Every so often an online trend comes along which young people won’t stop talking about. Pokemon Go, Fortnite, Minecraft have all come and gone, and there are countless YouTubers and make up vloggers whose star rises and falls. A recent online trend involves mental health self-diagnosis by some adolescents on TikTok, with their videos attracting thousands of ‘likes’ and comments.
I became aware of this trend while listening to a podcast on cyber-safety. In that discussion, Australian psychologist Jordan Foster described an increasing number of “young people self-diagnosing with mental health issues because of content that they see online”. This trend takes place predominantly on TikTok and Instagram, and happens, as Foster describes, in two ways.