The TikTokification of Mental Health: What Can a Legit Shrink Possibly Add?

Social media is the first place where many people get information about mental health. Yet misinformation on platforms like TikTok is rife and the algorithms serving up the content are based on the reach of the influencer rather than the quality of the information being shared. If the signal from qualified professionals is being crowded out by the noise of empty platitudes and misinformation, what can a legitimate shrink possible contribute in a 45 second soundbite and should they even try?

It seems so anachronistic that back in 2013 I wrote an article called “Should Shrinks Tweet” . in which my primary concern was how talking therapists may expose themselves too much and unwittingly diminish the quality of the therapy they provide. This would happen by contaminating the “blank screen” that, among many other important things, gives clients the freedom to speak about themselves without knowing too much about their therapist. How naive of me! How long ago that ship has sailed!

By the time my book The Psychodynamics of Social Networkingcame out in 2014 I moved onto exploring how Google searches and social media had irrevocably altered relational dynamics not just between shrinks and their clients, but between everybody. It does this by mediating how we present ourselves, how we perceive the…