A mysterious wave of severe tics swept through teenagers worldwide, baffling neurologists until investigators uncovered a digital culprit reshaping adolescent behavior in real time.

  • jtrek@startrek.website
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    21 hours ago

    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
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      18 hours ago

      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
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        18 hours ago

        When I read “influencer” I read it as like “grifter”. I concede what you’re describing may not be bad.

        • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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          17 hours ago

          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.