“We Make Them Our Kin”: Australian Older Adult’s Playful Kinship Practices Through Sharing Animal Images on Social Media

Abstract

Pets, companion animals, and “more-than-human” kin play important roles in people’s lives. Animals are familiar and familial—they are often integral family members and can help create communities beyond the family unit. People rely on their pets for emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. More recently, research into the role of animals in the lives of older adults has come into focus, especially through the visibilities and visualities of social media. The significance of animals in the lives of older adults in conjunction with the storification and sharing potential of social media leads us to ask: What do the practices of pet image sharing on social media reflect about ideas of aging and human and more-than-human kinship? In this article, we draw on ethnographic and interview data conducted with Australian older adults (65 years and above) about how and why they share images of their pets on social media. How do these visualities represent the feelings, care practices, and experiences of older adults and the value of the more-than-humans in their lives? This article seeks to contribute to social media literature by engaging with the under-explored lives of older adults and how their sharing practices reflect shifting relationalities between older adults and their pets.