Websites pró-ana e mia: redes sociais e suas transformações

Abstract

Research about the ways of expression made possible by the widespread global computer networks in the 21st century. Analysis of pro-anorexia and bulimia websites (conditions personalized in online forums as ana and mia) aimed to an understanding of their effects (a) on the broadcasted contents, once they are available online, and (b) on the links that are established in that technological networking environment, in which each node – person, subject or machine – is in permanent availability for connection. With a theoretical basis that involves Communication Theories, Social Sciences and, above all, Psychoanalysis, we bring together knowledges that, as nodes of a network, connect, complement and offer grounds for the study of these facts. As an object for our investigation, we elected a range of websites, blogs and social networks that represent the online pro-anorexia and bulimia movement, and allow an original description of important (but not always visible) characteristics of this communicational phenomena so typical of the western society.