On The Media: Social Illness

On The Media

Social Illness

Physical: This weeks On The Media, Munchausen By Internet takes place online on various social media sites. Such as, Facebook pages, message boards, and blogs.

Psychological: Individuals are trying to take advantage of the public through the means of social media. They are trying to lure people in by getting their sympathy, by making them think that these individuals are going through tragic trials and tribulations. When in fact most are truly suffering from depression, and are trying to reach out for help.

Social: One day when Taryn Harper Wright was at home recovering from a hip injury she read a tragic story on Facebook. Feeling sympathy for the family that was experiencing major tragedy in their lives, she researched because she wanted to know more. As she began to research, she was shocked to learn that it was all a hoax. Some of the story was true, but severely twisted from actual truth. After the shock of learning the truth, she has now made this a hobby. Taryn checks out stories on social media and ousts those individuals who are faking online illnesses. The most interesting fact about this story, is that Taryn has actually befriended some of the individuals with social illnesses.

Cultural: How can we relate to this? The only thing I can think of is, how many of us as children, or adults for that matter have embellished the truth? Just changing a few of the details, to make the story better! Wow! Who would have thought that there could be an internet disease. It sounds funny, but unfortunately is a real thing. Munchausen syndrome is a disorder where individuals are obsessed with illnesses, or disease. They literally think they are sick, or create symptoms to get sympathy from others. Those who have the Munchausen By Internet Syndrome, create fake pages, stories, blogs, lies, and many other things to get sympathy from others online. Sometimes this is to get "Likes", comments, and money. Many people deceive even close family and friends using this method of social media.

Temporal: This syndrome is happening everyday, all around us. Due to the fact that social media is global, these people can reach out to countless individuals to gain their sympathy.

I like reading the news, reading Facebook pages, and blogs, but this segment from On The Media makes you really stop and think. Listening to this has definitely opened my eyes, and I don't think I will be able to read stories on Facebook without questioning whether or not it is true. I think that it is so sad that people have to create social illnesses in order to gain the sympathy of others. This is a great reminder to us all, to not believe everything we hear. With that said, it is also a good reminder to do some research, and find out for ourselves whether the things we read are true or not.