With the pandemic keeping us quarantined in our houses and each one of us left to entertain ourselves, you must have heard of TikTok by now. You may have or haven’t used it, or you might have heard it from family members who have found leisure in endlessly scrolling through one of the most popular social media applications of today.
With its surge in popularity not just in the country but in the whole world, recent news and studies have linked TikTok to a disease that’s been affecting a lot of teenagers lately, the Tourettes Syndrome or more popularly known as tics.
What can you read in this article?
- Effects of TikTok on teens
- Is TikTok giving teens the Tics Syndrome
- Negative impact of social media on youth
Is TikTok giving teens the Tics Syndrome
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Since the beginning of the pandemic, teen females from all over the world have been in hospitals showing signs of tics—physical jerking gestures and verbal outbursts.
Doctors who specialize in movement disorders were initially baffled. Tics are uncommon in girls, but these teenagers had an exceptionally high number of them, which had appeared out of nowhere.
Experts from premier pediatric hospitals in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom spent months researching the children and consulting with one another. They observed that the majority of the girls shared a common interest, TikTok.
Results from the investigation and observation say that the girls were viewing videos of TikTok celebrities who claimed to have Tourette syndrome, a nervous-system illness that leads people to produce repetitive, involuntary motions or sounds, according to a slew of recent medical journal papers.
On TikTok, there are plenty of tic-like behaviors to see. When doctors in the United Kingdom first started looking into the phenomena in January, videos with the hashtag #tourettes had over 1.25 billion views, a figure that has since risen to 4.8 billion.
More than TikTok, other contributing factors to the tics
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However, some doctors are wary of the assumed effects of TikTok on teens, claiming that while the number of cases they’re seeing is far higher than previously, it’s not an epidemic.
Dr. Joseph McGuire, an associate professor in Hopkins University Tourette’s Center Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, said in an article from Wall Street Journal,
“There are some kids who watch social media and develop tics and some who don’t have any access to social media and develop tics. I think there are a lot of contributing factors, including anxiety, depression, and stress.”
More importantly, doctors say that the majority of the teenagers had previously been diagnosed with anxiety or depression, which was triggered or exacerbated by the pandemic.
According to some researchers, the sudden increase in TikTok tics is a “pandemic within a pandemic,” given that the kids are faced with school work and feelings of isolation, loneliness, and emotional struggle.
Furthermore, Dr. Donald Gilbert, a neurologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center who specializes in Tourette syndrome and pediatric movement disorders, believes the symptoms of the teens who have watched the said TikToks are real and most likely indicate functional neurological disorders, which include vocal tics and strange bodily movements that aren’t caused by an illness.
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TikTok tics can be a mass psychogenic illness
Effects of Tiktok on teens. | Photo by MART PRODUCTION from Pexels
In the last year, over 30 teenagers were referred to Rush University Medical Center for a variety of involuntary behaviors, ranging from jerking arm movements to curse words to head and neck twitches.
According to some clinicians, self-injurious conduct was frequent, with many patients having bruises and abrasions as a result of their tics.
Dr. Caroline Olvera, a movement disorders fellow, noted that many teenagers were speaking “beans” with a British accent. Even patients who couldn’t communicate in English did so. And some of these patients recalled seeing TikTok videos of other people with tics.
So Dr. Olvera took to TikTok and discovered a top influencer who has the syndrome and who frequently blurts “beans” in a British accent.
After studying 3, 000 TikTok videos on Tourettes, she found that 19 of the 28 top Tourette influencers reported having new tics from watching other creators’ videos.
Previous study in New York shows mass psychogenic illness
Previously, there have been clusters of tic-like diseases, including a well-known example a decade ago in which several youths in upstate New York had tics that were described as “mass psychogenic illness.”
According to a recent paper written by Mariam Hull and Mered Parnes, child neurologists at Texas Children’s Hospital who specialize in pediatric movement disorders, such cases were mostly confined to specific geographic locations, but social media appears to be providing a new way for psychological disorders to spread quickly around the world.
Thus, the said cases of teens developing tics from watching TikTok videos of Tourette influencers may be explained through the same phenomenon.
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As doctors from different parts of the world started communicating with one another, they found they were seeing the same thing.
The similarity of tics is a sign that the relationship of social media and teens was the underlying cause. Actual Tourette syndrome tics are distinct from one another, rather than being overwhelmingly similar as manifested by the said cases.
Additionally, these tics appear to be unique to a few TikTok content creators with Tourette syndrome. These users’ videos have been viewed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of times. Similar to Dr. Olvera’s findings.
Why are teens developing TikTok Tics
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Even if the behavior appears to be identical, sudden-onset tics do not indicate Tourette syndrome, according to Dr. Mohammed Aldosari, pediatric neurologist.
Rather, studies suggest that they have a movement problem caused by tension and anxiety. This is then exacerbated by the epidemic and teens’ increased use of social media.
Tics are a mechanism for the brain to cope with excessive stress. In other words, their brains manifest an emotional stressor as a physical ailment.
Teens who are depressed or anxious are more likely to acquire this disorder. Teenage females are more prone than teenage boys to suffer from sadness and anxiety.
This could explain the rise in tics among teen girls in particular. Given that Tourettes Syndrome mostly affects boys, not girls.
Treatment for teens with sudden tics
While medicine can help individuals with Tourette syndrome when behavioral therapy isn’t working, Dr. Aldosari believes that teens with TikTok-induced tics will benefit more from counseling.
Other doctors propose cognitive-behavioral treatment. They also advise patients to avoid using TikTok for several weeks in order to unlearn these tics.
What can parents do on the negative impact of social media on youth
1. Monitor digital consumption
The relationship between social media and teens is one of the underlying reasons for sudden tics. Thus, responsible and moderate social media use is one of the answers. Moreover, parents can link their TikTok account to their children’s to enable content limitations using TikTok’s Family Pairing function.
2. Talk to your child
Discuss with your child the ill effects of TikTok on teens. Just like any other social media app when overly used. Let them know about the dangers of spending too much time online including mental health issues, and sleeping disorders.
3. Get physical and promote exercise
Encourage your child to exercise and get physically active, even just inside the house or in your backyard. There are a lot of physical activities that don’t require one to go out of the house. For example, playing the jump rope, and helping you with gardening and watering the plants.
4. Consult a specialist
If you think your child is manifesting Tourettes Syndrome symptoms or sudden tics, immediately consult a doctor or a specialist. He or she can properly guide and assess your child.
