I thought it was interesting to see a tv programe (mostly just interviews) last night on channel 4 about the rise in Tourette's syndrome. Although it wasn't particularly well-presented, I did think it was interesting that they looked into the rise of influencers on social media as one of the causes, and how that planted the ideas in people's mind, how there was a lot of attention given to people for having this role, etc. It seemed to be a generally accepted point of view that that could be part of the cause, with interviews with some of the influencers agreeing that they did worry sometimes whether they might be responsible for people taking on some of the tics, and other experts and sufferers agreeing that social media was an issue to be considered. Others were less convinced, saying that people might take on the tics, but only if they already had the disorder, and that they thought it wasn't that people could 'catch' it if they didn't have it aleady. Several people talked about the attention that influencers got by sharing their stories, and how there were some people who were faking it for attention and how that made it more difficult for the genuine sufferers.
But what I thought was interesting was how calm the discussion around it was. There was acknowledgement - and therefore discussion - of the possible role of social media and social contagion, how this increased during lockdown, etc - whether people thought it was a main cause of the increase, or just had a minor role, or whatever. There was no offense taken about the idea that social influence could be part of it.
And then you compare it to some of the discussions on gender, where there is so little acknowledgement in some circles that there could be a role of social media and social contagion in any of it. It does seem like there is a concerted effort somehow to prevent people discussing gender issues in the same way as some of these other issues, when I think there are similarities.