In 2021, neurology clinics across the globe noticed a baffling spike in teenage girls suddenly developing severe, violent motor and vocal tics overnight. While the symptoms mirrored Tourette syndrome, standard medical tests like MRIs and EEGs kept coming back completely clean.
The real culprit turned out to be hiding on their screens. Dr. Kirsten Müller-Vahl of Hannover Medical School identified the outbreak as "mass social media-induced illness"—the first recorded instance of a mass sociogenic illness spreading globally via social media rather than physical proximity. Investigators realized patients were mimicking the exact, unique tics (such as shouting the word "beans") performed by popular Tourette influencers they spent hours watching on TikTok and YouTube during pandemic isolation.
Clinicians note that the tics are physically real and involuntary, acting as a "symptom template" for vulnerable teens. Follow-up studies found that affected adolescents had four to five times the odds of having pre-existing anxiety or depression. The algorithms effectively created a "virtual convent," offering an accidental community and recognition to isolated youth. Treatment requires more than just deleting the apps; patients generally recover through family involvement and proper psychiatric care to address the underlying mental health struggles.
(Score: 5, Funny) by cmdrklarg on Friday July 31, @09:05PM (5 children)
I don't have Tourettes, but I am known to curse at the phone occasionally when it does something annoying.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31, @09:10PM
So pretty much all the time then?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday July 31, @09:29PM (3 children)
Seems like the little old lady that lived next door to my office years ago decided she would have Tourettes one day - lasted for about a month that I noticed. She'd walk out to the grocery store cursing up a storm best she could, one of her favorites was a James Bond classic: Pussy Galore. Seems like she settled down after that, not sure why, never really interacted with her other than to cross paths to/from the grocery store around lunchtime.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31, @10:28PM
Well, doesn't that seem like an intense temporary serious mental illness!
... er.
People just need to let loose sometimes. Been suppressing themselves too long. That, or the cultural boot between the shoulder blades.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31, @11:41PM (1 child)
Not to be too graphic, but from dealing with, and some caring for "old ladies", she might have had a UTI, which can cause pretty severe mental issues, and permanent brain damage it turns out.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday July 31, @11:47PM
UTI more or less killed my father in law...
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31, @10:26PM (1 child)
n/t -- responding to the title.
Especially over night? It's clearly just easily-influenced followers following. This is not Turrets.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Friday July 31, @10:36PM
>This is not Turrets.
It's not, but it is... the symptoms present the same, and psych studies are convinced that the tics are indeed involuntary, but they originate from a learned / acquired behavior instead of the typical neurological pathways.
The same thing presents (more rarely) with epilepsy, and it's damn hard to treat, because it's not epilepsy - so the standard epilepsy treatments (which are no fun at all) have no effects - or should I say are even less effective than normal - most epilepsy treatments are less than 40% effective, patients usually try several before finding one that's somewhat effective and many never find an effective intervention at all.
As the article says, addressing underlying psychological risk factors is the most (but not always) successful approach - for these kinds of "virii of the mind."
Some people treat bulimia in this class of "problems" that people should "just snap out of it" but many bulimia patients don't, and they suffer some significant negative health impacts... for bulimia, long term periodic Vagus Nerve Stimulation is actually "shockingly" effective (as compared to how shockingly ineffective it is at treating actual epilepsy which it is indicated for...) For bulimia the theory goes that repetitive vomiting produces a sort of need for that massive stimulation that comes from the stomach contents rushing up the esophagus with all the stretching and acid and other stimulation - it becomes a sort of habituated "itch" they need to scratch, and the VNS is enough of a surrogate that they can overcome the urges to purge. Kind of like a nicotine patch.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31, @11:24PM
Yeah, right... and you can get herpes from the toilet seat, and pregnant from a swimming pool, or is it the other way around?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 01, @02:42AM
They are victims of the covid psyop if anything. Are they manufacturing consent for social media bans for the chillun through this type of article?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 01, @09:23AM
Talking about phones doing funny things...
I note mostly women hold a particular expression on their face when using a phone, and after years of use, it sets:
It looks like three deep wrinkles in the skin stacked above each eyebrow, and three deep vertical wrinkles, side by side, just above the bridge of the nose.
This is very evident when they are on the phone,
I guess they get a lot of unpleasant or worrisome calls.
Someone pointed it out to me...he said it was called a "phone face".
Now that I've seen it, I can't un-see it.