By Jocelyn Farias,
Staff Writer.
With social media becoming anywhere and everywhere, people—especially teens—are becoming more heavily influenced by what they see online. In fact, health tech Jessica Jones said, “Without researching facts it leads to misinformation.” Influencers are saying things that are blatantly not backed up with actual facts or supported by any sense of credibility, which can create misinformation, especially for chronically online teenagers with still-developing brains.
Influencers willingly say anything for views, but the worst offenses on the internet are when they promote unreliable medical advice. One recent trend with questionable health effects was “dry scooping.” Dry scooping is when you swallow pre-workout powder directly with no liquid, which can lead to many things, such as heart attacks or arrhythmias, breathing difficulties and more. Briatney Portillo, a 20-year-old TikToker, had a heart attack after seeing this trend and trying it for herself. Pre-workout powders have protein, creatine and caffeine. When you take a large amount of caffeine, your heart rate and blood pressure rise, which can lead to heart attacks.
Another topic of misinformation are the anti-vaccine influencers. A four-year-old boy in Colorado died because his mother was in a Facebook anti-vaccine group and decided to treat him at home instead of going to the doctors.
A dangerous idea that was on social media was the Benadryl challenge. This “challenge” encouraged people to eat a large amount of benadryl in order to have hallucinations. A 13-year-old boy named Jacob Howard Stevens died because he took too many pills. He got the idea from TikTok and decided to try it out with his friends.
“Health” influencers also have all kinds of diet recommendations, ranging from eating only fruits and vegetables to the carnivore diet, where participants eat only meat. A 39-year-old woman died because of a long-term raw food diet.
Social media does have its good sides, but it can also have deadly aspects as well. With health misinformation having a role in lives being taken, there are many different health influencers and learning the difference between the good ones and the greedy ones is crucial. Learn not to trust everything you see on the internet and maybe make a habit of researching a little on your own about a topic before fully believing it.
