By Edmund Boxley, VCU Gerontology and the Virginia Center on Aging

If you’re a Spotify user, you’ve probably seen the 2025 "Spotify Wrapped” – an annual personalized re-cap of users' listening history. This year, Spotify included a portion that designates users a specific age based on their listening preferences. “Age is just a number. So don’t take it personally,” the recap says. This is your “listening age.”

So, why is this ageist?

“Audience identity formation is both personal/individual and has societal implications. Media theories, such as symbolic annihilation, examine how representations are disseminated, consumed and experienced at macro levels” (Gendron, 2025, p.145). One aspect of symbolic annihilation noted here is trivialization through the use of stereotypes that lack depth (Gendron, 2025, p. 145). Based on my personal listening history, I was designated the age of 60 and “since you were into music from the Early 80’s. You’re an old soul.” What is really being said here? “You like oldies, so you must be old. But don’t take that personally!”

“Ageism permeates the construction and operationalization of “subjective age,” an attempt to describe oneself based on qualifiers that often end up being ageist or ableist...” (Gendron, 2025, p. 147). The accumulation of ageist stereotypes can have a direct impact on an individual’s well being – specifically emotional and mental well being. Someone who receives an "old soul" age may feel ashamed, embarrassed and/or judged.

Aging is a natural, heterogeneous flow through the stages of life. We age from childhood into elderhood in multi-faceted ways that cannot be contained within the box of “Early 80’s music.” An alternative to this re-cap portion is to simply say, “you mostly listened to Early 80’s music” without involving age. As Gerontologists, we can shift the narrative and methods used in popular media culture towards anti-ageist liberation.

At VCU Gerontology, we are developing leaders to navigate our aging digital world ethically and powerfully. We teach the skills of adaptation, innovation, advocacy and leadership essential for creating transformational change. Join the movement today!

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References

Gendron, T. (Ed.). (2025). Disrupting ageism: From theory to practice. Academic Press/Elsevier.