Going Viral: Is Social Media Making Us Sick?

Can you contract an illness through social media? New research suggests it’s happening … kinda. Throughout history, people suffering from severe isolation or stress have fallen prey to something called Mass Psychogenic Illness.
Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI) is a condition in which there’s what appears to be a mass outbreak of illness … yet no underlying medical problem. And here’s the weirdest part about MPIs: They’re contagious.
Take Portugal, for example. A group of Portuguese teenagers experienced an outbreak of unexplained breathing problems and unusual rashes. Doctors were baffled. But then, it was discovered that these kids happened to be experiencing the exact same symptoms as the teens in a popular Portuguese soap opera at the time.
People who suffer a psychogenic illness have real symptoms. What they’re experiencing is something called the nocebo effect: The symptoms occur because they believe they’re sick. And now, we’re seeing instances of transmission of these psychogenic illnesses … via the internet.
The biggest example of this: A dramatic spike in recent years in the number of teenagers presenting with what appeared to be cases of Tourette syndrome. One problem: Their behavior didn’t actually track with the symptoms of Tourette syndrome. What it did track with, however, was the behavior of some of the most popular Tourette influencers on KZbin and TikTok.
In the digital era, we’ve got to be careful. Vulnerable people can be just one tap away from genuine suffering, rooted in the power of suggestion.
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[@KiteandKeyMedia]

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[@tcnymex]

I had to rewind the tape, put on my spectacles, freeze the frame, and read it twice because I could not believe that New Orleans did not make the top 10 witch cities. Have these survey people never walked on Decatur below Ursulines Av, or Dauphine below Saint Philip?

[@stephenp.5377]

Fascinating. That LeRoy case was just south of me, so I discussed it with my students when it happened. (It became clear very quickly that it was MPI of some sort.) But this video distills it all very well. I'll be using it with my students. Thanks Kite & Key!

[@ilvexya]

Love to hear this! Great stuff for the classroom. Thanks!

[@KiteandKeyMedia]

Thanks for watching Stephen!

[@rrvaughn820]

Interesting that the symptoms are real but the cause is simply influence. Specifically social media. I think the recent extreme spike in gender dysphoria across the youth of our nation might find some of their cause in this. Trans people are extremely popular on social media platforms, and going trans is celebrated to a high level. It seems to fit with this video quite a lot.

[@harryhamilton298]

Outstanding! Well explained.

[@Queen_of_Hearts-Sharnell]

Fascinating!

[@michaelfrancis5715]

Amongst all the negatives surrounding social media as a whole, I read an article that discusses the idea of viral marketing. This idea is that if you want to exceed in the world of social media, you need to be producing content that is "worth sharing". A study was done by a Microsoft and Stanford University team, where they analyzed events that occurred on Twitter as they spread, in an effort to try and find out why and how things start trending on Twitter. Most people think that the most popular tweets get shared by friends of friends of friends, spanning across six degrees. This is not correct because the correlation between virality and popularity was very low at 36%. It's nearly impossible to predict how viral content is based on its popularity. The researchers found that even the most viral events could see audiences of just a few hundred people. In this study where they looked at over one billion events on Twitter, there was not one case where, on average, one person would "influence" or "infect" another person. From this one study, it is apparent that "viral" videos or tweets do not spread in a way that we would call "viral". On another note, this study disproves the belief that if you want to get popular on social media you have to produce viral content. Along with this study, the same researchers found that retention is a real factor that helps with getting "popular" on social media. It is not about making viral content after viral content but creating content that keeps the watcher or listener coming back. This can string into two different ways. The first is from a so-called business standpoint, where someone is trying to produce content after content that keeps viewers coming back. This can be a great thing. For example, Matt Fradd has a podcast, where he produces content after content, in which his channel has grown a significant amount in the past few years. The area where this starts to go bad, which also can be seen as a subjective view, is when "bad" or "sludge content" is produced video after video. The retention rate for bad videos or sludge content, which is not necessarily bad in and of itself, is very high. There is significantly more "bad" content on social media than good. This brings me to my point that retention is not always good for the viewer, especially in today's day and age of social media. Teenagers and even adults are sucked into the world of technology and social media; some seem to be on a leash like a dog. animation video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6DEimSwZ9mlrpaAinks to an external site. Minimize Video In closing, the idea behind "going viral" or gaining popularity on social media typically does not align with the third and fourth media keys. These keys, which are the dignity of the human person and truth-filled, are about bringing people together and seeing every human as worthy, along with being able to find truth in media. This is usually not the case in media, especially in regard to retention and sludge content. It takes away from the dignity of humans and succumbs them to being slaves of social media. I believe that the popularity and retention rates of social media content can be two very important factors. I think that when "good" content is being produced it can be great, but most content is not "good" content. This is the slippery slope of social media, and our generation and the one after us are going down a terrible road that is led by social media and technology.

[@kingcrim]

does this also explain the spike in Transgenderism?

[@ilvexya]

Yes.

[@ilvexya]

Pandemic anyone?

[@frankied.roosevelt6232]

Million dead Americans and millions more permanently disabled by long covid? Cause it's true. And it's not anxiety related.