So what is the problem of anesthesia on TikTok? Harrison said that when they first met injectors four decades ago, they were reluctant to talk about their condition for fear of ridicule. “That seems to have changed,” he said. “Now it’s a very sexy thing to be a synesthete.”
Of course this may tempt liars to lie, but SynesthesiaTok can simply reinforce itself: The hashtag raises awareness of the condition, thus allowing more and more people to know they have it. sick. Sarah Kraning is a 29-year-old artist and auditory-visual synthesizer from Minneapolis who only discovered the name for her experiences in a college psychology class. “It was a very emotional and impactful moment for me,” she said.
As a child, Kraning stopped discussing his senses after friends and family laughed or seemed confused. Kraning sees colors, textures, and patterns when she hears sounds and used to have trouble at school when teachers played music during tests. Today, she sell artwork based on what she hears and says about her anaesthesia regularly on TikTok, where she has 512,000 followers. (She’s the one who said Miley Cyrus’ voice was dark green with patches of blue.)
Kraning performed a series of tests called “Synthesia battery“Developed by University of Texas scientists in 2007—trials proved her auditory-visual anesthesia was consistent. “I get it,” she said of the skepticism, “I understand it’s a very strange thing if you haven’t learned about it.”
Overall, though, TikTok is very good. “It is reassuring to see acceptance and a positive response,” says Kraning. For her, the app is a way to educate people about anesthesia and raise awareness. “For me as a kid, I felt really lonely,” she said. “For people to comment and say they feel really seen, that’s when social media is at its strongest.”
However, that doesn’t mean everything is always as it seems (or smells or tastes). Henry Gray is a 23-year-old bar worker from Newcastle, England, with 12,000 followers on the account @henpuffs; here he tells people what their name reminds him of and they can donate to his PayPal. One of his videos, in which he says the name “Kirsty” smells like urine, looks suspicious — there’s a humorous staging to the video, as Gray is responding to the comment, “Parents, Parents My friend’s just got divorced and she’s really upset. Can you do Kirsty? ”
Gray admits he’s now asked a friend to post a comment — none of Kirsty has divorced parents. But he is a sympathizer: Ever since he was a boy, certain words have always stimulated tastes, sensations, and images. He recalls sitting around the table eating strawberry pudding with his cousin Emily as a child, and remarking, “You must really like this!” – what does her name taste like after all. His proper name is the soft, slightly squashed ham and cheese sandwich in a lunchbox.
“It sounds confusing but ‘Kirsty’ is really always the smell of urine,” Gray said via email – despite the comment being faked by a friend, his response on TikTok was genuine. Why did he do that? “My account is mostly about making people laugh and keeping people interested,” he says — he also hopes to have a “presence” on the app. It was a hit: The Kirsty video received nearly 700,000 views.
