Get thin or die tryin?

A touched a little bit on pro anorexic sites in my last post and that seemed to generate a bit of interest. And since I’m not anorexic nor have any desire to be one I can’t add a personal flavour here (I suppose I shouldn’t really use food puns…) I did however go to school with an anorexic, but I think its standard for an all girls high school to have the token ano.

Anyway, if you are a young teenage girl (or boy) the internet is a great source of information about getting into anorexia. Especially social networking sites that offer support and helpful hints to maintaining a waif like figure.

Social utility sites are fast becoming a portal for pro-anorexics to network with each other. I was amazed to see how many groups on Facebook there were that were pro-anorexic and the sheer amount of videos posted on YouTube that are “thinspo” (thin-inspiration) related.

What surprised/ shocked me the most was that on Facebook these girls who join these groups are openly stating their anorexic desires. And as I recall I don’t think I have ever heard a girl say out loud “I’m ano and proud!” Anorexic people never openly admit their disease –well certainly the ones I’ve known, normally you hear the “I have an overactive thyroid” excuse. So I was quite amazed that a lot of people on the web are out and proud of something that is normally so hush hush in real life.

What made me feel sick were the thinspo videos on YouTube. People post picture slideshows of their thin inspiration. Mary-Kate Olsen and Nicole Ritchie come up tops in thinspo along with skeletal models.

But anyway my point is not to slate anorexics. What my point is, is that shouldn’t social networking sites take more responsibility into what gets posted onto the sites. Anorexia is a mental illness and shouldn’t be allowed to be displayed as positive thing that girls should aspire to. Sure people have the freedom of speech but there should be a line as to whether what you are saying is intended to promote harm to other people. It’s a topic that highly debatable and I’m interested in what you all think.

I had to rush this post...

Over the next while I am going to be discussing social media, virtual communities and networks in my blog. Basically I want to look at sites like Youtube, facebook and myspace and how people use these sites to create virtual communities.

At the moment the facebook craze has hit Rhodes University hard. I for one am completely addicted to the site. Majority of the people I network with on facebook I see in person nearly everyday or have the opportunity to see them everyday, yet most of the time I’d rather communicate with them over facebook than in real life. This is is disturbing when I actually think about. This is one aspect that I would like to focus on, are people more comfortable in communicating virtually than in real life? Is this is first step towards living in virtual reality?

I think that virtual communities and networks allow people to feel that they belong to something, a special group. It is part of human nature to feel the need to belong to something, to know where one fits in the greater scheme of things. Virtual communities play into this idea and is something I would like to explore.

I am unsure where exactly my research into the topic is going to take me, but I am hoping to find some social and maybe even psychological impacts that virtual communities and networks have on users.