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Last Sunday, February 22 started this year’s National Eating
Disorder Awareness Week. The theme, “I Had No Idea,” sounds simple, yet speaks
volumes. There are so many unknowns with eating disorders, and so little
understanding of them among most of the population. Eating disorders are often
overlooked. With this year’s theme, the National Eating Disorder Association
(NEDA) aims to educate people on eating disorders and show everyone that early
intervention is important in recovery—that eating disorders are not just a
“phase.”
While there may be many “pro-ana” sites and other harmful
sites that promote eating disorders as a positive way of life, social media is
also being used to raise awareness for eating disorder treatment and
prevention. NEDA encourages people to use the hashtag NEDAwareness on social
media sites all week long (If you are unfamiliar with how “hashtags” work and
you want to learn about them, click here). Some other popular hashtags for this week
are: #NedaWeek, #NedaAwarenessWeek, #NEDAWeek2015. There are thousands of
postings with these hashtags on Instagram alone.
Even if you do not have a Twitter account, you can see some
of the “tweets” about eating disorder awareness by clicking here. It’s so nice to see
social media put to good use for positive change.
People don’t need to have any personal experience with
eating disorders to bring attention to this important cause. Below are some
images from the NEDA Website that
NEDA encourages social media users to share on their pages.
Thanks for Reading!
Carly
Carly
This seems like a really necessary campaign. It's always shocking to see just how common eating disorders are because they're kept quiet and stigmatized so much. But then you see the statistics for just how many men and women struggle with these illnesses, or (like in biology this past year) it gets brought up in class and it's staggering how many people raise their hands to say it's something they've dealt with.
ReplyDeleteHI Carly,
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a really cool internship with LOTS going on matching your future interests. One of the things that I love about SRPs is the informal learning that occurs regarding being in a work place rather than in a classroom. How is that going for you?
Hi Dr. Duffy,
DeleteSorry it took so long for me to reply! Being in a work place instead of a classroom is definitely a good social lesson for me. It's not like just interacting with my peers. I have to be a lot more professional and formal, which is something I am not used to all the time.
Hi my name is Cayley and I go to Lutheran High School in Parker, Colorado. I find your project very interesting and it raises a very good point. This specific campaign was really intriguing to me because I don't really think about how an athlete could be affected by seeing pictures of other athletes. Thinking deeper about this it actually does make sense considering I look at sports stars and I will find myself getting jealous about the body they have and I don't. This is very interesting research, I encourage you to keep up these thoughts and try and see if we can stop eating disorders through the use of social media.
ReplyDeleteHi Cayley!
DeleteThanks for your comment! I too didn't really think about athletes and eating disorders. I think NEDA chose a good theme for the awareness week this year because it really highlights how there are so many aspects of eating disorders that most people don't even think about.
Hey Carly. I know from working with the Marfan Foundation that raising awareness is the most important thing to do. I looked up those hashtags on Instagram and I found it very fascinating how many people are sharing their stories, raising awareness of eating disorders, and trying to help others stay positive. Do you think there is any way to see if the publicity from National Eating Disorder Awareness Week has created an impact on society by changing people's viewpoint on eating disorders? Also, what did you do to help during the national awareness week? Did you post educational and awareness things on social media or did you attend the local NEDA walk? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Rachael!
DeleteI really hope the publicity from NED Awareness Week helped! It's so hard to measure, but I know that I personally learned a lot about eating disorders through the posts and stories about eating disorders on social media for awareness week. I made an awareness post with my secondary instagram account (I don't really use my personal account much) I also attended the NEDA walk and handed out information at A New Beginning's table/booth at the walk.
hi Carly! Although your project is called "Harmful Hashtags" it seems as though people are really taking the initiative to make social media a positive source to spread awareness and help others. Would you say that social media has just as much power to help as to harm? And do you think that one day our social media networks could be more filled with positive and helpful campaigns than unrealistic beauty standards?
ReplyDeleteHi Charlotte,
DeleteGreat questions! There are numerous studies that show how social media can lower one's self esteem and create a negative body image, but there are fewer studies on how social media can increase positive feelings about one's body. I still have a lot to research to do on this topic, so I can't say for sure whether social media has equal positive and negative power. I do see a movement for using social media to promote confidence in self image. For example, recently on instagram, the #20beautifulwomenchallenge, where women have to post a picture of themselves that they feel beautiful in and nominate 20 other women to do the same challenge. Hopefully such trends will continue.
Hi Carly! I also just thought about the recent trend in some companies to show "natural beauty". For instance, Dove only runs commercials and ads with natural looking, normal women. And aerie recently decided to stop photoshopping pictures! I think that this is such a positive step forward and I agree with you, hopefully this trend continues.
DeleteHi Carly, I am Noah from Lutheran High School in Parker, Colorado. I am a huge history nerd, and was wondering if you knew how recently these disorders began to appear? I mean, we hear how the Romans binge ate, vomited, and did it all again! Can we put a timeline on these harmful disorders?
ReplyDeleteHi Noah,
DeleteLike you mentioned about the Romans, bulimia is thought to have been around since the time of Julius Caesar, and perhaps even earlier. I read that anorexia was first described in 1684, and in 1870 began receiving its own diagnosis. It was added to the Diagnostic andStatistical Manual-I (DSM-1) in 1952. Other eating disorders have existed for a long time prior to ever being formally diagnosed/described, so it is hard to put an exact timeline on eating disorders.
Hi, I am Nathan from Lutheran High school,This is interesting research. In your blog post you talk about several ways to get involved and help support what you are working towards which is great. You talk a lot about social media in your blog, do you believe that the use of social media has helped to further problems like anorexia? Also what are some things we can do to prevent some of these “harmful hashtags” that pressure people into anorexia? In addition do you see the problem getting worse in the future or do you see organizations like New Beginning helping to bring a solution to this problem?
ReplyDeleteHi Nathan,
DeleteRecently, a lot of companies are challenging people to use social media to promote positive body image, such as Dove (with #speakbeautiful) and Aerie (with "Aerie Real"). I think seeing all these pictures with people being confident in their bodies and who they are would encourage other people to feel comfortable with themselves. However, since anorexia can develop do to other events, trauma, etc. in one's life, I don't know if social media could bring someone out of anorexia necessarily, but perhaps it could help to prevent developing anorexia.
As far as preventing the "harmful hashtags," Instagram has taken some measures already by having warnings on the hashtags such as #thinspo and #proana that the content may pertain to eating disorders.
Due to a society that often emphasizes the need to have a "perfect" body, unless people start to accept that there really is no such thing as a "perfect" body, I don't see the problem being solved very quickly. The organizations are definitely helpful, though. A New Beginning helps people fully recover from eating disorders, which I think is pretty amazing.