School of Humanities and Social Science Division of Social Science 228 Social Media and the Spread of Mass Psychogenic Illness Supervisor: David James HENDRY / SOSC Student: IP Chak Fong / ECON Course: UROP 3100, Fall UROP 4100, Spring This study examines the impact of social contagion on the rise in adolescent transgender declarations, known as Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD), considered a Mass Psychogenic Illness. Building on previous phases focused on Reddit, this phase expands data collection to Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter), platforms with high user interaction. The research involves implementing and evaluating various web scraping techniques to optimize data extraction from these sources. Initial efforts have identified effective methods for gathering data from Twitter and Instagram, enhancing our understanding of the effects of social contagion on ROGD. This approach aims to provide a more comprehensive analysis by incorporating diverse social media interactions into the study. Social Media and the Spread of Mass Psychogenic Illness Supervisor: David James HENDRY / SOSC Student: LIN Yan / QSA Course: UROP 1000, Summer This report investigates the spread of mass psychogenic illness through social media platforms, with a primary focus on TikTok content in the U.S. context. Using computational methods, I systematically collected and analysed TikTok videos related to potential MPI symptoms, including tic-like behaviours and gender dysphoria content, through automated web scraping techniques. The methodology includes these steps. Firstly, using Python scripts to collect video metadata and URLs through TikTok’s web interface and secondly, implementing yt-dlp for bulk video downloading and archiving. Thirdly, creating an automated system to organise and categorise collected content. Fourthly, performing content analysis on video characteristics and engagement metrics. This technical approach enabled a quantitative assessment of how TikTok’s algorithm may contribute to the spread of MPI through repeated exposure and behavioural modelling. The findings contribute to understanding digital-era psychogenic illness while demonstrating methods for large-scale social media health research. The project also yielded practical insights into ethical data collection and analysis of sensitive health-related content on social platforms. Social Media and the Spread of Mass Psychogenic Illness Supervisor: David James HENDRY / SOSC Student: NG Wing Ki / QSA Course: UROP 1000, Summer The universal use of social media platforms has rapidly developed among everyone, especially among younger generations. The ideas of users could inspire and affect receivers through the spreading power of internet platforms. Despite extensive research on how social media development impacts the mental health of individuals, few studies focus on the impact of steadily increasing changes towards one’s behaviours other than inner expression. Specifically, under the background of more controversy of gender identity noted with mass psychogenic illness symptoms, and changing trend of the affected groups in society, this report attempts to facilitate the investigation of potential ideas of current social media videos converging.
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