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This has nothing to do with tiktok. This same phenomenon can and does occur on all social networks, and people mistakenly self-diagnose all the time outside of

This has nothing to do with tiktok. This same phenomenon can and does occur on all social networks, and people mistakenly self-diagnose all the time outside of social network use too

priansh 5y ago
I find this a bit disingenuous. TikTok videos have by far the highest reach of all social media due to their format and the way the for you page works. Moreover it rewards influencers from interacting with each other’s posts which often leads to top comments on TikTok (and Reels too although it’s much smaller as a platform) largely being an echo chamber. 1 post on Facebook might reach 100s, 1000s of people. Rarely a page with large enough following may hit 100,000s of people. 1 post on TikTok from a moderate influencer can hit millions. That’s not to say other social media forms haven’t had bad trends in the past, but TikTok has had far more and in a far shorter amount of time. People just don’t interact with other social content the way they buy into TikTok, which is dangerous and leads to far more misinformation — it was maybe not even 3 weeks ago I had a bunch of my friends sending me a bunch of popular TikTok videos and asking about how AI Transformers were here and taking over the world (they are, but transformers in AI have nothing in common with the movies).
kelseyfrog 5y ago
It also generalizes beyond social networks. Another way of viewing this is simply medical student syndrome[1] transplanted onto the substrate of social media. Learning about a new thing biases people in a way that they over identify that thing. As a parent, I've experienced this in the last year. It was pretty easy to identify and correct for. Teens try out novel behaviors regularly. It's a good strategy for figuring out identity and maturing, but it does have these weird edge-cases that being on the lookout for and gently applying reality maintenance mechanisms corrects for. 1. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-excess/201609/brief-look-medical-student-syndrome https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-excess/201609/bri...
notacoward 5y ago
It might not be unique to TikTok, it might happen on other social networks, but TikTok shouldn't continue to get a pass even as they become the worst purveyor of dangerous viral nonsense. There was the "steal stuff from school" thing and the wave of schools closing because of TikTok-inspired threats and the "corpse bride" eating-disorder thing and probably more I've missed. Now this. People don't hesitate to dump all over Facebook and Twitter. Nobody stands up and says "this has nothing to do with Facebook, it happens on all social media" around here unless they want to get their head ripped off. Bringing out that defense only for TikTok seems like something only a dedicated fan/addict (or worse) would do.
GekkePrutser 5y ago
I don't agree. I don't use TikTok but every annoying BS video people have shared with me the last 2 years came from there. Literally every single one. Obviously I know this because they stamp their logo on every video. But they must be doing something to stimulate this kind of content. I've almost never seen anything actually interesting, insightful or even just fun with that stamp. Just a handful of times. So it looks to me like it's become the sewer of the internet. You might find a gold ring there but you have to wade through knee deep shit to get to it :) Of course this is also the reason I've never even considered joining. Though I left Facebook too and have never been on Twitter.
- reillyse 5y ago
  I actually enjoy TikTok. I watch a lot of dog videos and other fun and lighthearted content. It’s great. I think it’s more what you make it than any other social media platform. I watch videos and I get other videos that I’ll like. If I was interested in other things they would show up on my page, through the algorithm working really well. Nobody crowbars stuff in e.g. I don’t see any maga shit, I just see really entertaining content. Obviously this self diagnosis is a very real issue, but it’s not caused by Tik tok. Tik tok is just good at surfacing the problem though
supernovae 5y ago
It's happened on them all but tik toks algorithm definitely surfaces these more than any other social network.

This has nothing to do with tiktok. This same phenomenon can and does occur on all social networks, and people mistakenly self-diagnose all the time outside of social network use too

priansh 5y ago

I find this a bit disingenuous. TikTok videos have by far the highest reach of all social media due to their format and the way the for you page works. Moreover it rewards influencers from interacting with each other’s posts which often leads to top comments on TikTok (and Reels too although it’s much smaller as a platform) largely being an echo chamber. 1 post on Facebook might reach 100s, 1000s of people. Rarely a page with large enough following may hit 100,000s of people. 1 post on TikTok from a moderate influencer can hit millions. That’s not to say other social media forms haven’t had bad trends in the past, but TikTok has had far more and in a far shorter amount of time. People just don’t interact with other social content the way they buy into TikTok, which is dangerous and leads to far more misinformation — it was maybe not even 3 weeks ago I had a bunch of my friends sending me a bunch of popular TikTok videos and asking about how AI Transformers were here and taking over the world (they are, but transformers in AI have nothing in common with the movies).

kelseyfrog 5y ago

It also generalizes beyond social networks. Another way of viewing this is simply medical student syndrome[1] transplanted onto the substrate of social media. Learning about a new thing biases people in a way that they over identify that thing. As a parent, I've experienced this in the last year. It was pretty easy to identify and correct for. Teens try out novel behaviors regularly. It's a good strategy for figuring out identity and maturing, but it does have these weird edge-cases that being on the lookout for and gently applying reality maintenance mechanisms corrects for. 1. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-excess/201609/brief-look-medical-student-syndrome https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-excess/201609/bri...

notacoward 5y ago

It might not be unique to TikTok, it might happen on other social networks, but TikTok shouldn't continue to get a pass even as they become the worst purveyor of dangerous viral nonsense. There was the "steal stuff from school" thing and the wave of schools closing because of TikTok-inspired threats and the "corpse bride" eating-disorder thing and probably more I've missed. Now this. People don't hesitate to dump all over Facebook and Twitter. Nobody stands up and says "this has nothing to do with Facebook, it happens on all social media" around here unless they want to get their head ripped off. Bringing out that defense only for TikTok seems like something only a dedicated fan/addict (or worse) would do.

GekkePrutser 5y ago

I don't agree. I don't use TikTok but every annoying BS video people have shared with me the last 2 years came from there. Literally every single one. Obviously I know this because they stamp their logo on every video. But they must be doing something to stimulate this kind of content. I've almost never seen anything actually interesting, insightful or even just fun with that stamp. Just a handful of times. So it looks to me like it's become the sewer of the internet. You might find a gold ring there but you have to wade through knee deep shit to get to it :) Of course this is also the reason I've never even considered joining. Though I left Facebook too and have never been on Twitter.

reillyse 5y ago
I actually enjoy TikTok. I watch a lot of dog videos and other fun and lighthearted content. It’s great. I think it’s more what you make it than any other social media platform. I watch videos and I get other videos that I’ll like. If I was interested in other things they would show up on my page, through the algorithm working really well. Nobody crowbars stuff in e.g. I don’t see any maga shit, I just see really entertaining content. Obviously this self diagnosis is a very real issue, but it’s not caused by Tik tok. Tik tok is just good at surfacing the problem though

supernovae 5y ago

It's happened on them all but tik toks algorithm definitely surfaces these more than any other social network.