ONLINE NETWORKS AND EMOTIONAL ENERGY

Abstract

There has been a great deal of social theory written about how groups form and affect members in the offline world, but less research about how online groups can affect the behaviors and identity of the individuals who choose to participate in them. Pro-anorexia, or pro-ana, websites have been shown to have an effect on those individuals who participate in and/or view them by previous research, but previous research is inconsistent or lacking concerning the reason(s) for that effect. This study analyzes qualitative data gathered from 22 pro-ana websites over 18 months, and suggests how Collins' theory of interaction ritual chains can be extended to understand how those who participate in those websites generate emotional energy to aid them in identifying with being pro-anorexic and continue with this identity. This theory states that four initiating conditions (the ability to assemble, common linguistic and behavioral norms, and a shared focus of attention) create a boundary to outsiders, which then allows for the formation of a social group through an interaction ritual chain. This creation of an ‘in-group’ allows for the generation of emotional energy and group solidarity, which cements identity as a ‘pro-ana’ individual in an established pro-ana network. Overall, this paper argues that the extension of this theory to online social situations and the consequent understanding of the presence of this network may have implications for the understanding of how online homophilous social networks affect embedded individuals and how existing theory about social interactions can be adapted to apply to online interactions.

Keywords:

• pro-ana
• pro-anorexia
• eating disorders
• identity formation
• identity on the internet
• emotional energy
• interaction ritual chains

Notes

Pew Internet & American Life Project, http://www.pewinternet.org/Trend-Data/Online-Activities-20002009.aspx (26 August 2010).

All words in quotation marks are taken directly off the websites.

Given that internet usage or availability to the general public was not widespread until, at the very earliest, the early 1990s, then only those who were born in the early 1980s or after could be said to have grown up with it. Surveys of internet hourly usage and type of use have told us that individuals of different ages use the internet differently, with number of hours on the internet and usage on mobile devices the highest in those who are younger (Lyons 2004; Zickuhr 2010). However, this trope of the ‘digital generation’ may be overstated – there is some evidence that the technological skills of young people are not uniformly sophisticated (Bennett et al. 2008).

I spent more time on some websites during this initial cull than others. If the website was just photos or re-directed to another website, then it was immediately struck from the list. If the website had a great deal of text, I spent more time on it, but discounted it after noticing that it either rarely updated or had last been updated/had new written content more than a year ago.

This debate about the efficacy of online versus co-present communication, particularly focused on pro-ana sites, is not a new one. For an analysis of the use of virtual communities among pro-ana websites specifically focused on bodily erasure and embodiment (see Ferreday 2003).