The context of content

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The Context of Content

A digital methods approach to thinspiration

on Tumblr

Sophie Waterloo 5883873

19-02-2014

Supervisor: dr. N.A.J.M. van Doorn Second reader: dr. C. Gerlitz

Master New Media and Digital Culture Media Studies

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

In February 2012 the social media platform Tumblr set regulations to ban ‘thinspiration’ content from being distributed on the platform by making hashtags often used for this content such as #thinspiration #proanorexia and #probulimia unsearchable (Walters 2012; Hasan 2012). The term ‘hashtag’ refers to the particular feature on many social media that makes it possible to attribute certain keywords to digital objects, allowing for easy retrieval and aggregation of the content by others. Thinspiration is a composite term mixing thin with inspiration, and is often considered to be part of eating disorder website communities as inspiration through images of very thin women designed to encourage the viewers to lose weight (Juarascio, Shoaib and Timko 2010, 394). However, disagreement exist on the definition of thinspiration, as others consider all content that prevails on eating disorder websites being thinspiration, including imagery, tips on how to minimize calorie intake, tips on losing weight quickly, how to avoid getting caught by family members or friends, and to cope with social isolation (Balter-Reitz and Keller 2005). This type of content is generally perceived as being harmful for its consumers (Lewis and Arbuthnott 2012; Lapinski 2006), and several studies indicate that the online communities in which thinspiration prevail will lead to the development and support of an eating disorder through the emotional contact and persuasive messages on how and why to continue the pursuit of thinness (Balter-Reitz and Keller 2005; Rosenthal, Keller and Rosenthal 2005). Similarly, the main reason for the ban seems to be the fear that this content could promote the development of anorexia, bulimia, and other forms of disordered eating (Walters 2012). Soon after the revised content policies on both Tumblr and Pinterest regarding thinspiration, the social media platforms Instagram and Facebook followed (Hasan 2012; Lasta 2013).

Skepticism about the effectiveness of the current ban became a topic of discussion in the news and on blogs. As one article on the issue put forward: a simple Pinterest search for ‘thinspo’, an abbreviation used by those distributing thinspiration content, shows the ban has not been effective in regulating the content, indicating that the content can still be found by searching for different hashtags (“Thinspo Content Continues to Emerge” 2012). Others argue that the content can also still easily be found on individual blogs that promote the thin ideal without the need for using the banned hashtags (Breslaw 2012; Hasan 2012). Users of the platforms also tagged the

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content under misspellings of the banned hashtags or disguised their account’s purpose. Another argument is the fact that images of the skinny beauty ideal are omnipresent in today’s society, be it in magazines or on television, making it ineffective to ban such content on social media platforms (Hasan 2012). Even the issue of censorship made its way into the discussion, arguing that “banning certain categories of content may pave the way for greater censorship down the line” (George-Parkin 2012). Recently two petitions on the matter have been initiated, illustrating the need for a balance between free speech and guarding users against harmful content (Lasta 2013). One of those petitions, the Change.org petition, calls on Twitter to monitor the harmful trend and ban thinspiration hashtags. The second petition addresses Google’s indexation of pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia websites, requesting the search engine to place helpline banners and recovery support in the top results when eating disorder related content is queried for (Lasta 2013). These petitions illustrate the potential dangerous effects that people attribute to the media and thinspiration, and the fear of the potential influence that media can have on the development of unhealthy behavior among its consumers.

As the above controversy illustrates, online platforms are increasingly facing questions about their responsibilities to their users and the public at large (Gillespie 2010). The media are often castigated and ascribed blame for several societal problems such as violence, sexualization and the development of unhealthy behavior. This is because media culture is overall perceived as being reflective of what is actually happening in society, and with that its social changes and problems, as Sternheimer (2003) critiques: changes in the media are easier to see and blame than other societal influences of economic or political nature. Further, the media are seen often also seen as producers of dangerous images that affect society, and wrongfully so according to Sternheimer (2003), as she notes, “focusing on the media only in a cause and effect manner fails to help us understand the connection between media culture and politics and power, as well as the ways in which the media are central to [American] culture, not merely an influence on individuals’ behavior” (Sternheimer 2003, 4). In particular the internet is considered to be a powerful medium of influence, due to the variety of technical features, which allows people to connect with each other on chat, blogs and social network sites (Mulè and Sideli 2009, 9). The internet offers many possibilities regarding the sharing of culture, interests and emotions, which makes it easy to form closed communities around unhealthy

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behavior such as the development of eating disorders. However, several studies on online pro-anorexia communities, on websites, forums or social network sites, found that besides eating disorder specific content, the conversation focuses on social support and interaction (Juarascio et al. 2010; Day and Keys 2008), pointing towards a positive aspect of the formation of communities online.

These affordances of online platforms, such as the possibilities to connect, share and to form communities, are made possible by the software and its underlying technologies. This influences the way cultures use and develop these technologies, as Graves (2007) notes. However, as several studies on technological features and affordances of online platforms render visible, the perceived properties of an technological artifact might suggest how it might be used, but do not determine how it is used (Rappert 2003). The practice of tagging, for instance, is not only used as a way to archive content online, but also as a means to communicate with others or contribute to a community, as will be discussed later in this thesis. This shows how the technological features of online platforms allow different uses, depending on their underlying motivations, and with that influence the impact these online platforms can have on its users and in turn its content. This thesis looks at the technological features of the platform Tumblr to understand the phenomenon of thinspiration from a new perspective, which will be further explained in the next section.

1.1 Research question and methodological considerations

Much of the research on eating disorders, media and media technology is focused on the implications of its uses or the harm of the content, providing a one-sided perspective on the phenomenon of thinspiration, where consideration of the technological features of online platform, the main drivers and formatters of thinspiration, lack. As Hutchby (2001) accurately notes in his position on the technological shaping of sociality: “different technologies possess different affordances, and these affordances constrain the ways that they can possibly be ‘written’ or ‘read’“(447), with the latter referring to the other end of affordance, that of ‘interpretation’. This indicates that not only the different technologies affect the way in which they are used, but also subsequently how the possible uses affect the ways of ‘reading’ these technologies. The uses are thus greatly dependent on the technological features of a medium, which is why an understanding of these

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technological features can open up new perspectives on online behavior and cultures. Building on this, a close look at thinspiration on the online sharing platform Tumblr serves as a case study to explore thinspiration from a new media perspective following a digital methods approach. In doing so, this paper etches out the following central concern of the thesis:

How can the phenomenon of thinspiration be comprehended through an analysis of the medium-specific practices of tagging and re-blogging on Tumblr?

The focus on the technical features of platforms in this paper is much in line with the digital methods approach, a research practice developed by Richard Rogers (2013). According to this approach, one can ground claims about cultural and societal changes by examining the technical conditions, activity, movement, connection and digital culture in the making on online platforms. In this, Rogers (2013) makes a distinction between the natively digital and the digitized, in which the former refers to objects, content, devices and environments that are ‘born’ in the new medium and the latter to all that have migrated to it. Technical features such as tags, hyperlinks and re-blogging or re-tweeting are thus natively digital, and the question then is how to repurpose these for social and cultural research in a broader sense or build on top of them (Rogers 2013, 5). As Marres and Weltevrede (2013) point out, relying on online data for research purposes through the technical features of the platform does pose the problem of contamination of the data or of being biased for being pre-formatted by the platform, for example by using scraped data. Marres and Weltevrede (2013) propose the concept of ‘live social research’ to approach this issue, a form of social research in which the formatted, dynamic character of digital networked data becomes part of social research. Understanding the phenomenon of thinspiration as ‘lively’ means that through the methodology one accounts for the content to change internally and as a product of circulating content. The phenomenon can be perceived as ‘becoming’ rather than stagnant, as the methodology allows for approaching the phenomenon as relational to other issues and phenomena and subject to immanent change (Marres and Weltevrede 2013). As thinspiration is a ‘becoming’ social phenomenon structured by the technical features that the platform provides, this thesis examines the phenomenon from the standpoint of the medium, providing a new perspective of what constitutes thinspiration. This will be accomplished by scraping

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thinspiration content on Tumblr, and through an examination of tagging and re-blogging behavior following the relatedness to other content and the movement of the content through the platform.

The aim in this thesis is thus to capture the dynamics of the sharing practices of thinspiration content on Tumblr through a digital methods approach, and provide new knowledge about the phenomenon of thinspiration, and how it relates to its users, the platform, its medium-specific features and related phenomena. This contributes to studies done on the topic of thinspiration by including the dynamics of the content and in doing so providing new knowledge on the uses and context of thinspiration content, rather than merely focusing on the type of content and the potential harmfulness for its consumers. Similarly, the thesis aims to reflect on the debate around the censorship of thinspiration by means of the results of the analyses conducted, as the dynamics of thinspiration might be of influence on the effectiveness of the ban. Additionally, by focusing on the practice of tagging and re-blogging, it will render visible the complicated layers that the internet presents. While tagging patterns have been of interest in Human Computer Interaction, Digital Methods, and Science and Technology studies, a focus on Tumblr has not been provided yet. First, as Tumblr and other technologies all provide features to support practices like tagging and re-blogging, it is crucial to understand the diversity of behaviors taking place. Second, as the online platform Tumblr is growing and not yet been explored in academic context, it is important to have a grounded understanding of the core practices. Third, Tumblr supports a variety of active communities, not only for thinspiration but also for inspiration in a larger setting, each with its own set of unique practices that are valuable to examine. Further, it will add to the larger understanding of the role that tagging and re-blogging take on in the diffusion of information and content within social media networks.

1.2 Structure of the thesis

This thesis has three parts. In the first part, the literature relevant to the comprehension of thinspiration will be discussed, combining literature from the social sciences focusing on media effect studies, and the field of humanities including public sphere theory, affect theory, platform and software studies. This will be introduced by first outlining the reasoning behind the ban of thinspiration content, followed by how

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thinspiration could be theorized on the basis of the empirical results on the link between media and eating disorders through media effect studies. The connection between thinspiration and the medium-specific features of social media platforms will then be outlined and discussed in light of the features that the platform Tumblr provides. Based on the literature discussed, a variety of sub-questions are presented that serve as guidelines in answering the main research question. The second part in the thesis describes the case study and the analyses, which include a co-hashtag network analysis and a manual analysis of re-blogged thinspiration images, as designed on the basis of the research question. The results of both these analyses are then presented and visualized. In the third and final part, the thesis concludes with a summary of the findings, a discussion of the findings in terms of research on the topic, followed by implications, limitations and directions for future research.

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2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

Around a decade ago, a variety of pro-anorexia (pro-ana) and pro-bulimia (pro-mia) websites emerged focusing on all things skinny through community chat areas, and the sharing of photos and tips. Between 2001 and 2004, many of these pro-ana and pro-mia sites were shut down for their harmful material (Sharps 2011). However, the trend never completely vanished and now continues on social media platforms such as Tumblr and Pinterest under the name thinspiration. As noted in the introduction, disagreement exists as to what constitutes thinspiration. Juarascio, Shoaib and Timko (2010) consider thinspiration to be one particular aspect of eating disorder website communities, defined as inspiration through images of very thin women designed to encourage the viewers to lose weight, not including other types of content such as tips and tricks on how to lose weight or conversational threads on other related topics. Balter-Reitz and keller (2005) in contrast consider all the content that prevail on eating disorder websites as thinspiration, including both imagery and textual content such as tips on how to minimize calorie intake, tips on losing weight quickly, how to avoid getting caught by family members or friends, and to cope with social isolation. Woud, Anschutz, Van Strien and Becker (2011) on the other hand cite the American Psychological Association in describing thinspiration as a diagnostic criterion for eating disorder such as bulimia or anorexia, further measuring the concept in terms of implicit responses and attitudes towards thin models as opposed to chubby models, with an approach bias towards thin models representing thinspiration. Thinspiration has also been a topic in news media, which have addressed the harm of the phenomenon. Here, the purpose of thinspiration communities is described as a support for those suffering from eating disorders in being ‘better anorexics and bulimics’, arguing that those in the community “discourage seeking help, insisting that starving oneself or purging after eating is a healthy, admirable way to live” (Angyal 2013). Further, a blogpost on the phenomenon of thinspiration notes that “photos of emaciated girls tagged #thinspiration and #thinspo saturate Twitter feeds and Tumblrs”, stating that thinspiration is very similar to pro-anorexia websites, and that often motivational quotes as ‘Keep Calm and Thighgap On’1 are being shared (Mansour 2013).

While the term appears to not have been clearly defined yet, some similarities across the different descriptions can be distinguished. As mentioned in the

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introduction, thinspiration is comprised of a combination of two separate terms: thin and inspiration. Thinspiration constitutes online content, as the above-mentioned definitions and descriptions point to the prevalence of (digital) images and quotes on social media platform such as Twitter and Tumblr. Both Twitter and Tumblr are micro-blogging platforms, defined by Kaplan and Haenlein (2011, 106) as platforms that allow the exchange of small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links with others. The desire to be thin seems to be the main driver of the inspiration content as it concerns inspiration for attaining the ultimate ideal of thinness, often addressed as leading to eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. The term thinspiration is thus primarily linked to eating disorders. Similarly, the discussion of the issue around thinspiration often addresses that most often young girls engage with the content, and the possible harmful effects of this (Mansour 2013; Walters 2013; Hasan 2013). This fear for possible harmful effects of this type of media content on young girls will be addressed next through a discussion of theories on the socializing effects of media and media effect studies concerning the link between media and eating disorders.

2.1 The socializing effects of media

The discussion on thinspiration, and whether the content should be banned on social media or not, centres around the claim that (mass) media content can affect the socialization process of adolescents. Mass media have already been recognized as a highly important factor in the socialization process in the 60s, for example in George Gerbner’s cultivation theory. This theory postulates that television viewers develop conceptions about cultural issues such as sexuality, gender roles, racial minorities or images of violence, among others, basis what is watched on television. In particular heavy television viewers are more likely to assume that the world depicted on television resembles reality (Gerbner et al. 1994). An example of this is the ‘mean world syndrome’. This hypothesis argues that heavy television viewing, in which generally a disproportional amount of violence is displayed, cultivates the image of a relatively mean and dangerous world (Gerbner 1998). In the same way, one’s perception of beauty and appearance could be affected by what is viewed on television. Adding to the proposed danger, Gerbner (1998) further argues that television has become part of people’s lifestyle from a young age, when children

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begin viewing television long before they read, write or talk. Cultivation is in this sense part of a dynamic and ongoing process of interaction with different messages and different contexts. The theory shows that the mass media have been suspected of negative effects on young children from an early stage.

A similar theory concerning the socializing effects of media on children and adolescents is Albert Bandura’s social learning theory, now known as social cognitive theory. This theory states that humans are directly and indirectly influenced by direct experience or the behaviour from others, which guides their own actions later on. People learn from the observation of others and certain situations from the rewarding and punishing consequences that follow any given action (Bandura 1971). On the basis of this feedback, one develops thoughts and hypotheses about more favourable types of behaviour, those that are more likely to succeed. This is not only the case for direct experiences or direct personal observation, but also via indirect sources such as the mass media. For instance, on television it is often physical aggression that leads to a solution in conflict situations, especially in the case of superheroes triumphing over evil by engaging in physical violence (Bandura 2001). The violence is accepted and in most cases successful, and therefore legitimizes this type of behaviour, as Bandura argues (2001). Similarly, if an actor on television is rewarded for having a lean physique, the viewer might also feel that he or she will be rewarded when losing weight (Harrison and Cantor 1997, 44). However, according to Bandura (2001) it is the continuous interaction between personal, behavioural and environmental determinants that facilitates the process of learning, indicating that there are a variety of other factors at play.

A third theory often referred to in media effect research, in particular those concerning the evaluation of the self, is the social comparison theory by Leon Festinger. According to Festinger (1954), people evaluate their own opinion and abilities in comparing them with the opinions and abilities of others that are perceived to be similar to them. (118). This process of comparison can be either upward or downward. Downward comparison occurs when one compares himself or herself with less fortunate others, as a means to increase one’s subjective well-being, whereas in upward comparison one seeks to compare himself or herself with those that perform better, resulting in lowered self-evaluations (Wills 1981, 245; Brewer and Weber 1994). In terms of media effects, this theory postulates that people compare themselves with images portrayed in the media. In particular, a lot of research based

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on the social comparison theory addresses the upward comparison of women with the ideal image of beauty and thinness represented in the media, which results in a negative self-evaluation of the body, especially for young women (Milkie 1999; Wilcox and Laird 2000; Bessenoff 2006). While women are often the focus of research, men are also found to engage in upward comparison with the ideal body image portrayed in the media (Agliata and Tantleff-Dunn 2004).

A negative body image is often linked to disordered eating behaviours, especially for women (Levine and Piran 2003). The construct body image has been conceptualized in a variety of ways, often described in affective, behavioural and cognitive components. Following cognitive science, in the last decades body image has often been referred to as a cognitive construct, defined as an internal mental representation of an individuals’ own physical appearance (Altabe and Thompson 1996, 172). However, in contemporary Western thought body image is mainly focused on body shape and weight (Tiggeman 2004, 29). Definitions from psychology studies often stress the multifaceted and complex nature of the construct, referring to body image not just as physical appearance, but as a “psychological experience of embodiment, encompassing one’s body-related self-perceptions and self-attitudes, including thoughts, beliefs, feelings and behaviors” (Cash 2004, 1-2). The construct of female body image in feminist theory is also mainly focused on physical appearance, but often approached as the representation of one’s own physical appearance from the perspective of an observer (Tiggeman 2004, 33).

A particular large body of research on body image stems from feminist theory and research, especially in relation to gender. This field of theory often deals with stereotyping, the underrepresentation of women, and the sex-role socialization as a feature of much media content, among others (McQuail 2005). As feminist theorist Susan Bordo points out, in today’s society it is mostly women who are valued for how they look, in which media imagery plays a central role (2003). It is especially the abundance of certain kinds of female bodies, according to Bordo (2003), that results in the normalization of these ‘perfected’ bodies in western visual culture. Media imagery trains people’s “perception in what’s a defect and what is normal” (Bordo 2003, xviii). This argument is related to the notion of the display of women as objects to be looked at, seen in advertisements, television shows, fashion, cinema and women’s magazines, while the act of looking is reserved to men (Van Zoonen 1994, 87). The effects of this spectatorship, according to many feminist theorists, can result

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in negative self-perceptions and even eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia (Chapkis 1986; Wolf, 1991). In the book The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf (1991) argues that the media put forward the idea that women should be beautiful and slender, a pleasure to look at, which has resulted in a generation of American girls and women suffering from eating disorders.2_{Both feminist theory and media effect}

research thus point towards the negative affects media imagery can have on adolescents’ perceptions of body image.

Feminist theorist Coleman (2008) critiques the feminist approach to the relations between bodies and media images as ‘negative effects of images on bodies’ and the media-effect model in general for its simplistic approach on the complexity of body image. Instead, she calls for this relation to be understood as bodies and images being entwined in terms of ‘affect’ through the Deleuzian ontology of becoming. Following a Deleuzian approach, the body can be understood as in constant connection to images. In this sense, bodies are not necessarily human bodies but an assembly of multiple and diverse connections as a particular spatial and temporal moment (Deleuze and Guattari 1987). A Deleuzian understanding of the body is one of ‘a relational becoming’, in which bodies are not a bounded subject separate from images, but bodies are a result of the connections between humans and images and never separable from its relations with the world (Coleman 2008, 168). These relations in turn produce ‘affects’ like feeling bad, as bodies affect, and are affected by, other bodies (Deleuze 1992, qtd in: Coleman 2008, 168). Against this background, Coleman (2008) argues that bodies become through images, and that similarly images should be conceived as always in relation to other images, including domestic photographs and media images. Bodies are known, understood and experienced through images, and so an image of photograph represents the body only in a particular time and frame, and the notion of one’s own body develops over time and in constant circulation and relation to other images. With this conceptualization of the body as becoming Coleman (2008) calls for a shift away from research into how images effect bodies, towards one on how bodies are experienced through images.

So how does thinspiration fit into the above-mentioned theoretical perspectives on media effects and body image? Thinspiration, as the term already suggests, inspires one to lose weight and conform to the idealization of thinness through imagery and quotes that are shared online. One could argue from this that thinspiration cultivates the thin ideal, or can serve as a means for upward comparison,

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or when these inspirational images and quotes are presented in a positive and rewarding manner, a legitimization for losing weight. But can one really speak of a causal relationship between the media and eating disorders, as Wolf (1991) or the discussion around banning thinspiration content suggests? Coleman (2008), in applying the Deleuzian notion of becoming on the relation between body and image seeks to move away from the understanding that bodies and images are separate entities, and with that argues that they do not act on each other in a cause and effect manner. Instead, Coleman (2008) argues for an understanding of bodies through (media) images based on affect, circulation and constant connections between images and bodies. Further, Sternheimer (2003) in her book It’s Not the Media critiques that the theories by Bandura and Gerbner are not necessarily applicable to real life situations as a number of other (environmental) factors should be taken into account and that much of these theories are based on studies done in the isolation of a lab (69). For that reason, one needs to critically reflect on recent empirical findings on media effects and eating disorders and come to an understanding of affect, circulation and connection, which will be discussed in the next paragraphs.

2.2 Media and eating disorders: an empirical perspective

In the last decades the subject of anorexic and bulimic behaviours among adolescent girls in relation to media influences gained interest when incidences of eating disorders increased (Strasburger et al. 2009). Several empirical studies have been conducted to examine this relationship. Building on the previous discussed theoretical perspectives, much of the empirical research on the relation between media and eating disorders is focused on adolescents, as this age group is often considered to be most vulnerable to the effects of media (Buijzen and Valkenburg 2003). As a discussion of all body image related research is beyond the scope of this thesis, only the most often cited studies that measure disordered eating behaviours in relation to media exposure among youth have been selected. The focus within this body of empirical research is mostly on more traditional media such as television and magazines, as only a small number of studies related to the internet have been conducted.

In a longitudinal experiment, Stice, Spangler and Agras (2001) measure long-term exposure to a significant amount of thin-ideal magazine images that were provided to the participants to read at home. Measures included the increase in body

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dissatisfaction, thin-ideal internalization, dieting and bulimic symptoms (binge eating, compensatory behaviours, overvaluation of weight and shape) among adolescent girls aged 13 to 17. No main effects on the increases for the measured variables were found. However, further tests revealed that those already vulnerable, defined by initial elevations in the pressure to be thin and body dissatisfaction, indicate an increase in negative affect, but not in body dissatisfaction, dieting and bulimic symptoms (Stice et al. 2001). Only when those vulnerable, and without adequate social support from their environment, were exposed to thin-deal images, an increase in body dissatisfaction, dieting and bulimic symptoms were found. Thus, a direct relation between magazine reading and the development of eating disorders was not found, but for those adolescents already indicating to be dissatisfied with their body or feel the pressure to be thin and lacking adequate social support a significant relation was found. However, it must be noted that the measure of bulimic symptoms is relatively broad, as it includes the valuation of weight and shape and compensatory behaviours, while it does not include tendencies of purging. This indicates that the measurement of eating disorders is not consistent across studies. Moreover, again only magazine reading was measured and not the time spent viewing the images, and exposure to other thin-ideal media imagery was not accounted for.

In contrast, Harrison and Cantor (1997) looked at both magazine reading and television viewing, and found that the effects for magazine reading on eating disorder symptomology was stronger than for television viewing among female college students. The measurement of media exposure included a variety of television shows depicting a range of body types, and popular magazines from five different categories. Results revealed that fitness magazines in particular appeared to be a significant positive predictor of disordered eating behaviours, in this case anorexia nervosa. Harrison and Cantor (1997) explain this result by means of the social learning theory, suggesting that dieting and exercise behaviours are more prevalent, and therefore more easily modelled than bingeing and purging behaviours (p. 61). Further, watching thinness-depicting and thinness-promoting television shows was not significantly related to eating disorder symptomology, but was related to the drive for thinness. The researchers note that no causal relationship can be determined basis the results, as it is unclear whether thin-depicting media fuels disordered eating behaviour or if those high in eating disorder symptomology selectively expose themselves to such media (Harrison and Cantor 1997, 62).

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A more recent study by Tiggemann (2003) among undergraduate students revealed that the amount of fashion magazine reading was positively correlated with the internalization of thin ideals, while television watching was not. Women who watch more television were less aware of sociocultural body ideal, which Tiggemann (2003) explains through the Gerbner’s cultivation theory. The higher the exposure to television, the more normalized the thin ideal becomes, as Tiggemann (2003) argues. Further, results showed that weight moderates the influence of internalization. The combination of being overweight and scoring high on internalization predicted greater body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviours (Tiggemann, 2003). This indicates that a degree of vulnerability, measured in the initial elevations of body weight and higher internalization of a thin ideal, was related to disordered eating behaviours for exposure to fashion magazines. These findings are in line with Stice et al. (2001), who found that magazine reading was related to disordered eating behaviour for those already dissatisfied with their body or feel the pressure to be thin. Both studies argue that already existing elevations on body image related attitudes and perceptions predict disordered eating behaviours for magazine reading, suggesting that media effects on disordered eating behaviours are found only among a specific subset of females. Again however, the question of causality remains as the study merely presents correlations.

In contrast to the findings by Harrison and Cantor (1997) and Tiggemann (2003), in which both indicate an absence of a relation between television viewing and disordered eating behaviours, a subsequent study by Tiggemann (2005) did find correlations between specific television content and eating disorders among adolescents aged 13 to 17. Watching soap operas for the purpose of social learning was positively correlated with the internalization of the thin ideal, appearance schemas, drive for thinness and bulimia for both boys and girls (Tiggeman 2005, 372). The results suggest, thus, that the amount of time spent watching television in general was not important for the relation between television viewing and disordered eating behaviours, but watching particular television genres (soap operas) with the intent to learn about life are of importance. Tiggemann (2005) therefore concludes that it is not so much how much time adolescents spend watching television, but more so what they actively choose to watch that is of influence on their perception of body image and eating disorders.

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This aspect of active media consumption is also characteristic for the internet. Research on the relation between the internet and eating disorders has primarily focused on the content related to eating disorders that prevail online, such as pro-anorexia (pro-ana) and pro-bulimia (pro-mia) websites (Juarascio et al. 2010; Lapinski 2006; Lewis and Arbuthnott 2012). To find such content, however, one needs to actively search for it. A study on internet searches for pro-eating disorder websites found that eating disorder related keywords are frequently searched for on the search engine Google (Lewis & Arbuthnott, 2012). According to the study, the number of queries for eating disorder related keywords exceeds 13 million searches a year. Using Google Adwords Keywords, the most common search term appears to be ‘pro-ana’, closely followed by the search terms ‘thinspiration’ and ‘thinspo’. The content that appeared on the website as a result of these search terms were then coded on their level of harm by the researchers. The harmfulness of the content as coded distinguished between helpful, health promoting tips, and the presence of triggering images of thin celebrities or models eating disorder encouraging tips and tricks. This revealed that search results containing the queries ‘thinspiration’ and ‘thinspo’ in particular contained harmful content, for which the more specific search terms ‘thinspiration tips’ and ‘real thinspo’ had the highest average scores on the scale of harmful content (Lewis and Arbuthnott 2012, 203).

Based on the extended parallel processing model (EPPM), Lapinski (2006) also focused on the degree to which the content prevailing on pro-eating disorder websites is harmful, specifically the severity and susceptibility of the messages. The extended parallel process model is a model that predicts possible outcomes of communications that are based on a certain fear, in this case the fear of gaining weight. In the EPPM model, four components of a message are considered, namely: self-efficacy (perceived competence of risk control), response efficacy (perceived success of risk control), susceptibility (likelihood of being affected) and severity (perceived magnitude of the threat) (Lapinski 2006). The analysis found that messages promoting self-efficacy and response efficacy were overall more frequent. For response efficacy messages, this included messages on the prevention of intake of particular types of foods, limiting the threat of weight gain (Lapinski 2006, 249). These messages or tips were focused on boosting one’s metabolism, to feel full quicker by, for example eating food with high water content, or tips to help with fasting by brushing your teeth or pouring dish soap on food. Efficacy messages were

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mostly focused on purging and exercise Lapinksi 2006, 249). The absence of severity messages on the analysed pro-ana and pro-mia websites could be because visitors of the websites are most likely those already struggling with an eating disorder, which makes the increase in the perceived threat (severity) of gaining weight unnecessary. While the above-mentioned studies focus on the harmful content that prevails on pro-eating-disorder websites, other studies found that support is an important incentive for those contributing in pro eating disorder groups online. This indicates that these websites yield positive outcomes for those already suffering from an eating disorder. In general, two main themes in pro-eating disorder content are found: ‘social support and interaction’ and ‘eating disorder specific content’ (Juarascio et al. 2010; Day and Keys 2008). The social support found within online pro-eating disorder groups are comments that display a need for social connection and support, such as requesting friendship, feelings of loneliness, seeking comfort from those with similar problems or the request for advice on how to deal with particular social situations (Juarascio et al. 2010). In much of these conversations, the eating disorder appeared to not be the center of the conversations, but served merely as the context. A similar topic of social support was found in an interview driven study conducted by Yeshua-Katz and Martins (2012). Participants indicated that the main motive for blogging about eating disorders is to seek support from similar others. By participating in the ED community, as the researchers term it, the bloggers receive understanding, encouragement, compliments and validation, without the fear of being judged. The drawback of these blogs, however, is that the support is mainly focused on encouraging eating disorder behavior, and not so much on the encouragement of recovering from it (Yeshua-Katz and Martins 2012, 505).

Overall, the empirical findings on the link between media and eating disorders reveals that one cannot speak of causality. Although the findings collectively present a compelling argument for the relation between media consumption and body image, the relation with eating disorder is at best indirectly founded on empirical evidence. What does seem to be a conclusion across the different quantitative studies is that those already dealing with an eating disorder are more likely to be affected. However, a number of other non-media related factors should be taken into account, such as family influences and peer pressure. This casts doubts on the general claim behind the ban that thinspiration will encourage the development of eating disorders. Further, the differences in findings between the more traditional media outlets and the internet

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opens up the question of the role of medium-specific features within the relation between media and eating disorders, as social support and sharing seem to be an important motivation in online eating disorder ‘communities’ as were found through qualitative studies. This shows how different methodological approaches yield different results and perspectives on the phenomenon thinspiration. However, no studies on eating disorders or thinspiration have focused on the influence of medium-specific features. In line with Coleman’s (2008) call to move away from approaching the relation between media and body images in a cause and effect manner, this thesis sets out to approach thinspiration as circulating and connecting to other imagery by looking at the features of the platforms in which thinspiration circulates. Therefore, the following paragraphs will discuss how medium and online platform specific features fit into the phenomenon of thinspiration, and how this applies to thinspiration on the online platform Tumblr.

2.3 The willingness to share

The finding that those blogging about eating disorders are mainly motivated by the social support and interaction suggests that the Web is inherently social. Interpersonal communication has been the most frequent use of the internet technology to date, and is reflected in the sheer number of social networking and social media sites that exist today, the so-called Web 2.0 (Kiesler, Kraut, Cummings, Boneva, Helgeson and Crawford 2002, 121; Kim, Jeong and Lee 2010). The buzzword Web 2.0 as a follow up on Web 1.0 emerged in 2003, and refers to the shift from users being able to solely consume online content from websites in Web 1.0 towards one where every consumer can be a content creator on a variety of platforms in Web 2.0 (Cormode and Krishnamurthy, 2008). Web 1.0 can be defined as a tool for cognition according to Fuchs et al. (2010, 52), and refers to a unidirectional information process. According to Cormode and Krishnamurthy (2008), Web 2.0 is difficult to define but comprises a set of characteristics based on the most common site features. Web 2.0 is first of all characterised by interactivity and the ability to form connections between users through links, membership in groups and subscriptions to content from other users, and allowing for bi-directional communication (Cormode and Krishnamurthy, 2008). Secondly, Web 2.0 is user-centric, allowing users to create profile pages about themselves including information such as age, sex, location, testimonials, or

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comments. Further, Web 2.0 revolves around user-created and user-generated content in the possibility to post content such as photos, videos, text, blogs, comments, ratings, tagging and sharing. Lastly, Web 2.0 can often be characterized on more technical features such as a public API (Cormode and Krishnamurthy, 2008). Social network sites, often also termed online platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Myspace, but also blogs, are often seen as typical examples of Web 2.0 due to the user-centric nature, the possibility to form connections and its user interface technologies. More interestingly, these social network sites are focused on sharing user-created and user-generated contents. The participants in these social networks are thus as important and the content they upload and share with others (Cormode and Krishnamurthy, 2008). This leads to the questions: Why are people so keen on sharing, and how can this willingness to share be explained in terms of thinspiration? Against the background of the social support found in earlier online communities for eating disorders such as pro-ana and pro-mia websites, blogs and social networks focused on thinspiration can be read as an ‘intimate public’, a concept posed by Lauren Berlant (2008). A public, according to Warner, is “the social space created by the reflexive circulation of discourse” (2002, 62). With this, Warner (2002) argues that for the formation and emergence of publics, circularity and discourse are crucial elements. Publics function as a public of self-organizing discourse, and never exist apart from the discourse that addresses them, as “speaking, writing, and thinking involve us—actively and immediately—in a public” (52). The concept of circularity, in that a public is understood to be an on-going space of encounter for discourse, is described in terms of temporality, reflexivity, and in being both notional and material. The latter meaning that the circulation of discourse is something one can imagine, but it also takes material form in that people buy and read magazines and share them with others, or subscribe to newspapers (Warner 2002, 63-64). Temporality of circulation refers to the distinct moments and rhythms of publication and display of discourse, in which the public is given its existence (Warner 2002, 68). The reflexivity of circulation addresses in turn the notion that people recognize the circulation, including feedback loops through reviews, reprinting, citation, reflections and so on (Warner 2002, 66). Further, Warner emphasizes the sociability of strangers as key to the formation of publics especially in modernity, as the public is formed through addressing a body of strangers united through the circulation of their discourse. The discourse around which a public forms is addressed to indefinite others, as Warner

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explains, and with that creates a common ground with those strangers that likewise participate in the same discourse (2002, 58). Seen this way, one can also speak of the emergence of publics in an online setting, as publics form around the circulating discourse on websites, social media or blogs, involving indefinite strangers by writing, sharing, posting, thinking, reading, liking and commenting in an on-going space of encounter for discourse.

For Berlant, an important notion is that publics presume intimacy (2008, vii). An intimate public as defined by Berlant (2008) refers to the affective connection that consumers share, which results in intimacy and affect as central to the experience of the public. Two elements of importance in the theory of the intimate public are the notion of publics as spaces of consumption, and the affective identification as the key to participation in publics (Poletti 2011, 1). The latter in particular can be linked to the social support that is perceived on websites devoted to thinspiration and pro-eating disorder content. Berlant (2008) describes the relationship between affect and identification as follows:

A certain circularity structures an intimate public, therefore: its consumer participants are perceived to be marked by a commonly lived history; its narratives and things are deemed expressive of that history while also shaping its conventions of belonging; and, expressing the sensational, embodied experience of living as a certain kind of being in the world, it promises also to provide a better experience of social belonging – partly through participation in the relevant commodity culture, and partly because of its revelations about how people can live. (Berlant 2008, viii)

Seen this way, those consuming and posting thinspiration content do so to experience a sense of belonging to the group of people that share the same perception of the body, and with that experience ‘living as a certain kind of being in the world’.

Anna Poletti (2011) applies Berlant’s theory of the intimate public to the project blog PostSecret, which is a collection of postcards containing secrets sent in by people and publicized on a blog. The focus of Poletti’s analysis is on the interplay of the material and the virtual of the project for the purposes of life narrative and public-building. PostSecret can be read as an intimate public according to Poletti (2011), as members consume other people’s confessions and share their own secrets, which contributes to a sense of belonging to a public of keeping secrets. What this

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project particularly exposes is that the common experience that characterizes this intimate public, that of keeping a secret, already existed before the public was formed. This pre-existence of a common ground seems distinctive to an intimate public, as Berlant (2008) writes: “even before there was a market addressed to them, there existed a world of strangers who would be emotionally literate in each other’s experience of power, intimacy, desire and discontent” (5). This indicates that the internet and its platforms allow publics to form on the basis of common experiences or pre-existent interests, and is therefore of importance for the formation of intimate publics. This also applies to thinspiration, as the empirical findings previously mentioned indicated that it is those already struggling with an eating disorder that are more likely to actively participate in sharing this type of content, implying that the interest already existed before ‘the intimate public’ is formed. Understanding thinspiration as an intimate public as such allows for the move away from simple cause and effect perspectives, opening up further questions on how circulation and affect drives the phenomenon in its existence.

What Poletti (2011) also briefly addresses in the reading of PostSecret as an intimate public, is the role of specific features that are built into, and characteristic of, the software platforms. These features can contribute to both the authenticity of the intimate public and the sense of belonging, and materially addresses the public as such further determining how the public communicates, as put forward by Poletti (2011). In the particular case of PostSecret the notion of anonymity is of importance since the intimate public is build around the possession of secrets. The secrets that are published on the blog are anonymous because they are not linked to any user profiles. This contributes to the fact that, albeit shared, the secrets remain secrets. More importantly, the sense of belonging is dependent on the features of the platform, since the “feeling of community” is created by posting to the forum on the PostSecret community website, or commenting on the Facebook page. The possibilities that the platform offers, to post and comment on the content in an anonymous setting, thus in part contribute to the sense of belonging to the intimate public (Poletti 2011, 32). As addressed before, those that contribute to eating disorder blogs value this type of communication as it allows them to receive understanding, encouragement, compliments and validation, without the fear of being judged, which is something that they cannot find offline (Yeshua-Katz and Martins 2012).

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features of platforms and web-based communication contribute to the formation of these affective networks. For Dean (2013), it is the repetitiveness of posting, commenting, and clicking that leads to enjoyment and the feelings of community. In her book Blog Theory, she focuses on the so-called blogosphere (or blogipelago as she terms it) as an affective network to illustrate what she calls communicative capitalism, an economic-ideological form that relies on the exploitation of communication (Dean 2013, 4). Affective networks are networks that capture users in a circuit of drive. The concept of drive, drawn from Lacan, is used to describe the capture into a reflexive circuit, in which the user becomes stuck on minor activities and minimal differences which in turn hinders breaking out of a set of given expectations. In other words, we click, like, poke as we move through contemporary communication and entertainment networks in a repetitive manner, and in every repeated gesture we find a little bit of satisfaction. These processes, the processes of leaving comments, adding notes and links, and bringing in new friends or followers along the way, is what draws us into the network, and captures us in a state of enjoyment. It is the communication for its own sake that characterizes affective networks, as Dean (2010) describes:

Contemporary affective networks rely on the marking, adding, forwarding, and circulating of messages not because doing so ‘means’ something but simply to communicate. Tweets, Facebook updates, images of cute kitties, text messages— these media of affective flow can be limited neither to their content nor to their materiality. Understanding them requires attending to their doubling as message and contribution and grappling with the ways that the latter’s displacement of the former amplifies the chaotic, intensive, circulation of enjoyment even as it diminishes the impact of any single contribution. (Dean 2010, 27)

Dean (2010) thus argues that blogging and participating in affective networks of the sort is only about clicking and sharing, and not about the actual content. It is these features of the platform, the possibility to click, link, share and comment, that allow for communication, and thus enjoyment. In contrast to Berlant and Poletti, Dean thus approaches the idea of affective belonging online through the features that platforms offer in a different way, emphasizing the enjoyment that people experience through mindless communication, rather than the intimacy and sense of belonging that Berlant focuses on. The variety of contributions online, that is posting,

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commenting, sharing and liking, can however also be seen as affective responses to web content, as Gerlitz and Helmond (2013, 11) note. In particular, a click on the Facebook like button is a way to express excitement, agreement, compassion and understanding, as well as ironic and parodist responses (Gerlitz and Helmond 2013). In a similar manner, activities such as commenting, sending and sharing can be seen as affective responses to particular content. This indicates that this participation by means of clicking and sharing, as Dean (2010) argues, is not just communication for its own sake, but also about expressing affect towards content. However, Dean’s argument does add a layer of constant enjoyment and satisfaction that can be experienced in the circuit of drive, which can be seen as working alongside the affect and the sense of belonging that can be obtained through contributions on online platforms.

As noted earlier, thinspiration on Tumblr can be read as an intimate public, in which intimacy and affect stand central in the experience of the public This is facilitated through the social features of the platform, in this case Tumblr, such as posting, commenting, tagging and re-blogging. By tagging and re-blogging thinspiration content, one gets a sense of contributing to the community, and with that, gain a sense of belonging. This coincides with the finding that thinspiration websites and communities online offer a social support system. Further, it is the repetitiveness that the attributes of the platform facilitate that generates enjoyment, as Dean (2010) argues, which could explain how users are inclined to continuously engage in the intimate public. Clicking, posting, commenting, tagging, and the re-blogging (and thus sharing) of thinspiration content on Tumblr generates continuous enjoyment as users are captured in this circuit of drive. However, Dean’s argument is focused on the contribution of the features of the platform to meaningless communication, rather than the affect and sense of belonging it can create according to Berlant and Poletti. It is not only the act of clicking and sharing that drives, but also its content. An intimate public very much revolves around the pre-existent interest in a particular type of content, and by tagging, commenting, sharing and liking one can express affect, contributing again to a sense of belonging. The willingness to share, and participating in online communities, thus seems to be driven by the sense of belonging, enjoyment, intimacy and affect, through clicking, sharing, commenting, and so on, in turn creating meaningful user cultures online.

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2.4 Affording social support

The previous paragraph touched upon the importance of the different features of online platforms (clicking, sharing, commenting etc.), indicating that the technology serves as an important factor in the willingness and possibility to share and form communities online. This relationship between technology and the social has been a long-standing debate within the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), as it raises the question: ‘does technology […] determine, or is it determined by, the social? (Grint and Woolgar 1997, 21) Does the technology allow people to share or form communities and therefore they do, or is the technology developed because people feel the need to share or form communities? And what is the impact of these features on the use and interpretation of the technologies and content?

In explaining this relationship, Hutchby (2001) positions his argument between that of constructivism, the idea that technological artefacts are socially shaped, and realism, the view that technological artefacts have inherent properties that act as constraints. For this, he uses the term affordances, referring to the “functional and relational aspects which frame, while not determining, the possibilities for agentic action in relation to an object” (Hutchby 2001, 444). In other words, technological artefacts enable a variety of interpretations and actions, but not in an endless manner. To illustrate this constraining aspect of affordances, Hutchby (2001) notes that while a tree offers a variety of affordances for animals such as shelter from the sun or a safe place to rest for birds, it cannot provide a place to drink like a river can. Affordances are constrained by the possibilities for action that they offer, but still a multiplicity of possibilities can be distinguished. Hutchby (2001) concludes with his view on the relationship between technology and the social: “we have to accept that technological artefacts do not amount simply to what their users make of them; what is made of them is accomplished in the interface between human aims and the artefact’s affordances” (453).

The concept of affordances as framing, while not determining its uses and interpretation as Hutchby (2001) put forward, can for one be illustrated through the relationship between technology and digital photography. Susan Murray argues that the contemporary social use of digital photography has changed our relationship to the practice of photography, as well as the expectations for and, most interestingly, the interaction with images (Murray 2008, 161). With the social use of digital

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photography, Murray (2008) refers to online platforms such as Flickr, a popular and free platform that is characterized by the sharing of (user-generated) photographic content, that shape how photography is perceived in modern society. These images on Flickr, made available by users, are organized through the technological features of the platform, in this case tags, groups and batches. However, the features of tags, notes (the possibility to comment on other people’s photos), subscription to another member’s page and groups (that form around subject-based pages) also contribute to the formation of communities on Flickr, as Murray (2008) argues. These platform-specific features can, in that sense, be considered social, as the content is collaboratively experienced on the basis of these features. Murray illustrates this social aspect of Flickr with the following:

One example of the site’s temporal and social relationships is the ‘Memory Map’s mashup pool, created days after Google launched its satellite- mapping feature in April 2005 (Figure 2). Members used the Googlemap technology to capture images of meaningful locations, and then employed the Flickr note feature, which allows users to write notes on their images. People mostly chose their communities, their home towns, college towns or other favorite places, noting the memories attached to a particular building, road or outdoor space. (Murray 2008, 149)

By posting a certain image to the Memory Maps pool, one actively engages in a community of similar images. The note feature further contributes to, as Murray (2008) describes, “a shared display of memory, taste, history, signifiers of identity, collection, daily life and judgement” (149). Depending on the human aim, then, the technological ‘artefact’ enables different uses and interpretations of the technology, as the tag feature can be used as a way to archive the content or to contribute to a community, allowing for the formation of an intimate public.

This formation of communities around images and subjects of images, and the option to share one’s thoughts, is in part responsible for the shift in the engagement with the everyday image. The other part responsible for this shift is what Murray (2008) describes by transience, referring to the immediacy with which digital photographic images are made and shared today. Additionally, Flickr is mainly used as a daily diary and urges frequent updates as you are notified when other people you are subscribed to post new photos. Murray (2008) theorizes this much in the same way as Dean (2010) employs the notion of circuit of drive in her description of

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affective networks, in that these notifications will motivate the user to return to the platform and repeatedly refresh the page in order to view the latest uploaded images. This focus on the new and most recent content, as Murray (2008) argues, has led to a shift towards the more small, everyday and mundane photographic content. Pictures of cupcakes, bottles and trees gained more prominence within (digital) photographic practices and sharing than the more special moments such as holidays, birthdays and baby photos. Both the communal aesthetic of the platform and the move towards transience has blurred the lines between amateur and professional photography, as the amateur and professional are placed alongside each other, removing any notion between good or bad photography. The platform feature of tagging an image, which is a means of making an image searchable by labeling the image with descriptive keywords, also merges the amateur with the professional as it is based on a bottom-up classification system (Murray 2008). Thus the technological features of the platform have gradually changed the relationship to the everyday image, based on these theories, towards a more immediate transient one, where a distinction between professional and amateur photography does no longer exist, and where a sense of community and sharing stand central.

While Murray (2008) makes a solid case for the changes that technological features of platforms bring about in terms of the uses and interaction with photography and photographic content, Van House (2011) elaborates on this by addressing the effects of the features on the content and its meaning or interpretation. Van House (2011) focuses in her study on amateur or personal photography on Flickr, defined as photography by non-professionals for personal use, friends and intimates. Similar to Murray (2008), Van House addresses the shift to immediacy and the communicational aspect of photography (the immediate possibility to share) that platforms like Flickr contribute to. Interviews revealed that images have become part of participants’ lives and “a means of rapid, although often short-term, communication with friends” (Van House 2011, 128). Four social uses of personal photography in combination with the affordances the online platform Flickr provides are identified, namely: personal and group memory, relationship creating and maintenance, self-representation and self-expression. This again shows how the underlying technologies of the online platform considered in these studies enable a variety of uses and interpretations. More interestingly, Van House (2011) briefly notes that through indexing and annotation features, such as tagging, new meanings

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are created. By means of these technological features, the content is associated and re-associated with other content, other collections, with places and times.

For thinspiration, as mentioned before, the sharing of images is an important aspect. The interaction with these images is, in the language of Berlant (2008) and Poletti (2011), a way of participating in the online community and achieves a sense of belonging. The features of the platform thus allow this formation of communities around thinspiration, but the uses and interpretation of the content are at the same time affected by these features. Murray (2008) and Van House (2011) both show how the platform Flickr affords certain uses, such as community development, relationship maintenance or self-expression. In the case of thinspiration on Tumblr, which also to a large extent focuses on imagery, the technological features of tagging and re-blogging are of importance, and call for a more thorough understanding to render visible the diversity of behaviours taking place.

2.5 Tagging and re-‐blogging

The practice of tagging has become a means to successfully retrieve and aggregate content or information in online platforms, such as Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and also applies to the platform central in this study, Tumblr. It allows the user to annotate a digital object (photo, video, text) with keywords representative of its content in order to improve searchability and provide context. Tags can be used for a wide variety of purposes as several studies argue.

Often tags specify and categorize the specific content a digital object reflects based on the characteristics of the object (names, locations, what is displayed etc.). However, the use of tags that do not reflect the specific content has also become more common. This type of tagging prevails especially in platforms that are focused on leisure and oriented towards any user as opposed to, say, systems for scientific research oriented towards academics. In a comparative study for patterns of tagging on three social bookmarking tools, Del.icio.us, Citeulike and Connotea, affective, time and task related tags such as ‘cool’ and ‘toread’ were more commonly found on Del.icio.us, which is a bookmarking tool oriented towards a broader public (Kipp 2007). This indicates that users relate information or digital objects to a diversity of affective responses, such as time related tasks, activities and their own emotional reactions. The extent to which this affective tagging occurs varies across platforms

The context of content