The National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH) investigated the impact of the content published on the platform with the involvement of high school and university students.
While several American states filed lawsuits against TikTok due to its harmful effects on health, the other day the National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH) also put the short video platform under scrutiny. In their research, 127 high school and college youth were asked to rate a TikTok-style video about the symptoms of a fictitious mental illness called “virtual identity dissociation disorder” (VIDZ).
The NMHH announcement According to him, young people’s knowledge of mental health comes more and more from the Internet, and as a result, they often come across misleading, clickbait news and information. In the long run, this can lead to excessive consumption of online health content, which can develop a kind of illness anxiety in them.
Returning to the research, the NMHH investigated how these contents affect young people – whether they or others are diagnosed with the symptoms of the fictitious mental illness, VIDZ, as a result of the video they watched.
Based on the results, almost half of the young people, 44 percent to be exact, believed in the existence of “virtual identity dissociation disorder” and thought they could identify the symptoms in themselves and others. From this, we can conclude that young people are more inclined to accept information circulating in the online space without looking deeper into its authenticity. However, it is important to add that 30 percent of the participants remained skeptical and did not believe the fake video.
The results of the research indicate that the risk of wrong self-diagnosis is significant, since the strong emotional attachment to social media and the lack of basic health knowledge make often inaccurate information more convincing.
Source: www.pcwplus.hu
