'It shows me mental health things … and keeps spamming diets': a qualitative, spatial perspective on how people with eating disorders experience algorithms shaping their movement across social media.

backgroundResearch has suggested that consuming appearance-related content on social media is associated with eating disordered thoughts, but social media also contains content that supports recovery. There is some evidence that TikTok algorithm fed more appearance-related content for people with eating disorders (EDs). However, there are no studies on how people with EDs experience and negotiate the way in which algorithms steer them towards specific social media spaces, which is the original aim of our research.

methodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 UK people, 28 women and 3 men, aged 18-49 years, and self-identified as having past or present experience of EDs, most of whom defined themselves as in recovery. The interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

resultsIn analysing the material we developed a novel spatial approach to algorithms, analysing how they shaped participants' movement across social media and identified three key themes: (i) negative and positive repetitive refrains, (ii) wayfaring between helpful and unhelpful spaces and (iii) being enveloped in a gendered body and wellness landscape. First, algorithms encouraged repetitive viewing or refrain, which made participants to veer into or, when unwell, to steer themselves into social media and psychological spaces characterised by constant thoughts and practices of restricting eating; yet, participants could also repetitively view self-compassion messages on social media to move to a space of self-affirmation. Second, participants wandered into and between helpful mental health and body positive spaces and unhelpful diet and beauty spaces, being mostly casually informed by algorithms and their own interests but also critically reflecting on the steer. Third, wandering between seemingly antithetical diet and recovery spaces still enveloped participants in stereotypically gendered landscape focusing on bodies and wellness and did not cultivate other interests.

conclusionThe findings suggest that participants recovering from EDs often sought to steer themselves towards social media spaces that enhanced their well-being, but algorithms frequently complicated these journeys, which merits further attention in research, practice and policy.