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Social media platforms have become critical spaces for discussing mental health concerns, including eating disorders. While these platforms can provide valuable support networks, they may also amplify harmful content that glorifies…
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…
The pervasive expectations about ideal body types in Western society can lead to body image concerns, dissatisfaction, and in extreme cases, eating disorders and other psychopathologies related to body image. While previous research has…
The Covid-19 pandemic induced a vast increase in adolescents diagnosed with eating disorders and hospitalized due to eating disorders. This immense growth stemmed partially from the stress of the pandemic but also from increased exposure to…
Eating disorders (ED), a severe mental health condition with high rates of mortality and morbidity, affect millions of people globally, especially adolescents. The proliferation of online communities that promote and normalize ED has been…
Globalization has fundamentally reshaped societal dynamics, influencing how individuals interact and perceive themselves and others. One significant consequence is the evolving landscape of eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa (BN),…
Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions that affect millions of people around the world. Effective interventions on social media platforms are crucial, yet testing strategies in situ can be risky. We present a novel LLM-driven…
The algorithms and the interactions facilitated by online platforms have been used by radical groups to recruit vulnerable individuals to their cause. This has resulted in the sharp growth of violent events and deteriorating online…
Distinctive linguistic practices help communities build solidarity and differentiate themselves from outsiders. In an online community, one such practice is variation in orthography, which includes spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.…
Over the last decade, there has been a vast increase in eating disorder diagnoses and eating disorder-attributed deaths, reaching their zenith during the Covid-19 pandemic. This immense growth derived in part from the stressors of the…
Online communities are important spaces for members of marginalized groups to organize and support one another. To better understand the experiences of fat people -- a group whose marginalization often goes unrecognized -- in online…
Nowadays, Social Networks have become an essential communication tools producing a large amount of information about their users and their interactions, which can be analysed with Data Mining methods. In the last years, Social Networks are…
Social media platforms have evolved rapidly in modernity without strong regulation. One clear obstacle faced by current users is that of toxicity. Toxicity on social media manifests through a number of forms, including harassment,…
The confluence of technological and societal advances is changing the nature of global terrorism. For example, engagement with Web, social media, and smart devices has the potential to affect the mental behavior of the individuals and…
Eating disorders, which include anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with increased diagnoses linked to heightened exposure to idealized body images online. TikTok, a platform with over a…
Social media platforms actively moderate content glorifying harmful behaviors like eating disorders, which include anorexia and bulimia. However, users have adapted to evade moderation by using coded hashtags. Our study investigates the…
We present a large-scale analysis of Instagram pictures taken at 164,753 restaurants by millions of users. Motivated by the obesity epidemic in the United States, our aim is three-fold: (i) to assess the relationship between fast food and…
Echo chambers and opinion polarization recently quantified in several sociopolitical contexts and across different social media, raise concerns on their potential impact on the spread of misinformation and on openness of debates. Despite…
The proliferation of radical online communities and their violent offshoots has sparked great societal concern. However, the current practice of banning such communities from mainstream platforms has unintended consequences: (I) the further…
Online Radicalization (also called Cyber-Terrorism or Extremism or Cyber-Racism or Cyber- Hate) is widespread and has become a major and growing concern to the society, governments and law enforcement agencies around the world. Research…