Age discrimination in public transportation: The case of the Ekşi Sözlük platform

This study examines how age discrimination toward the free-transit rights of individuals aged 65 and older is reproduced through the discussions on the Ekşi Sözlük platform. The data consist of 1,762 user entries collected under the Ekşi Sözlük heading “toplu taşımada 65 yaş beleşçiliği kaldırılsın” (“abolish free-riding by 65-year-olds on public transit”). Designed as a case study, one of the qualitative research designs, the data were subjected to theme-category-code content analysis using the MAXQDA Qualitative Data Analysis Program, in keeping with the study’s aim. The findings are grouped under four subheadings: economic discrimination; spatial conflict and temporal disruption; othering through bodies and behavior; and recommendations and expectations. Commenters on the platform largely position older adults as people who waste resources, do not deserve to occupy space or time, and are bothersome in bodily terms. Consistent with this framing, most proposed solutions call for restricting the existing right rather than expanding it. Drawing on a large-scale online dataset, the study contributes to the context of public transportation and urban mobility — a context that has received comparatively little attention in the Turkish literature on ageism — and shows that age discrimination is continuously reproduced through digital platforms as well.