University of Melbourne

Seeking Lived Experience Feedback on a Tool to Disrupt TikTok Eating Disorder Echo Chambers

We are seeking individuals with lived experience of eating disorders to provide feedback on a digital tool that aims to support individuals with eating disorders in navigating their social media environments. This project will gather lived experience feedback a new clinical tool that visualises users’ algorithms and aims to disrupt echo chambers. Participants are invited to participate in a 2-hour online workshop over Zoom that will explore the utility and feasibility of this tool, and how it may be used in therapy sessions. Lived experience participants will be remunerated a $100 gift voucher for their time and contributions.

To participate, you must be at least 18 years old, fluent in English, residing in Australia, have used or use TikTok, and have been diagnosed with an eating disorder by a clinician.

Should you agree to participate, you will be asked to share your design ideas for an algorithm transparency tool alongside five other participants over a 2-hour online workshop, conducted over video conferencing platform ‘Zoom’. There will be 6 total participants, the five other participants will also comprise individuals with eating disorders. In the workshop, features of the ongoing prototype algorithm transparency tool will be presented. You will be asked to provide feedback on their proposed features, refine the features according to your own expertise, as well as reflect on your own data-sharing concerns. You will also be asked to analyse the prototype tool and describe which of its’ features, if any, would be useful in the individual and clinical support of individuals with eating disorders against harmful digital environments.