Pro-ED websites/groups effect viewers-Powerpoint presentation

1. How Pro/Anti-ED Websites/Social
Networking Effect Viewers
Brittany McArdell

2. Personal Interest
• Gymnastics
• Olympic gymnasts
• Lake Owen Camp

3. Background
• -Pro-ana: individuals with an eating disorder who focus on
having an eating disorder as a lifestyle choice as opposed to
a psychiatric disorder (Lyons,Mehl & Pennebaker, 2006).
• Open chats, blogs
• Eating tips (reduce hunger)
• Photo galleries (progress/results)-thinspiration
• Food routines, diaries/diets
• Exercise
• Sense of unity/acceptance
• Warning signs
• Recovery & treatment
• Legal notice

4. Research Questions
• What effects do pro/anti-ED websites have on
viewers?
• What do pro/anti-ED viewers promote?
• Is successful treatment and recovery found when
viewing these sites?
Hypothesis
• Pro-ED sites/groups with produce high scrutiny
regarding the effects of viewers, negative
criticism pertaining to what they promote, and
low rates of recovery to viewers.

5. Reasons To Study
• Pro-ED is fairly new
in the past decade
– Lack of research
• Social networking
• Better inform
audiences that these
sites are most likely
helpful than harmful

6. Literature Review
• Pro-Eating Disorder Communities on Social
Networking Sites: A Content Analysis
– Participants are highly likely to:
• Have low levels of body satisfaction
• Fast
• Not seek recovery
• Give tips
• Encourage others not to give up
• Create second profiles

7. Literature Review Cont.
• Finding Community in Cyberspace: Pro Eating
Disorder Websites
– Participant observation
– Sites are created because of lived experiences and
how to cope with them
• Participants need a place for non-judgemental interaction
• Connection of being misunderstood
• Discuss treatment & recovery
*uses and gratifications theory

8. Research Methods
• Interviews
– Question leaders pertaining
to their site and/or group
• Participant observation
– Follow 5 pro-ED websites & 5
networking groups
– Follow 5 anti-ED
websites/networking groups
• Surveys and polls
– Opinions on whether or not
pro-ED sites & groups should
be allowed

9. Current Research
• Should pro-eating disorder (anorexia/bulimia) websites or groups be allowed on the internet?
• Participant 1 · Answered If no, why?
• As a parent of a child with self esteem issues who continually calls herself ugly this adds fuel to the
fire. Children already know how to create an eating disorder. Websites make it easy and more
challenging for parents to monitor their behavior and the get them the help they need. HOWEVER a
full out ban and the fact that we have freedom of speech does tilt the non-mom factor to a yes they
should be allowed. However, with that said..you can not yell FIRE in a theatre where no such fire
exists. I struggle very much with this question because for me it is not a black and white answer.
• Participant 2 · Answered If no, why?
• No, as they glamourize a terrible illness. On the other hand, who's to be the one to regulate such
sites? There are a number of choices a person can make - drugs, drinking, smoking, eating
disorders, self-inflicted injuries - that can harm that person and be rooted in a mental illness or
disorder. The Internet is an unregulated place where free speech rules - can a government or entity
regulate Web pages within the realms of free speech for the so-called good of a people who have
the right to make their own decisions? Perhaps they should be like porn sites, in which you have to
prove you are over age 18 to view - although we all know how well that works.
• Participant 4 · Answered If yes, why?
• If you censor one thing on the internet, it gives you license to censor all. And of all the things on the
internet (ie, kitty crush videos, videos of rape encounters, Nazi propaganda, the kardashians
etc.), this is not where I would begin if I WERE to start censoring the internet.
• Participant 6 · Answered If yes, why?
• Though I am against eating disorders I believe that the internet should be left out of any goverment's
control.