# Like-minded, like-bodied: How users (18-26) trust online eating and health information

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.18753 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.18753/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 28 Feb 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [New contexts, old heuristics: How young people in India and the US trust online content in the age of generative AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.02522/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper investigates the relationship between social media and eating practices amongst 42 internet users aged 18-26. We conducted an ethnography in the US and India to observe how they navigated eating and health information online. We found that participants portrayed themselves online through a vocabulary we have labeled "the good life": performing holistic health by displaying a socially-ideal body. In doing so, participants unconsciously engaged in behaviors of disordered eating while actively eschewing them. They also valued personal testimonies, and readily tested tips from content creators who shared similar beliefs and bodies to them. In doing so, they discarded probabilistic thinking and opened themselves to harm. Our study found that their social media feeds did not unidirectionally influence participants - they also reflected participants' internalized views of health, in an intertwined, non-linear journey. Reducing the online spread of disordered eating practices requires addressing it within young people's social context.