this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
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A mysterious wave of severe tics swept through teenagers worldwide, baffling neurologists until investigators uncovered a digital culprit reshaping adolescent behavior in real time.

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[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 5 points 3 hours ago

Why would this mostly only affect people who happen to have genitalia inside their bodies?

Mass sociogenic illness is one of the oldest documented patterns in medicine. Historians have traced examples back to the dancing plagues of medieval Europe, when whole villages spontaneously began dancing to the point of collapse and death. Salem in 1692. The nuns of Loudun in the seventeenth century. A group of teenage girls at a high school in LeRoy, New York, in 2011, who developed Tourette-like tics with no organic cause. In every case, a group of people, almost always young, almost always female, and almost always emotionally connected to each other in some way, develop the same physical symptoms in rapid succession, and the symptoms cannot be explained by any physical illness the medical system knows how to diagnose.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 0 points 4 hours ago

I think this says more about how people are influenced by video in general, than about tics

I just wish people would go to the doctor when they start talking about how evil China, antifa, vaccines, and communism are. That's worse influence from videos than shouting "beans!"

[–] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 74 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Mass sociogenic illness

It's called a fad. Reducing exposure has always been the solution.

[–] Akh@lemmy.world -5 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

Fads tend not to cause physical illness.

[–] daannii@lemmy.world 14 points 10 hours ago

That's absolutely not true.

[–] CanIFishHere@lemmy.ca 10 points 11 hours ago

Can you define illness?

[–] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

you ever meet an adult with a Pog obsession?

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 2 points 3 hours ago

I remember I had an amazing pog that was just super thick and dense as a kid.

Looking back, I don't know why I didn't just make custom pogs out of metal.

[–] luthis 44 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

'had been watching a small number of Tourette influencers '

Yeah I remember this. At least one of the human cancers didn't even have tourettes and was just acting for views, to the complete surprise of no one with half a brain

[–] Salamanderwizard@lemmy.world 12 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

For a second I wondered if you were talking about tourette guy.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 2 points 4 hours ago

AH BOB SAGGAT

[–] brax@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 hours ago
[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 52 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

This is like something right out of a Southpark episode.

[–] FluidBeef@quokk.au 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Sounds like a dancing sickness.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 2 points 3 hours ago

Mass sociogenic illness is one of the oldest documented patterns in medicine. Historians have traced examples back to the dancing plagues of medieval Europe, when whole villages spontaneously began dancing to the point of collapse and death

[–] jtrek@startrek.website 15 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

Müller-Vahl asked the obvious follow-up question. What she found was that almost every patient in the outbreak had been watching a small number of Tourette influencers with very large followings who documented their own tics on YouTube and TikTok.

Why the fuck do these influencers exist.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 22 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

to help expose people with tourette's to those who don't know what people with tourette's live like so that more people can treat them with dignity.

[–] jtrek@startrek.website 13 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

When I read "influencer" I read it as like "grifter". I concede what you're describing may not be bad.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah. Think of it like this : influencer is a broad stroke term for basically, internet celebrity. They are able to influence people within the audience they have built for themselves, and are aiming to get their influence to more people to say something.

Now, they usually make money by lending that voice to companies in exchange for money. But, some are doing it to further other agendas, positive or negative.

And sometimes, there's a synergy. For example, Northernlion can be seen as an indie games influencer. Sometimes, companies pay him to play a game during a stream. He's upfront about the sponsorship, but it can be an interesting game to want to play. And sometimes, he doesn't know what game to play, since he streams most days as a regular ass job. So the "paid suggestion" helps him fill the time.

Others are not so scrupulous, and are exploitative.

[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 0 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

If you replace the word influencer by religion etc your post could belong to a history community

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

ow the edge

[–] garbagebagel@lemmy.world 22 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Because people with tourettes also have right to be content creators if they want to be?

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 6 points 9 hours ago

So it was Munchausen's by internet?

[–] MutantTailThing@lemmy.world 25 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (2 children)

That is a LOT of words to say teenagers are fucking stupid.

[–] unknownuserunknownlocation@kbin.earth 22 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Maybe I'm going out on a limb here but I'm not sure people on the fediverse are the best to be criticizing others because of a meme about beans.

[–] toynbee@piefed.social 1 points 3 hours ago

Hey, who and where are you?

[–] Infinite@lemmy.zip 4 points 8 hours ago

What do you bean?

[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 18 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Mass sociogenic illness happens when a group of stressed, socially connected people are exposed to a symptom template that the brain and body can, in a real physiological sense, adopt without any conscious decision to fake anything. The symptoms are genuinely experienced. They are not consciously produced.

No need to be condescending. Stupidity has nothing to do with it, which you might’ve known had you bothered reading some of those words in the article.

[–] Zomg@piefed.world 10 points 12 hours ago

Did you say Beans?

[–] FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

How ridiculous that people are taking their children all the way to the doctor before figuring out they saw some shit online.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Or, you know, talk to them.

Why are you saying beans? Where did you see that?

[–] FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 hours ago

Exactly my point

[–] CanIFishHere@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 hours ago

Now I really don't know what an illness is.