Pro-Ana groups grow on social networking sites
clipped by: mirzania
clipper’s remarks: I personally think these groups do need to exist. Banning them won’t cure people of anorexia and at keast they have others to talk to who understand how they feel - something no non-anorexic can.
There again, others may say that these social networks will encourage young people to over-slim and eventually get anorexia. That also may be a valid point. But I still don’t think banning them is the answer.
What do others think?
One of the Facebook groups
The popularity of social networking websites has opened up a whole new world of interaction, but with it, darker trends are emerging. Groups which appear to extol grave eating disorders as a glamorous lifestyle choice are appearing on sites which claim tens of millions of active users.
Members of such groups post pictures of painfully skinny girls for “thinspiration”, compare dangerously low goal weights and measurements, and team up to “keep each other strong” in their quest to lose weight.
Their existence on the net is nothing new. But their presence on social networking websites, which have rules against posting harmful content, raises the groups to a new respectability.
A spokesman for MySpace says it can be “very tricky” to distinguish between support groups for users who are suffering from eating disorders, and groups that might be termed as pro anorexia or bulimia.
Facebook failed to respond to our questions.
Tags: anorexia, bulimia, social networking
(via Clipmarks | mirzania’s clips)
1 year ago