responsibility of becoming inspired. Being motivated by the older adults still dedicated to do their chosen sports, on the other hand, can be understood through the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). SCT posits that individuals learn through observation of models (Bandura, 1977 as cited by Fox & Bailenson, 2009). This theory is composed of two properties called vicarious reinforcement and identification. Characteristically, vicarious reinforcement is described as observing and interpreting the consequences experienced by the model and believing that it can happen to them as well, while identification refers to the extent which a person relates to the model. Impliedly, it can be said that probably, the viewers felt motivated to continue living healthy and do sports to live longer because they have observed it in the older adults in the YouTube videos (vicarious reinforcement) and relates to them because everyone will eventually age and get old (identification).
In this study, the older people’s engagement in sports has become a source of life lessons among the viewers under the notion of wisdom drawer. In many communities, older adults are considered source of wisdom for the number of experiences they have and expertise they gained (Lewis, 2011). Notably, one of the most prevalent lessons gained by the viewers from the videos showcasing older adults participating in sports is passion. Accordingly, master athletes were found to emanate passion as evidenced from their persistence, extensive engagement, and identity orientation toward sports (Young et al., 2014). Passionate people have the tendency to share their knowledge and expertise on a specific field with others (Sié & Yakhlef, 2013), and surprisingly, the YouTube video feature may have become a potential avenue for this sharing to take place for the viewers. Taking into consideration the findings under the concept of aged as engaged, this study recommends creating a sports show intended to showcase older adults still engaged in sports for its promising benefits of eliciting and providing pride, inspiration, motivation, and life lessons, especially to the younger generations.
Limitations
While the present investigation offers a number of promises, it has also its limitations. First, the unidirectional nature of text mining of user-generated comments, regardless of its volume, does not offer any researcher to probe deeper into the posted comments, hence the need to capitalize on traditional problem-centered interview techniques. A good methodological blend of UGCs and conventional corpora of data can expectedly add flavor and rigor to the substantial aspect of any scientific undertaking. Second, the emerged model may not truly represent all the older adults engaged in sports activities, given the fact that the YouTube comments generated in this study come from the Anglophone cultural area, hence the need to entertain other social media platforms to cover other cultural areas. Such an expansive approach may create a good balance of views because cultural orientations and practices shape attitudes toward the aging population. Third, the issue of online anonymity which typifies comments posted on YouTube may not provide a clear picture of how homogeneous the comments are because the age, gender, and other relevant information about the commentators are not evident.
Conclusion
Admittedly, this seminal undertaking offers fresh and promising perspectives in exploring the territory of aging and its allied processes. While previous undertakings had examined the various facets of aging dynamics with the use of the more conventional and time-tested empirical procedures, this investigation can potentially provide a meaningful yet serendipitous shift among researchers and scholars to embrace the promises and affordances of the ever-expanding UGCs directed toward older adults and other sectors of society. The growing popularity of various social media platforms, with its increasing volume, valence, and variance, is a valuable and a fertile space in drilling down the views, sentiments, and musings of people about intersubjective experiences like aging. Listening to and learning from the manifest and latent nature of UGCs may expand the future of the fourth paradigm data-driven scientific research and its allied approaches, methods, and designs.
Interestingly, the emerged aging and being aged as a playing field model puts premium on the centrality of successful aging. On one hand, the concept of aging as engagement highlights the great need for sports programs intended for older adults not only as a rehabilitative tool but also as an aid to reduce the ever-growing stigma against the most vulnerable and neglected members of the society. Furthermore, the suggested sports programs may also contribute to the older adult’s outlook toward aging successfully and how they can be supported in supporting their long-time interest and promoting their well-being. The concept of aged as engaged, on the other hand, may provide the impetus to creating programs that will highlight older individuals in sports for its promising potential to promote pride, inspiration, and motivation and provide life lessons, especially among the younger generation. Impliedly, the emerged model in this study is a valuable means to maximize the power of technology and its accompanying platforms in nurturing activity engagement among older adults, challenging the long-standing issue of ageism, and expanding the frontiers of sports communication that involves older adults.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This article was funded by the Research Center for Educational Research and Social Sciences of the University of Santo Tomas.
IRB Protocol
The article did not involve any human subjects that require an IRB Protocol Number. Data used in this study were extracted from YouTube Comments via DataMiner software.
