fact check

A TikToker Spreading ADHD Misinformation, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'

A TikToker Spreading ADHD Misinformation, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'
Reminder: random people on TikTok are not a reliable source of health advice.
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Every day, somebody says or does something that earns them the scorn of the internet. Here at Digg, as part of our mission to curate what the internet is talking about right now, we rounded up the main characters on Twitter from this past week and held them accountable for their actions.



This week, we've got an NBA player causing controversy, someone earnestly defending Dimes Square and a TikToker who believes most people don't have an inner voice.



Thursday

Joel Embiid

The character: Joel Embiid, professional basketball player and citizen of three different countries

The plot: Joel Embiid was born in Yaounde, Cameroon, and only started playing organized basketball at the age of 15. At 16 he moved to America, eventually went to the University of Kansas, and recently won the MVP award in the NBA. It’s been quite the journey, but he’s recently started a bit of an online tiff because of his decision to play the USA national team in the upcoming Olympics.



Embiid was granted French citizenship in July of 2022, and in September also got US citizenship. He had to choose between those countries, and his native Cameroon, but ended up going with the American team in order to win an easy gold in Paris 2024.


The repercussion: Embiid’s choice to team up with other NBA superstars has been compared NBA legend Hakeem Olajuwon, who made a similar choice back in the '90s, and also comparisons were drawn with Kevin Durant, who joined the 73-win Golden State Warriors, in 2016, to win back-to-back titles. Grouping up with a super team already established is the smart move, as it guarantees you winning, but has been seen by many to be treasonous, weak and quite pathetic. We have no stance on the issue, he can do whatever he wants, but did he cop out on Cameroon? You decide!



Jared Russo



Tuesday

Cancela Lansbury

The character: Steven Phillips-Horst, aka cancela lansbury, aka @gossipbabies, podcaster, big believer in oneself

The plot: Writer and podcaster Phillips-Horst's recent defense of Dimes Square was hard for people to wrap their head around. If the word Dimes Square doesn't ring a bell, I can only congratulate you. Dimes Square is a purported micro-neighborhood in New York which came to be known for its usual suspects like podcasters, artists and other online-only, partially famous people. This cohort is often referred to as the "new right" because of their ideology and affiliations.

However, while they've been written and prophesied about online, the actual cultural significance of Dimes Square is inconsequential, to put it politely.

After popular musician Jack Antonoff critiqued said scene for being forgettable, Phillips-Horst's defense of this (so-called) scene's significance drew a lot of laughs and raised a few eyebrows.



The repercussion: People did try to give the benefit of the doubt to OP and presume it was a bit, but it definitely wasn't.



Adwait Patil



Wednesday

@letsrewire

The character: @letsrewire, TikTok user, spreader of mental health misinformation

The plot: This week, someone on X shared the below TikTok post of a person claiming not only that neurotypical people "don't use any brain power" to do tasks like showering or brushing their teeth, but that they also are completely void of an internal monologue.

The TikToker claims that most people don't have an inner voice or think to themselves, which is simply untrue, according to research that indicates many of us engage in self-talk on some level. Having a voice in your head isn't inherently harmful or an indication that your brain is functioning abnormally.



The repercussion: It's great that mental health is so openly discussed online, and that people have more resources and welcoming, understanding communities than ever before — but people on TikTok, and the internet in general, have developed a frustrating and frankly harmful habit of pathologizing normal behaviors. This helps no one, and X users sought to make this clear.



Darcy Jimenez



Read the previous edition of our One Main Character column, featuring a a nonsensical copyright infringement case, someone who thinks life's easier if you're ugly and a new robocop for New York.

Comments

  1. John Doe 7 months ago

    Ironically, some people are so dull and uninteresting that they claim a mental disability to find some way of seeing themselves as special or unique.


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