‘Retire, play petanque, take synthrom, travel, eat a blue pill and screw two old ladies’: Ageist language in Spain on Twitter

Ageist language discriminates against older people, infantilising, depersonalising and dehumanising them. Through a longitudinal study of tweets written in Spain between 2019 and 2023, this study investigates the evolution of ageism in the Spanish language. Using a mixed methodology based on Twitter public data mining, 27,971 tweets were analysed. Of these, 3555 tweets (19.31%) used ageist language. The analysis revealed a significant increase in ageist language after COVID-19, with the number of ageist tweets almost doubling compared to the pre-pandemic period. The results of the study suggest that ageist language on Twitter in Spain is mainly characterised by depersonalisation, portraying older people as a homogeneous and passive group. The study also highlights the double discrimination faced by older women on Twitter, where the language is not only ageist but also sexist, limiting their privacy and denying their rights in relation to their sexuality and physical appearance.