Anorexia on Tumblr: A Characterization Study

Munmun De Choudhury

Abstract: Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa are a major health concern affecting many young individuals. Given the extensive adoption of social media technologies in the anorexia affected demographic, we study behavioral characteristics of this population focusing on the social media Tumblr. Aligned with observations in prior literature, we find the presence of two prominent anorexia related communities on Tumblr -- pro-anorexia and pro-recovery. Empirical analyses on several thousand Tumblr posts show use of the site as a media-rich platform replete with triggering content for enacting anorexia as a lifestyle choice. Through use of common pro-anorexia tags, the pro-recovery community however attempts to "permeate" into the pro-anorexia community to educate them of the health risks of anorexia. Further, the communities exhibit distinctive affective, social, cognitive, and linguistic style markers. Compared with recover- ing anorexics, pro-anorexics express greater negative affect, higher cognitive impairment, and greater feelings of social isolation and self-harm. We also observe that these characteristics may be used in a predictive setting to detect anorexia content with 80% accuracy. Based on our findings, clinical implications of detecting anorexia related content on social media are discussed.