Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

611–620 of 664 posts

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

#611

Post by Apocryphon »

antonymy wrote: post #610
Apocryphon wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Formalize it into combat sports, with rules, referees, and medical personnel on staff. Or just competitive sports in general. But don't permit physical bullying. Your experiences elide over cases where there was serious harm done to the victim, physical or otherwise, or led to disproportionate retaliation.

>Formalize it into combat sports, with rules, referees, and medical personnel on staff. So, what I'm hearing is, we need to bring back dueling.

Yeah but in a nonlethal way. I mentioned maybe it could be channeled into competitive sports- that could include esports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0dr7hXabqI&t=36s

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

#612

Post by thrown_22 »

faeriechangling wrote: post #139

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?

We celebrate failure and not success. As a simple example no one gets praised for not being an addict, but we keep hearing about the stunningly brave addicts who became barely functioning members of society.

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

#613

Post by thrown_22 »

NamTaf wrote: post #311
PheonixPharts wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 wh…

>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.

That used to be called talking to friends. If anything social media is less dangerous because the _really_ illegal stuff is not something they can show.

Clockwork Orange, the Destructors and Kids were a lot less fiction than people would like to believe today.

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

#614

Post by johndfsgdgdfg »

sorwin wrote: post #425

How are the videos and information surrounding all these mental disorders on TikTok not in the same category as COVID-19 misinformation?

Simple. One is right wing and the other one is left-wing. The same reason 'fat is healthy' is not misinformation even though ~80% of people in US died with COVID were obese.

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

#615

Post by thrown_22 »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #602
alexb_ wrote: post #200

People are going to be blaming TikTok, social media, or whatever else for this, but it's important to note that this is not a new phenomenon at all. Tuberculosis was fashionable during the Victorian era and shaped a lot of our modern beauty standards today[0]. Is social media really to blame, or is a desire to be different just a part of being human? [0] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-tuberculos...

You can blame social media for bringing it to a psychotic scale.

You can also blame the fact kids aren't working 16 hour days any more.

Just because you can't doesn't mean you're right.

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

#616

Post by ryan-allen »

quasarj wrote: post #246
jnovek wrote: post #26

As an adult who struggles with ADHD that can be severely impairing, I’ve learned quite a few tricks from TikTok’s ADHD advocates. It’s definitely a coin with two sides. Edit: I’ve also learned to accept things about me that I can’t change. For example, I have a better outcome if I plan to be distracted rather than trying to fight my way through distraction.

I personally hate seeing all the ADHD stuff, I feel like most of those people are faking/wrong as well. But I don't know, maybe I just have ADHD? I just feel like they are always like "this is life with ADHD" and I'm like "what? that's just life? isn't that how everyone is?"

I didn't get diagnosed until my late 30s. It's always worth checking. I managed to carve out some level of success despite, but it was not without a lot of suffering.

If you think you might have ADHD go see someone who specialises in it and get it checked out. I was certain that I had it when I was 20, but my local doctor told me I was "trying to get out of work". Top bloke. Nearly 20 years later I'm vindicated with a diagnosis. Get it checked out!

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

#617

Post by deepdriver »

newsclues wrote: post #486
MichaelCollins wrote: post #126

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 social transmission is obvious in clusters to youth becoming trans. It’s willful blindness

I've spoken to a mother whose school-aged daughters' circle of friends, five biological girls, all identify somewhere between trans and nonbinary. The teachers encourage and reward it. So do most of the parents. Among these girls it's uncool to accept the body and sex you were born with. I've read stories of similar clusters in other deep-blue cities and school districts.

I believe we're seeing a massive Clever Hans effect among children whose mentors have deep moral anxiety. They grew up during the final battles and ultimate victory of the LGB rights movement, and desperately wish to avoid being seen "on the wrong side of history." Driven by this anxiety, they aggressively pursue gender-affirming care for their children. They do this even in cases where the child's discomfort may more likely result from depression, autism spectrum disorders, the normal effects of puberty, or other conditions unrelated to gender dysphoria. Their children will bear this moral panic's lasting fallout. The effects of puberty blockers are lifelong and largely unknown. The effects of mastectomies and testosterone injections are irreversible.

The real shame will be felt by those who knew, but said nothing, because they didn't want to lose their personal comfort or social networks. The evidence of most trans children desisting in adulthood is clear. "For decades, follow-up studies of transgender kids have shown that a substantial majority-- anywhere from 65 to 94 percent-- eventually ceased to identify as transgender":

https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/441784/the-controversial-re...

The detransitioner phenomenon has been covered since 2017 (this article got Katie Herzog harassed and fired from The Stranger; she now runs a successful podcast with writer Jesse Singal):

https://www.thestranger.com/features/2017/06/28/25252342/the...

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

#618

Post by dqpb »

purpleflame1257 wrote: post #277
dqpb wrote: post #176

Quoted post unavailable.

If that "delusion" were really so maladaptive it would have been outcompeted by now.

It's probably hard to measure, because there are many reasons to act like you have the delusion, even if you don't.

For example, to avoid physical danger, to avoid social ostracization, to benefit from the social network, to gain power and influence, etc. The delusion (or at least it's theatrics) is part of a bigger social package. It's a bit like product bundling, or subprime mortgage securitization, or suspiciously large wooden gifts.

The good parts are good, and the bad parts benefit from the aggregate value function.

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

#619

Post by mbg721 »

dqpb wrote: post #176

Quoted post unavailable.

Maybe not all religions are created equal; even if it's all made-up, the idea of a benevolent-if-aloof God who wants us to act in each other's best interest seems a little less toxic than losing 50 pounds in all the right places in order to gain approval for having the perfect bikini body.

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

#620

Post by aahortwwy »

trh0awayman wrote: post #24

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.

> All the kids that I knew who did this have grown up to be completely normal adults.

Some kids did this and didn't grow up, because someone in their online community committed suicide and that prompted them to do the same.

This is a real problem. It's been a problem since the 90s, yes, but it's getting worse.

Post reply on HN