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TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

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Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#171
post #34
post #15

For all of human history across every culture, parents would do what they could to keep their kids away from “bad influences”. You move to certain areas, go to certain places, are members of certain organizations etc. which serve to socialize your kids with kids from families that have shared values. You don’t talk to strangers. With the internet and especially media like TikTok parents are exposing their kids to unt…

I think there's an interesting phenomenon where the lower bound of "bad influences" has gotten much lower in a lot of places that used to be safe. Previously, bad influences were limited to what your local neighborhood kids were telling your kid. This could be bad, they could be torturing cats or something, but that wasn't likely. And that floor could be raised by society as a whole improving. Now, with TikTok, the o…

> Previously, bad influences were limited to what your local neighborhood kids were telling your kid. This could be bad, they could be torturing cats or something, but that wasn't likely. And that floor could be raised by society as a whole improving.

It also worth noting that in the past there were more supervisory resources: homemakers. Now both parents tend to work and have far less capacity to manage those bad influences.

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#172
post #64

Young people on the internet have been doing this since at least the 90s, though it's definitely become more popular (mainly due to internet culture spreading to normal society). Just think back to the LiveJournal/MySpace era - it was the same exact thing back then. All the kids that I knew who did this have grown up to be completely normal adults.

The difference is that hyperpowerful social media algorithms have weaponised it. Kids in the 90s had to actively seek out whatever propaganda or whatnot that they wanted to read about. If you were a pissed-off goth kid wanting to read how to bomb something, you had to genuinely work to find shit like that. These days, you linger on an auto-playing video too long (that is quite possibly intentionally engineered to bai…

> If you were a pissed-off goth kid wanting to read how to bomb something, you had to genuinely work to find shit like that.

Every pissed off goth kid I knew in the 90s had a copy of the Anarchist cook book on a 1.44mb floppy disk.

We probably burned more than our fair share of holes in our backyards, but it wasn't access to information that was limiting us doing harm to our peers. If anything I think it was having a group of like-minded people to burn holes in your backyard with that ultimately allowed us all to feel less alienated. We may have felt individually ostracized, but found camaraderie in trying to put out the homemade napalm fire in the back yard before someone's parents got back or the neighbors called the fire department.

I get more worried about teens today because I no longer see packs of kids getting in trouble together. The only kids I know that ended up in real trouble where the ones that eventually got alienated from that pack as well.

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#173
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sympathize with everyone who looks at tiktok and starts to cry. That said I think this "you are allowed to show feelings" is extremely out of place and out of time. And not good general advice at all. You should not show your feelings to just anyone. You should have self worth and share with those you trust. There is a reason why PR exists for people in the public sphere. Most people will treat you kindly and it is…

Why is being visibly sad or happy something that should lower your self worth?

Shows a lack of self control

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#174
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's an interesting phenomenon where the lower bound of "bad influences" has gotten much lower in a lot of places that used to be safe. Previously, bad influences were limited to what your local neighborhood kids were telling your kid. This could be bad, they could be torturing cats or something, but that wasn't likely. And that floor could be raised by society as a whole improving. Now, with TikTok, the o…

Banning "undesirable topics" isn't the solution, but only a band-aid. We need to teach children critical thinking skills and allow them to make their own decisions. The former might be easier, but the latter is the most beneficial in the long run.

"Critical thinking" as thought is kinda "trust CNN and not random rager's blog". You need judgement and wisdom for actual critical thinking, which children do not have.

I would say it is a really hard problem, because it boils down to trust the trustworthy -- and who to trust is left as an exercise to the reader.

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much always when people say things like this, they are talking about few % of ruling class (whether they were bureaucratic, capitalist, feudal lords or whatever), and imagine themselves as part of this class.

The ruling class did _not_ shy away from debauchery. King Edward VII of England was so fat he had a special sex chair made so his stomach wouldn't get in the way.

Sure, they did. While preaching "christian values" like many of the current lawmakers.

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#177
post #37

My question is: Does this actually matter? Does this have a lasting impact or do the kids simply move on with no negative changes to their lives? I remember thinking a lot of dumb stuff as a teenager. Just because I thought it doesn't mean it was bad that I did.

I think we can take a look at things like anorexia to see some example of what the effects might be. Some young adult women only had a short phase that they "grew out of" and some struggle with it to this day.

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#178
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> much of it seems very difficult to falsify It's quite straightforward, albeit involved (as in technically easy, but takes time) to falsify. You have to work with a licensed medical professional who will evaluate traits, strengths, and difficulties, and to what extent they impact functioning as a person in society. Basically, are they "well-adjusted"? If they make it through school, college and adulthood without a t…

> Basically, are they "well-adjusted"? This is so easy to game. People read the diagnostic criteria online and echo it back to their doctor for a prescription. Their proof of needing adjustment can be little more than pointing to their grades and attributing their less than stellar academic performance to the list of ADHD symptoms they memorized online. EZ way to get yourself a stimulant subscription. This was partic…

Someone being able to fake an illness does not signify that the illness does not exist.

You can fake chronic back pain, migraines, suicidal tendencies, and so on. That doesn't make any of them any less real.

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#179
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm skeptical of all of them in their current form. It helps bolster my argument. I acknowledge that I might be wrong, and if it inspires someone to call me out in an effective way, great! Now, ask yourself -- in a forum that's supposed to be about discussion and answering questions, why do you think it's very important to police how I use punctuation?

It's not policing, I'm suggesting that in a dialogue the use of scare quotes signals a negative interest in actually engaging in discussion. Typically, scare quotes will be interpreted as someone who has already made their mind up and won't be moved. Compare: "I'm skeptical about the prevalence of autism in teens." "I'm skeptical about the prevalence of "autism" in teens." The first absolutely conveys your skepticism…

I don't think that's what they meant.

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#180
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> video games cause violence They don't. Nothing harmful can come out of reading a book. > DnD leads to Satanism It can't, ever. No subculture can wander so close to satanism that would lead their elements to coopt it. > TV rots brains It doesn't. There's no way of consuming TV that has a negative impact on people. > movies lead to illiteracy They don't. Having the choice of a movie never prevented anyone from having…

And HN usage leads to the inability to recognize sarcasm. Google it, it's true.

Sarcasm in response to sarcasm is evidently twice as easy to miss.
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