Live data from Hacker News

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

wsj.com

311–320 of 664 posts

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

#311
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Sure, but my point is that you had to actively go out and find it. You didn't get an in-lined feed of social media 'suggested posts' that gradually took you from being angry at the machine to some radicalised position.

My broader point is that you can replace that scenario with just about any subgroup with an extremist representation and it holds. Incels are a prime example. QAnon too. The list goes on. The people who end up extreme in those viewpoints don't start there, they get taken on a journey to there though lots of very marginal successive influences.

A social media algorithm is purpose-built to achieve that because it turns out that is the exact same pattern as 'you hovered over a cute cat video once, so we guess you like cats, so we're going tto bombard you with cute cat vids to drive up your engagement'.

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

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Quoted post unavailable.

You're moving the goalposts to a separate issue: The post you're reply to was specifically talking about children receiving medical treatment to address gender dysphoria, not the possibility of a child experiencing gender dysphoria in general. If a teacher feels a child could be unsafe if they expressed they were trans to their family, they might encourage them not to tell them. But the teacher would not have input on any medical decision, that's up to families and healthcare providers.

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

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not agree. You can research how much of the population has blond hair, and how much this diverges from the "typical" hair color. But the decision to define or not define blond hair as a medical condition is a value call because the definition of a medical condition is ultimately that which people call a medical condition. And whether something is clinically useful isn't the standard for defining a condition, bec…

You can agree or disagree, but the fact is that diagnoses almost always include a mandatory requirement that the condition has a significant negative impact on the patient's life. It's not merely a value judgment, and it's definitely not an arbitray judgement. The AMA or the CDC can't just decide that blod hair is now a medical disorder for no other reason than it would be helpful to your strawman. Clearly a lot of r…

"...a mandatory requirement that the condition has a significant negative impact on the patient's life."

Lot's of things have negative impacts that aren't considered medical conditions, on the other hand Elan Musk says he has Aspergers. Nobody seems to doubt it. This shows that someone can climb to the top of the social world but still be told they have a disease supposedly associated with "significant negative impact" on social skills.

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

#314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Men cry in the office too, but they're better at hiding it because the social expectations are different. A few times during crunches I've heard men sobbing in the restroom instead of at their desk. Men get told to 'man up', so they bottle it up or hide it.

counterpoint: no. i been in some pretty stressful environments and never reacted like that. same for most guys i know. maybe it's different where you are but i never seen it even in private like that or with close friends.

lots of men do the opposite of crying by reacting with some sort of anger/rage in whatever public outbursts (verbal or physical). I present my younger self as exhibit A to verbal stupidity and admit guilt to all charges in this manner. It wasn't until maybe 10ish years ago that I got tired of just being angry at everything. Maybe I could have gotten there sooner with professional counseling, but that wasn't the manly thing to do.

The stigma of men seeking therapy is something that can only improve. Just don't know how to do it other than speaking positively about it at appropriate times

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

#315
post #173
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Shows a lack of self control

Why would self control require pretending you don't have emotions? If you are being aggressive, then yes, you are lacking self control.

But that is act, not emotion.

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

#316
post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was never taboo to criticize pro-ana groups. Being lgbt isn’t a mental illness. Not medically speaking, anyway. Maybe they were considered such in the past. Go far enough back and we used bloodletting as a common treatment, our understanding generally improves with time. I have no desire to go back to an era where lgbt people were persecuted. With respect to your other point. “Children” is a broad category. Pre-pu…

Quoted post unavailable.

No post body was provided.

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

#317

I've done a lot of thinking about this issue, and there's two topics I notice. First, disability has become a status symbol in certain circles. Second, the huge rise in self-diagnosed disability. On the latter point, these kids are acting out these disabilities with such sincerity and 24/7 consistency that they effectively are disabled for all practical purposes, it's just that the diagnosis might be different than t…

>I think the TikTok videos are a symptom, what's the cause? Why don't you think TikTok videos specifically (and social media generally) are not a cause? At this point, we know the addictive and viral effects of social media, especially as it pertains to teenagers and kids (and especially teenage girls).

Being a symptom and a cause are not mutually exclusive, but blaming the videos alone results in a chicken and egg scenario.

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

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can agree or disagree, but the fact is that diagnoses almost always include a mandatory requirement that the condition has a significant negative impact on the patient's life. It's not merely a value judgment, and it's definitely not an arbitray judgement. The AMA or the CDC can't just decide that blod hair is now a medical disorder for no other reason than it would be helpful to your strawman. Clearly a lot of r…

"...a mandatory requirement that the condition has a significant negative impact on the patient's life." Lot's of things have negative impacts that aren't considered medical conditions, on the other hand Elan Musk says he has Aspergers. Nobody seems to doubt it. This shows that someone can climb to the top of the social world but still be told they have a disease supposedly associated with "significant negative impac…

The mental health world is measuring different things from the business world. I mean, Hitler was Chancellor of an advanced European nation, that must make him fine, right?

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

#320

It feels as though our society has collectively forgotten that mental illness can be socially transmissible. I remember in 00s there seemed to be mainstream acknowledgement and concern that anorexia and distorted perception of one's body can be socially transmissible, ripping through teen social cliches particularly, and could be spread through the internet by "pro-ana" websites and chat groups. I don't hear much abo…

The bar also got a lot lower than back then. You jump over the gaps in the tiles on the road? You must have OCD. You broke up with your bf/gf.. you must have depression. You're happy a bit? Bipolar disorder. You're a guy and play with a barbie... trans. Less horny, asexual. And let's not forget a bunch of adhd/autism and other disorders, when a kid gets bored in school. On the other hand, we have professionals (docto…

> You're a guy and play with a barbie... trans. Less horny, asexual.

Setting aside, for now, the fact that these are things that people realize about themselves and not things people are diagnosed with by others... Why are you bringing them up in response to a comment about mental illness?

Post reply on HN