Like-minded, like-bodied: How users (18-26) trust online eating and health information
Fuente:
arXiv
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2024
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866913247670566912 |
|---|---|
| author | Xu, Rachel Le, Nhu Park, Rebekah Murray, Laura |
| author_facet | Xu, Rachel Le, Nhu Park, Rebekah Murray, Laura |
| contents | 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. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_18753 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Like-minded, like-bodied: How users (18-26) trust online eating and health information Xu, Rachel Le, Nhu Park, Rebekah Murray, Laura Human-Computer Interaction Computers and Society Social and Information Networks 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. |
| title | Like-minded, like-bodied: How users (18-26) trust online eating and health information |
| topic | Human-Computer Interaction Computers and Society Social and Information Networks |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.18753 |