Young girls in particular are said to develop so-called “tics”, the origin of which, according to American doctors, is, among other things, linked to TikTok videos.
Are TikTok videos about Tourette syndrome the trigger for young teenagers to develop tics themselves? This assumption has been expressed in various media for a few days. The internationally known Wall Street Journal in particular is cited as a source.
It reports that since the beginning of the pandemic, young girls with tics have allegedly been showing up in doctors' offices around the world. The so-called tics are physical twitches and verbal outbursts. The doctors were initially at a loss because this phenomenon was originally rare, but has now occurred in large numbers.
However, according to the Wall Street Journal, after months of studying the patients by various experts in several countries, it turned out that most of the girls had something in common. They all use TikTok and have watched videos of TikTok influencers who say they suffer . These are videos in which the relevant actors make involuntary movements and/or noises.
TikTok and Corona as a cause for Tourette's?
Since March 2020, specialists have been reporting an increase in tics, especially among teenage girls. According to the Wall Street Journal, Texas Children's Hospital has treated about 60 teenagers with such tics, while before the pandemic, doctors there were only seeing one or two cases a year.
Other clinics or centers are also reporting increases in the number of patients treated. But TikTok and the videos are unlikely to be the sole trigger. Doctors believe that most of the young people have already been diagnosed with depression or anxiety. However, the pandemic has exacerbated these conditions and the tics could be a kind of catalyst.
It is not clear whether TikTok is to blame and is not unanimously claimed by medical experts. The Wall Street Journal quotes Dr. Joseph McGuire, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the renowned Johns Hopkins University. McGuire says that while there are some children who consume social media and develop tics, there are also others who don't have access to social media and develop tics. According to McGuire, there are many contributing factors, including anxiety, depression and stress.
“There are some kids who watch social media and development tics and some who don't have any access to social media and development tics, I think there are a lot of contributing factors, including anxiety, depression and stress.”
Why TikTok?
The video platform TikTok is the platform that is used particularly frequently by young people. It is a very entertaining platform where videos are mainly 15 to 60 seconds long. This means the platform has an enormous flood of videos. Due to their brevity, these videos are also quite easy to consume and primarily attract a young and dynamic user base. In this case these are mainly teenagers.
At the same time, due to this great dynamic, trends can emerge very quickly, which can spread uncontrollably and just as quickly. Of course, dangerous trends can also arise, as we have seen Skull Breaker Challenge In serious cases, the TikTok operator takes action and implements a tough deletion policy. However, whether and to what extent the videos themselves are to blame for the tics remains unclear in this case.
It sounds entirely plausible that tics are a channel due to stress and living conditions during the pandemic or that the behaviors from the videos are unconsciously used as a channel for one's own depression or anxiety.
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