We may mourn the state of journalism, but articles like this show the craft still has an impact on our lives.

I can hear everyone’s collective gasp. You’re all calling out to your wives, “Elizabeth, did you know we’re not supposed to be getting health advice from TikTok?!”

In a tragedy of sadness, society probably needed an actual investigation to tell us we might not want to take medical advice from someone who puts the doctor in front of his name in quotes.

I’m not particularly active on social media. I use Twitter, or “X” if you will, for work, but I blissfully go days at a time without scrolling through looking for someone to tell me how to feel. I do enjoy li’l nuggets of information, and I follow two different accounts that post #adorbs videos.

A couple years ago, I signed up for Facebook Memories, and every so often I get a reminder of a time when I did post more, such as:

I’m not entirely sure what led to this exchange, so I blocked out the name of the associate involved.

More recently, someone else encouraged me to start posting “Stories” to chronicle interesting stuff that happens during my days as one of the Metroplex’ greatest media malcontents. Even then, I’ve been using it less for work recently and more to show my support for the Indiana Pacers by posting this picture of a 20 year old shirt I bought back at Ball State before each game of the NBA Finals.

I may be a hip, young millennial, but I might come across as an old man telling people they shouldn’t get health advice from TikTok.

“Oh, there goes Scaia,” you’re telling Elizabeth. “Doesn’t he know he’s falling for Big Pharma’s con? This anti-TikTok stuff is just their way of tricking us into thinking we can’t cure cancer by shoving our fingers into light sockets or reverse Parkinson’s by climbing into a lion’s habitat at the zoo and trying to punch it right in the face. Open your eyes!”

The #CancerLightSocket and #ParkinsonsLion challenges will soon be trending.

“After you punch the lion, improve your chakra by mooning a polar bear on your way out of the zoo,” someone will comment.

That article says 52 of every 100 videos with mental health advice contained misinformation which actually sounds low to me. But in fact, an actual doctor says TikTok can also be used to fight misinformation, so she posts videos there to answer questions.

“Used appropriately,” she writes, “it’s one of the most powerful tools we have for scaling information and fighting misinformation.”

She may overestimate the percentage of people who use TikTok appropriately, given some mental health tips include coconut water to ease anxiety and if you’re nervous, just have some saffron, man.

When us hip, young millennials were kids, we used alcohol to treat anxiety. And now I wonder if that might–just might–have been involved in that exchange about the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.