Abstract
This paper investigates the relationship between social media and eating
practices amongst 42 internet users aged 18-26. We conducted an ethnography in
the US and India to observe how they navigated eating and health information
online. We found that participants portrayed themselves online through a
vocabulary we have labeled "the good life": performing holistic health by
displaying a socially-ideal body. In doing so, participants unconsciously
engaged in behaviors of disordered eating while actively eschewing them. They
also valued personal testimonies, and readily tested tips from content creators
who shared similar beliefs and bodies to them. In doing so, they discarded
probabilistic thinking and opened themselves to harm. Our study found that
their social media feeds did not unidirectionally influence participants - they
also reflected participants' internalized views of health, in an intertwined,
non-linear journey. Reducing the online spread of disordered eating practices
requires addressing it within young people's social context.
Citation
ID:
282366
Ref Key:
murray2024likeminded