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Are teens and young adults really getting tics from TikTok?

NPR

Published November 24, 2022 at 1:41 PM EST

It’s the kind of medical mystery that terrifies parents. Teenagers and young adults have been showing up to health centers with sudden-onset verbal and physical tics. Repeating words like “beans.” Shouting phrases such as “flying sharks.” Uncontrollable head-jerking.

One thing that these cases have in common: Spending a lot of time on TikTok and other social media platforms. But can you really get tics from TikTok?

Nora Saks and Ben Brock Johnson take a deeper look in this excerpt from WBUR Podcast’s Endless Thread.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.