Control & Contagion: Digital Co-Production of TikTok Tics During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: 20220 - Section on Communication, Information Technology, and Media Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Section on Communication, Information Technology, and Media Sociology Roundtable V: Digital phenomena, broadly construed

Abstract

This study examines the role of human-machine interaction in shaping contemporary mass sociogenic illnesses, with a focus on the rise and fall of "TikTok tics" during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing from Durkheimian concepts of anomie and imitation, we analyze how social contagion mechanisms influence embodied expressions of distress, comparing TikTok Tics to pro-eating disorder (ED) content as a shadow case. While TikTok Tics emerged as a sudden epidemic of functional tic-like behaviors among adolescent girls, pro-ED content has exhibited a more sustained presence on the platform. By investigating these contrasting trajectories, we highlight the ways digital environments mediate experiences of bodily control and loss of control, reinforcing gendered patterns of sociogenic illness. Through a dataset of over 400,000 TikTok comments across 1,300 videos, we will employ qualitative coding and narrative network analysis to explore how platform affordances, social validation, and algorithmic amplification contribute to the visibility and persistence of these phenomena. Ultimately, this research will advance sociological understandings of mass sociogenic illness by situating TikTok as an active agent in the co-production of gendered distress, reinforcing the interplay between social media platforms, embodied imitation, and broader sociocultural anxieties.

Authors

• Claire Maria Corsten, Columbia University

• Yanze Yu, Columbia University