Pro-ana Culture & The Glorification of Eating Disorders

Note: This article discusses pro-anorexia (pro-ana) websites, anorexia, eating disorders, depression, self-harm and suicide. Those who are, or think they might, be struggling with an eating disorder are encouraged to visit: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/support-services/helplines

On average, we spend over 4 hours on our phone, yet many of us would be quick to claim that 4 hours is an exaggeration. It’s not. If anything, the time spent on our phones is set to increase over the coming years. We tell ourselves that we understand social media and we convince ourselves that it’s a force for good. Yes, a phone is all-encompassing, but it is also all-consuming. It’s our source for news, banking, shopping, connecting and reconnecting — it’s everything we could want or need in the palm of our hand.

Are we oblivious to the dark and negative posts that lurk in the depths of apps such as Tumblr and Instagram? Or do we simply just turn our heads away and pretend it doesn’t exist?

Eating disorders existed long before the conceptualization of the internet and social media, but now we see an increase in diagnosis and it seems evident that social media is creating and exacerbating eating disorders. Instagram will often show us a portrayal of the ‘ideal’ body and due to the social media platform being primarily image-orientated, it is more likely to evoke feelings of body dissatisfaction or worthlessness.

Instagram, like many other apps, works on an algorithm whereby it learns what content you pay attention to and constantly reproduces similar content. Usually, this isn’t a problem, algorithms can be great tools for discovering content you are almost guaranteed to engage in, but when you have an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia, the effects are devastating.

This is the same for Tumblr, but the content is more explicit, particularly between 2011–2014. Due to the simple way in which users can post and reblog, it is all too easy to be swept away and drown in a sea of images of ‘skin and bone' images of young girls with protruding ribs, images of wrists or arms after self-harm and the unwavering mantra, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. Here on Tumblr, as well as other apps and websites, promote, romanticize and glorify eating disorders and other mental health issues.

The pro-ana content that plagues social media was recognized by companies and they have tried various ways of controlling what is being posted and what content is accessible. You might believe that the dark and transfixing content that covers Tumblr was left behind in the early 2010’s after social media companies decided to enforce change but their efforts were proven futile. Now the pro-ana content has found a new home — TikTok. Using Tumblr can be similar to going down the rabbit hole and it is all too easy to descend into the depths and witness vivid dark and harmful content and become transfixed by it.

Tumblr glorifies eating disorders but TikTok normalises it. With the algorithms, it is easy to scroll through the ‘For You’ page and see the continuous line of videos normalising restrictive diets, ‘what I eat in a day’ videos and extreme workouts. TikTok is of particular importance given that this app is also used by children as young as 13 and this exposure of the ‘thin-ideal’ can make people focus more on their appearance, eating behaviours and body dissatisfaction.

Pro-ana websites were originally intended for other people with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia to help support each other. However, research investigating pro-ana content online has separated it into two categories — those who view ED as a mental health issue and those who view it as a lifestyle or choice (Munmun De Choudhury, 2015). What separates pro-ana websites from social media apps, is that it favours text over images and there’s more of a community-feel which may influence those who frequent the websites.

Given that these websites commonly use text, research has investigated the differences in language between eating disorders as a mental health issue vs those who believe that it is a choice. Empowering and emotional language was much more common with users who believed that anorexia was a choice or a lifestyle and the way in which they describe how they lose weight and how skinny they are, gives themselves and the reader the illusion of control and power.

By framing anorexia as a lifestyle, it diminishes the dangers and severity of eating disorders and can seem like an attractive option for those who want to lose weight and who have previously felt shame or feel like they have lost control. This causes people to think that these issues can be fixed by entering an anorexic ‘lifestyle’. On the other hand, users who view anorexia as a mental health disorder use passive language and believe that anorexia is incurable, therefore they use pro-ana sites to connect with others to gain support and advice.

When you look beneath the surface, you can see that pro-ana content lurks within all social media platforms and across the internet, so how do we manage this? Deleting hashtags? Censorship? Banning Accounts? These methods have proved unsuccessful so far given that a censorship campaign showed that the pro-ana content hasn’t diminished despite regulatory pressures (Casilli & Pailler, 2013). Hashtags such as #thinspiration or #proana can morph into new hashtags that have been purposely misspelt into #thynspiration or #proanaa to evade the new censorship that social media enforces. Not only does this create an extra layer of secrecy but it also means that staff who monitor the sites can’t do their job properly and it also makes it much harder for researchers to study.

However, there have been many people against the idea of banning pro-ana websites because although many do show signs of depression, self-harm and suicidal thoughts, many are interested in treatment and improvement and show signs of thinking about the future. Additionally, people may feel like they are understood and can seek emotional support whilst they battle with anorexia (Yom-Tov, 2016).

This is why pro-ana websites shouldn’t be banned completely as they can help encourage and support those on a long and difficult road to recovery, but more needs to be done to focus on recovery rather than glorifying eating disorders. There is no easy solution but governments, charities and organisations should do more to hold these social media apps and websites accountable for what is allowed to get posted and how they deal with users who engage with content surrounding eating disorders, depression and suicide.

References:

Casilli, A. A., Pailler, F., & Tubaro, P. (2013). Online networks of eating-disorder websites: why censoring pro-ana might be a bad idea. Perspectives in Public Health, 133(2), 94–95.

De Choudhury, M. (2015, May). Anorexia on tumblr: A characterization study. In Proceedings of the 5th international conference on digital health 2015 (pp. 43–50).

MacKay, J. (2020). Screen time stats: How your phone impacts your workday — RescueTime. Retrieved 3 August 2020, from https://blog.rescuetime.com/screen-time-stats-2018/

Yom-Tov, E., Brunstein-Klomek, A., Hadas, A., Tamir, O., & Fennig, S. (2016). Differences in physical status, mental state and online behavior of people in pro-anorexia web communities. Eating behaviors, 22, 109–112.