The supportive yet not so diverse world of WW Australia's online community (Blog 2)

I feel that the Weight Watchers (WW) community network embraces the

Image 1: The WW community serves as support and inspiration

diversity of its members and promotes equality. WW is an international company however, the site I am a member of is the Australian and New Zealand branch of WW, which limits, in a way, the diversity of the members as we are all linked by location. Another limiting factor is the monthly charge to gain access to the WW community and other online tools; again this would limit the diversity of the members to those who can afford the access charges. All site content is presented in English and I could not locate an option to translate or change a language preference. Although I feel as though the WW community network promotes diversity and equality it actually only does so for the group of members who speak English and can afford monthly account fees.

Obviously if the network usage was mapped it would not be equally spread over the world as it is the AUS and NZ site therefore you would expect that almost all the traffic would be coming from these locations. I did a quick test and my log on details did not work on the UK WW site. This may be because of the nature of the site; WW is a diet and season, produce, brands, take away outlets, measurement systems etc.  affect the delivery of the diet as they differ from country to country.

I think that identity on the WW site is real and authentic because members feel the network supports them. The community aspect of the site is much like Facebook you have a profile which you are encouraged to have a photograph, share how you feel and your interests. In the McNeill (2012) reading Mark Zuckerberg is cited as claiming Facebook "is the story of your life" (p.107), I feel the the WW community has the power, if you choose to use all the tools (for example befriend other members, blog, track) has the power to become the story of your weight loss.

The WW community serves as a support network. Members can share their experiences while losing weight with WW or, like me, read about others for motivation, and recipe recommendations. I feel that in the WW community and almost any other online social network the statement to "exist" is "to be perceived" (Chatwin, 1987, p.14) rings true. To exist in the WW social network is to understand its purpose is to make money by providing a service to people who want to lose weight using the program. When the purpose is understood you can 'exist' as an active member who shares or, like me, as an inactive member who uses the shared experiences of others.

References

Chatwin, B. (1987).  Chapter 3, in Songlines (pp. 11-15). London: Jonathan Cape

McNeill, L.(2012). There is no "I" in network: Social networking sites and posthuman auto-biography. In Biography, 35(1), 101-118.

Images

Image 1: The WW community serves as support and inspiration. Retrieved from: <http://www.lifetime-weightloss.com/blog/2012/11/3/5-sources-of-support-for-your-success.html>