Online Social Support And Interaction For Eating Disorders

The development of social media has given rise to the vigorous development of virtual communities.Groups with common ideas,experiences and goals gather together through the network to form a circle-level online communication.Eating disorders are a group of diseases characterized by abnormal eating behavior and psychological disorders,accompanied by significant weight change and physical dysfunction.Eating disorder as an individual of sickness,in the face of the lack of medical resources and not to be understood in real life,under the dilemma of the formation of the community,through online patients experience will have the same problems of patients together,with the aid of network connectivity,complete treatment,psychological emotional relief,to share the experience of online with peer support activities,such as improved condition of eating disorders and rehabilitation provides the necessary online support.This paper focused on eating disorder patients groups,to select patients with two different platforms to construct virtual community-"Yi Di" We Chat public,and "JBSCT" QQ group as the research object,the theory of social support theory as the core,with the help of online participatory observation,text analysis and social network analysis three kinds of research methods,through the combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods,interdisciplinary thinking to research this group of online social support condition and the content and structure of interaction.Through the research and analysis of two online virtual communities,it can be found that through online peer interaction and communication,eating disorders can get the help and support they need.From the perspective of social support types,both of them provide information support,emotional support and companion support for eating disorders.However,the two are different in the bias of social support."Yi Di" public account is more inclined to provide information support,while "JBSCT" group is more inclined to provide support of friends.In terms of the professional degree of information content,"Yi Di" public account is more superior.From the perspective of interaction mode,the interactive rhythm of "Yi Di" public account is in the hands of the operator,and the interactive content in the message area can only be presented after screening.Therefore,it forms the assimilation of views and the construction of positive emotions among community members,and consolidates the "group boundary".The communication among "JBSCT" group members is highly free,and the topics of communication within the group are also more abundant.The real-time interaction features meet the social needs and psychological support of patients when they are depressed.In addition,through the analysis of the online communication content of eating disorders,we have a certain understanding of their emotional state,topic attention and influencing factors of the formation of the disease.With the help of the unique expression symbols within the group,the members of the "JBSCT" group have completed the identification of group identity and self-identity in the process of interpersonal interaction and self-interaction.The cognitive dissonance caused by the disease is gradually improved,and the coordination of self-cognition brings the change of behavior,so they choose to adhere to the rehabilitation behavior.However,there are still problems in peer support of online patient communities,such as the uneven quality of health information,the lack of checks,which affect the rehabilitation effect,and the discrete social interaction network,which is difficult to be transformed into more effective practical support.For the patient group,it is necessary to form an organized and standardized online community with the help of the characteristics of media,and enhance the cohesion of the group with the help of the linkage of online and offline activities to achieve better social support effect.As for the media,it is necessary to assume the function of popularizing knowledge and reduce the delay and "stigmatization" of the disease caused by insufficient cognition.We should guide the diversified social aesthetics in the setting of topics and selection of content,and change the mainstream aesthetics of "thinness as beauty" in the existing cultural environment.Of course,it is far from sufficient to rely on the power of media and virtual community for the prevention of eating disorders and substantive help for patients.In the current situation of insufficient attention to the disease and insufficient medical resources,it is more important to build and improve the social support system in the real environment.It is hoped that the research of this paper can make more people pay attention to this group and help this group to improve the online mutual aid system and solve the real difficulties.