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

It’s not Tourette’s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness

academic.oup.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 704 posts

Re: It’s not Tourette’s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness

#191

Post by naasking »

bognition wrote: post #144
xd wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never known a kid to not ask for toys they prefer.. you make the simple act of giving a child a gift sound sinister.. what a world we live in.

It's not sinister in the slightest, but people should understand the larger picture. Where do those preferences come from? I've seen first hand the impact that media, advertising, and social pressures at school have had on my children's preferences.

> Where do those preferences come from? I've seen first hand the impact that media, advertising, and social pressures at school have had on my children's preferences.

Sure, but why is that a problem? Our preferences are of course sculpted by our environment, and that's not a problem as long the people who fall outside of those norms aren't punished for it. Assuming those norms aren't harmful of course, eg. not good to normalize psychopathy.

Re: It’s not Tourette’s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness

#192

Post by meowfly »

Ord3rChaos wrote: post #130
meowfly wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still listen to "gangster rap" and I'm doing well enough. It's entirely possible to listen to Trap and not drink lean. There are plenty of dorks (I use the word affectionately) watching anime whose fandom has subsumed their ability to be successful. I do think that a person's life trajectory is affected by their closest friends, especially in high school.

Can you honestly say that your lived experience hasn't changed you? It's clear "gangster rap" doesn't ruin anyone's lives like the parents of the 90's thought it might. That doesn't absolve it from affecting you in more subtle ways (good and bad).

Maybe I don't understand the question but of course a persons lived experience affects them. It seems like you've moved the goal posts.

What I'm pointing out is that OPs moralizing on good media "Anime, Books" vs bad media "Rap, Trash Magazines" is likely focusing on the wrong things. A person's friends are ultimately what matter in prioritizing values (as far as values can be shaped by environment).

But the claim about "gangster rap" (a term I don't like) was "that shit will warp your mind." is false. Moreover, Anime has tons of content that's way darker than anything you'll find in rap. But again, I don't think it really matters.

Re: It’s not Tourette’s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness

#193

Post by zztop44 »

refurb wrote: post #149
maxbond wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gender identity and sexual orientation are different concepts. Exploring gender identity is not the same as exploring sexuality. Children are constantly exploring identity, as I'm sure you have observed. For instance, I am a straight man, but when I was a child I sometimes stole my mother's lipstick and tried to put it on, or I would play with Barbie dolls. I saw that other people incorporated these activities in the…

For instance, I am a straight man, but when I was a child I sometimes stole my mother's lipstick and tried to put it on, or I would play with Barbie dolls. I wouldn't see trying on lipstick or playing with Barbie dolls as "exploring a gender identity" as neither of those are exclusive to one gender, even in a heteronormative world.

I think you might be missing the forest for the trees. Barbies and lipstick are not exclusive to one gender, but they are associated with one gender. I don’t think it’s controversial to say that people in general will respond differently to a little boy who likes playing with lipstick and barbie dolls compared to a little girl.

Re: It’s not Tourette’s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness

#194

Post by brookst »

api wrote: post #140
bigbillheck wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Left-handed people.

I bring this one up every time someone brings up Chesterton's Fence arguments about stuff like this. Why was left handedness considered taboo and evil? Do we need to figure out a legitimate reason for this before we can remove the fence? Could there possibly be a legitimate reason for something that clearly absurd?

There could be, but I think the presumption should be that it is normal social evolution to stigmatize minorities. Red-headed people, Jewish/Semitic people, people with cleft palates, on and on.

There seems to be a representation threshold below which any observable minority is considered undesirable. To the extent there is a “legitimate reason” it is probably rooted in evolutionary psychology for avoiding too much genetic variation in small tribes. I submit those fences are the opposite of Chesterton’s fence and can happily be ignored in today’s society.

Re: It’s not Tourette’s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness

#196

Post by Kye »

simiones wrote: post #147
LudwigNagasena wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What boggles my mind is that people who adamantly claim that all gender behavior is socially constructed are the ones who are the first to denounce the idea that you can learn to want to be another gender.

I don't think that happens too often. The problem is that there are at least two different and often opposing currents in pro-trans movements. One is from the "gender is a social construct" post-modernist side, which views the very idea that people are either men or women with some suspicion, and leads to concepts such as gender fluidity, non-binary identities, and the idea that maybe young kids should not be gendere…

Then there's the third one that sees that there probably is some biological aspect, but the way it's expressed depends on the culture's concept of gender. I favor this one since it provides an explanation for the existence of trans people of some sort in every society throughout history without discounting nature or nurture.

Re: It’s not Tourette’s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness

#197

Post by ryanbrunner »

refurb wrote: post #156
dsiegel2275 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "pushing heteronormativity" doesn't need to be a conscious, deliberate act and it doesn't need to be anything related to sex. It can be as simple as a parent buying their son a toy truck for their birthday while buying a barbie doll for their daughter: a reinforcement of socially acceptable gender roles

Your use of "heteronormative" doesn't make a lot of sense. Heteronormativity is "heterosexual is the normal state of being". Playing with trucks if you're a girl has nothing to do with whether you're hetero or homosexual.

It ties into a larger concept of gender roles (which is probably more applicable to discussion of trans folks than sexuality, "heteronormativity" was probably not the best word choice)

Re: It’s not Tourette’s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness

#198

Post by nicoburns »

brookst wrote: post #152
ccity88 wrote: post #33

What's interesting to me is that if we're able to accept the idea that mass social media-induced illness can be developed just by virtue of video watching TikTok or YouTube, then this opens new doors to examining the behaviour of other illnesses such as gender dysphoria that are statistically over represented. This is probably going to get downvoted to oblivion, because nobody wants to confront the idea that we can _…

> statistically over represented Over represented compared to what? The incidence of these disorders back when admitting them would get you bullied / raped / killed? An alternative explanation is that reducing the social straitjackets that enforced conformity is leading to greater diversity of human behavior. Maybe yes, maybe no, but it’s at least a hypothesis worth considering. BTW your point would be stronger witho…

> Over represented compared to what?

In the case of gender dysphoria, the obvious comparison would be, compared to a society where one can subvert gender norms and be accepted without changing one's identity. The emergence of trans movement has created a space where gender-nonconforming people can find more acceptance, but it comes with own set of norms and requirements.

One of which is that one must change their identity and, in many cases, conform to the norms of your newly chosen identity (certainly not everyone in the trans community enforces identity-based gender norms, but that's also true of general society when it comes to sex-based norms. In my experience, they're both about as bad as each other. I've lost count of the number of times people have told me that I must be a certain way or have had certain experiences because of my gender identity).

Re: It’s not Tourette’s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness

#199

Post by maxbond »

christophilus wrote: post #154
maxbond wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's not worth saying, it's not worth vagueposting about either.

If it’s not worth vagueposting about, it’s worth tweeting and TikToking about.

You are saying, because you are uncomfortable discussing it, no one should discuss it? Feel free to correct me if I'm misreading you, it sounds like you're more or less saying, "things I don't like should go away and stop existing."

Re: It’s not Tourette’s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness

#200

Post by LeonTheremin »

>Stop that!

Send them to a submarine trip undersea. If the symptoms disappear it is because they were the result of outside electromagnetic interference.

Not a medical problem, a criminal problem: computer hacking all the way, the human body, a computer, is the victim.

Post reply on HN