According to a study published by researchers from the University of Florida, the use of TikTok tends to increase the appearance of nervous tics in adolescents who are already victims of this type of pathology. A phenomenon even more visible in patients with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome.
Whereas TikTok just increased the maximum video length to 10 minutes, a new study questions the impact of the Chinese social network on the health of the youngest users. Indeed, researchers from the University of Florida claim that the application might be the cause of an increase in nervous tics in adolescents. A phenomenon even more visible in users with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome.
According to these experts, these symptoms worsened during the pandemic and the successive confinements in patients aged between 11 and 21 years. So, and of the 20 volunteers who took part in this study, 17 of them said that the frequency of their tics had increased and half said that social media made the situation worse.
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“Given the known increase in social media use during the pandemic, as well as the parallel increase in tics and tocs that we observed in our clinic, we investigated whether there was a correlation between the social media use and symptoms of tics”, explains Dr. Jessica Frey of the University of Florida.
Of course, more research needs to be done to determine and best identify the exact stressors that lead to more severe tics, which can materialize as sudden, uncontrollable sounds and movements. Researchers asked participants to rate the severity of their tics on a scale of 0 to 6. On average, those who maintained reasonable use of social media during the pandemic rated it a 4. In contrast, those who multiplied their usage time gave a score of 5.
As a reminder, a study published in October 2021 also affirmed that TikTok Triggered or Worsened Tourette’s Syndrome in Teens. In other words, the intensive use of the social network would indeed favor the appearance of neurological disorders.
Source : Metro
