Break Spring
Posted by cstipek on March 23rd, 2009
I came across this article from the New York Times : Before Spring Break, the Anorexic Challenge
“Basically today I went 24 hours without food and then I ate green beans and a little baked ziti. Frankly I’m proud of myself, not to mention the 100 situps on the yoga ball and the 100 I’ll do before sleep … Yey for me.”
It is no surprise to hear this kind of talk around me, but what I hadn’t considered before were the networking cites encouraging this type of talk and behavior. There are hundreds of pro-anorexia web sites that support a lifestyle with eating disorders. MySpace, Xanga, and Livejournal all host pro-anorexia content.
“The online pro-ana networks can be especially dangerous, experts say, because participants can offer irresponsible advice behind a mask of anonymity. Several eating-disorder therapists interviewed said they considered all the pro-ana material on the Web highly dangerous, particularly when spiced with the spirit of a contest.”
In earlier posts I have discussed and presented evidence of the power of these social networking sites. It frightens me to realize that while you can be your own worst enemy, it is incredible easy to find people to encourage distructive behavior and feed your own insecurities with their own. The additional weight will crush us.
With the exception of a weekend trip Brooklyn, NY, I spent the majority of my Spring Break in Amherst, MA. I did not go to a bunch of parties, I didn’t binge on alcohol, I did not obsess about my weight, and I did not watch the television showing me all of the things I should be actively participating in as a twenty-one year-old college student.
I rode my bike, made a movie, learned the beginning steps of the Charleston (I’ll post a video of that later), baked cookies, and made a hop scotch path with chalk across a cross-walk on the UMass campus.
Stay tuned for videos from my version of an alternative Spring Break.
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