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Platforms like TikTok and Instagram reels are inducing Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI)

Just writing this to spread awareness about mental health. Social media platforms may be inducing a whole bunch of mass psychogenic illnesses or MPI due to excessive addiction without our knowledge.

1. So what is mass psychogenic illness?

This refers to a group psychological disorders that spread without any physical contact. It is more of a psychological thing than normal disease. You inherit these kinds of disorders naturally by being in close contact or watching someone who has that disease regularly and you will never know about it. In other words you inherit it from the environment you live in.

Some MPI illness due to TikTok / Instagram reels are -

  1. Tics
  2. Inherited Attention deficiency
  3. Assumed (inherited) depression

I have curated the list of resources from around the web that explains these issues in depth.

Read more about MPI here:

  1. Mass Psychogenic Illness
  2. Mass psychogenic illness
  3. What Is Mass Psychogenic Illness?
  4. Is Social Media Causing a Mass Psychogenic Epidemic?
  5. Mass psychogenic illness and the social network: is it changing the pattern of outbreaks?
  6. TikTok tics: when Tourette’s syndrome went viral

2. Tics

Have you ever seen a teenager or an adolescent who is acting weird and uncontrollably moving their hands/legs in social gatherings while talking, walking or while doing normal things? You may think it is overacting. But most of them are suffering from Tics. It is a neurological condition where your nervous system has hyperactive control or lack of control over your body parts. The scary thing - this is a mass psychogenic illness. It has been found that people who are addicted to TikTok/ reels are more vulnerable to this disease because they constantly watch and try to be like those influencers who also have tics.

Read more about Social media and Tics:

  1. Tics and TikTok: Can social media trigger illness?
  2. Rapid Onset Functional Tic-Like Behaviors in Young Females During the COVID-19 Pandemic
  3. Stop that! It’s not Tourette’s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness
  4. Is TikTok Causing Tics in Teen Girls? What Parents Need to Know
  5. TikTok tics are a symptom of a much bigger problem
  6. Teen Girls Are Developing Tics. Doctors Say TikTok Could Be a Factor.
  7. TikTok tics: when Tourette’s syndrome went viral

3. Induced/Assumed ADHD

ADHD is a psychological disease, but can be inherited due to excessive addiction to TikTok and Instagram reels. How many of us can give complete attention to videos that are more than 5 mins? Very few of us, because most of us lack attention and get carried away by other things. Ignore videos, same applies to many day to day things as well. People who are constantly watching reels that are few seconds in length are wiring their brains for less attention span. This is a serious thing, excess ADHD can damage your relationships and even sometimes lead to tragedies in real world. And even more funny, #ADHD hashtags are most viewed on TikTok and pushed lot of people into believing that they have ADHD.

Read more about ADHD and Social media:

  1. TikTok Videos About ADHD Largely Misleading, New Study Reveals
  2. TikTok Is My Therapist: The Dangers and Promise of Viral #MentalHealth Videos
  3. Doctors think TikTok is to blame for the rise in patients asking if they have ADHD
  4. TikTok trends or the pandemic? What’s behind the rise in ADHD diagnoses
  5. TikTok and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Cross-Sectional Study of Social Media Content Quality
  6. TikTok Says I Have ADHD. Should I Believe It?
  7. Why Everyone’s Talking About ADHD Right Now (And Why It’s Kinda Annoying)
  8. Women Are Discovering They May Have ADHD Or Be On The Autism Spectrum From Trending TikTok Videos
  9. The great attention deficit: what’s behind the rise in adult ADHD?
  10. Can cell phone use cause ADHD?

4. Inherited depression

Lot of teens are addicted to Billie Eilish because they can relate her songs to what is happening in their life, is this true? May not be. She indirectly induce in you such mental state, it gets even worse as you watch more of her content. Thus you inherited an unknown disease that you never had. Same applies to many influencers as well, when they speak of their past, or their Bipolar syndrome or ADHD, they are actually triggering a sense of doubt in the minds of their viewers. These platforms are spreading negativity like never before. And platforms like TikTok and Instagram reels were found to spread body negativity, inferiority complex which can lead to depression.

Read more about ADHD and Social media:

  1. Billie Eilish is a bad influence on teenagers around the world
  2. Billie Eilish is fueling your sadness
  3. Teens who are “addicted” to TikTok experience worse depression and anxiety, and in turn, reduced working memory capacity
  4. Social media use linked to depression in adults
  5. Does the digital age create hypochondriacs around mental illness?
  6. Did TikTok Tell You You’re Depressed?
  7. How TikTok is affecting your brain and mental health
  8. How TikTok has become a dangerous breeding ground for mental disorders