Social Media Is a New Vector For Mass Psychogenic Illness 373
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "There is an interesting read at the Atlantic where Laura Dimon writes that mass psychogenic illness, historically known as "mass hysteria"—is making a comeback and it appears that social media is a new vector for its spread. Mass hysteria such as the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693, the most widely recognized episode of mass hysteria in history, which ultimately saw the hanging deaths of 20 women, spreads through sight and sound, and historically, one person would have to be in the same room as somebody exhibiting symptoms to be at risk of 'catching' the illness. 'Not anymore,' says Robert Bartholomew, a sociologist who has studied over 600 cases of mass hysteria dating back to 1566, noting that social media — 'extensions of our eyes and ears' — speeds and extends the reach of mass hysteria. 'Epidemic hysterias that in earlier periods were self-limited in geography now have free and wide access to the globe in seconds,' says Bartholomew. 'It's a belief, that's the power here, and the technology just amplifies the belief, and helps it spread more readily.' In a recent case, nearly 20 students at a Western New York Junior-Senior High school began experiencing involuntary jerks and tics. Some believe that the Le Roy outbreak was a direct result of videos posted to YouTube by Lori Brownell, a girl with severe tics in Corinth, New York, 250 miles east of Le Roy. The story took off quickly, not just on the local and national news but on Facebook and autism blogs and sites devoted to mental health and environmental issues. Bartholomew warns that there is 'potential for a far greater or global episode, unless we quickly understand how social media is, for the first time, acting as the primary vector or agent of spread for conversion disorder.'"
Re:In other news (Score:5, Insightful)
Non-snark version: Psychiatrists identify social media as new source of hysteria.
Re:In other news (Score:3, Insightful)
Truth may sound like, but not actually be, snark.
Typical psychological mambo jambo. (Score:1, Insightful)
This field is the modern equivalence of the Church. Their unsubstantiated beliefs are all encompassing and explain all human phenomenons. Where once were daemon and angles, now there are illness to be treated.
Every neuroscientist's essay I've read were cautions to the extreme in their diagnosis. To the people who actully deal with evidence based medicine, the very basis of neurosis and psychosis are at best theoretical and at worst nonsense. Even psychiatric will often administer random anti psychotics to all manner of patients since the very framework for treatment is just all made up.
It's not even a big secret. Just go ask any practicing metal care professional with more than 3 years of experience and they will confirm this to one degree or another.
It's all Mambo Jambo. Mambo Jambo...
This is hardly Facebook's fault (Score:4, Insightful)
I blame Facebook for a lot, but I think they deserve a pass for this. "Mass hysteria" looks to me like a real phenomenon, but that doesn't mean the "victims" aren't doing in on purpose.
For example, from one of the stories [discovery.com] linked in the summary:
If they can stop whenever they want, then I have a hard time calling it a "disease." It sounds more like "being an asshole." (See also, Salem witch trials.)
Hey man... (Score:4, Insightful)
absolutely agree... (Score:2, Insightful)
just the other day I noticed there are many church groups on facebook with people professing their belief in all the imaginary stuff that comes with church affiliation. how is this not more significant than the salem witch trials? hundreds of millions of people have been killed from this mass delusion.
Re:People are dumb panicky animals (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm an atheist myself, but "everyone is wrong about something" is an important mantra to keep in mind. The wrong is more important to human understanding than the right, because it gives you extra lenses with which to examine and expand what you already know. Free speech exists for a reason.
Re:People are dumb panicky animals (Score:0, Insightful)
How is religion not a delusion? Please explain it to us.
Re:People are dumb panicky animals (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems to fit well with Wikipedia's definition, "a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary."
Merely being "wrong" isn't sufficient to be a delusion. The sticking detail is "superior evidence to the contrary."
The problem with religion is that there isn't a lot of evidence one way or the other about the core questions of religion -- the origin of the universe and of life, what purpose we have in life, and what awaits us after death. Specific details of creation stories or certain mythical events in the past have been knocked out in many cases, but religion will not go away so long as those questions are essentially unanswerable with any degree of solid proof.
Re:People are dumb panicky animals (Score:5, Insightful)
Because parent to child is a standard kind of learning, and most religion is learned that way. Learned beliefs are seriously distinct from delusional beliefs in nature.
That wasn't hard.
Re:People are dumb panicky animals (Score:5, Insightful)
I like how you Capitalize Groups you disagree with, in order to make them seem like a Cohesive Group.
Re:People are dumb panicky animals (Score:2, Insightful)
A delusional parent can't teach their child their delusion?
Peanut and Gluten allergies? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not that peanut and gluten allergies don't exist, but in the past few years I've gone from knowing no one with either to running into people everywhere with one or the other. Seriously, I work with three people with gluten allergies, one guy with a peanut allergy, and the waitress who served me at a restaurant last night told me she'd never had the sandwiches there because she had a gluten allergy. Menus are popping up everywhere with gluten free options.
Schools are setting themselves up as peanut free areas and banning all peanut products even though the number of severe food reactions in a country of 310,000,000 is less than 2000 a year, with fewer than 150 deaths from all food allergies in all age groups combined. More than ten times as many people die falling down the stairs every year, but we're not mandating that schools be single-story. The rate of deaths by firearm for school-aged children is far far higher (second most likely cause of death for high-school aged children after car accidents), but we don't ban guns from homes with school-aged children or prevent school-aged from going to friends' houses where there are guns.
So, don't get me wrong - peanut allergies and gluten allergies most certainly exist, but the response in lots of places has been all out of proportion to the risk involved. I wonder if part of it has to do with the easy accessiblity of compatriots via social media. We as a species like to panic about things. I'm not immune: when my son was born preterm (he's fine now) my wife and I went into what could only be described as folie a deux about his health.
Re:People are dumb panicky animals (Score:4, Insightful)
That gets most Religious people out of being delusional.
It does not get 'fundamentalists' out. Their is plenty of 'superior evidence to the contrary' regarding the Genesis creation myth for example. Bats are not birds. Pi is not 3. Jonah was not swallowed by a whale. Mohamed did not travel from Medan to Jerusalem in one night. The mountain did not come to Mohammed. The Emperor of Japan is not descended from gods. etc etc etc
Fundies are delusional.
Re:People are dumb panicky animals (Score:5, Insightful)
Merely being "wrong" isn't sufficient to be a delusion. The sticking detail is "superior evidence to the contrary."
The problem with religion is that there isn't a lot of evidence one way or the other about the core questions of religion
The delusion isn't that "there is life after death". The delusion is that any living being knows what comes after death. The delusion is that revelation is a valid form of evidence. The delusion is that the beliefs you were indoctrinated with as a child are correct, simply because you were indoctrinated that way.
religion will not go away so long as those questions are essentially unanswerable with any degree of solid proof.
The delusion is that those questions are answerable.