In 2013, news outlets around the world began spreading a story that caused everyone to do a double take: teenagers in Japanese ...

the-truth-about-the-eyeball-licking-craze-in-japan

The Truth About The Eyeball Licking Craze In Japan

a middle school teacher in japan walks into an equipment room and finds two sneaky sixth graders who've snuck off from class only they weren't doing drugs they weren't kissing they were licking each other's eyeballs stunned by what he saw the teacher grabs the two students and questions what the heck they're doing was there something in the student's eyes was it a dare nope they were licking each other's eyeballs for sexual gratification and if that revelation wasn't shocking enough the teacher quickly had his mind blown because it wasn't just these two students after holding an all great assembly and asking point blank who had ever done this one third of the students raised their hands and while you may think boy that's disgusting i don't need to hear any more about this i promise you this story quickly goes from one shocking act to the entire world of western journalism imploding stick around until this clock hits zero and you'll see what i mean technically this bizarre practice is called oculolinktus in latin oculo means i and lincus means to lick or you can call it by its street name worming fun along with being an obviously intimate physical act the eye contains a high concentration of nerve endings these nerve endings can become a home for pleasurable physical sensations you know similar to receiving a foot massage except with you know a tongue and on the eye news outlets like buzzfeed reported a possible origin of the now viral craze to come from a band called born whose music video spiral lie depicted worming in all its glory slate later reported on teens wearing eye patches and why students were wearing them school teachers first became aware of warming when large swaths of students showed up to class wearing eye patches to cover up their pink eye pink eye or conjunctivitis as it's clinically known is an infection of the membrane that covers the front or white part of your eye the infection becomes itchy and inflamed and your eye turns a reddish pink color and while pink eye commonly clears up on its own an even greater risk is someone's tongue scratching your cornea which could lead to a corneal infection which does carry serious complications and a risk of losing your eyesight for good to take things a step further cbs interviewed dr robert glatter an emergency medicine physician at lennox hill hospital in new york who said chlamydia is a bacteria of particular concern which can be spread sexually and has the potential to lead to blindness if left untreated now you know you can get an sti without even taking off your clothes pretty scary though right countless teenagers licking each other's eyes transmitting disease and potentially going blind not only was the story covered by cbs news slate and buzzfeed but also by abc fox the guardian the daily mail the telegraph business insider huffington post the daily beast the new york post the new york daily news and the toronto sun surprisingly all this coverage centered around one thing the poor middle school teacher who stumbled into a room he wished he hadn't and here's where the entire story spins out of control he actually didn't because he doesn't exist the entire story is made up there was no teacher there were no students there was no mass outbreak of pink eye as it turns out western media's initial and only source came from a blog called naver matone who posted the piece after grabbing it from a subculture website buchi news we were unable to find either piece which both appear now to be removed from the internet it's incredible to even ask but can you think of a better primary source for an international health story than an unnamed teacher at an unnamed school in an unnamed city from a blog truly pulitzer worthy so without a good source why did so many news organizations run this story well journalism is admittingly a difficult professions and mistakes do happen lara logan's inaccurate coverage of benghazi on 60 minutes brian williams spotty memory regarding an iraqi helicopter attack in 2003 the point is true journalists admit when they're wrong which is why i was so comforted to see that despite the inaccurate reporting of the eyeball licking apologies and redactions were issued by the guardian as well as well that's it every one of the other sources still have the article or video live online with zero recognition that it is in fact false the reality is that news organizations are struggling to make money and occasionally do cut corners in their reporting the problem with that is it strikes directly at the credibility of news organizations and makes it more difficult for us to put our trust in them it also paints japanese teens in an unfair and inaccurate light take everything you read with a grain of salt verify with multiple sources and recognize that sometimes the news can get it wrong too if a story you're reading seems absolutely ridiculous or just too good to be true you might be right and there could be more there than meets the eye that's why i say it's always good to be a healthy skeptic i actually reacted to some brutal medical memes click here to check that out and if you're interested in reading more about how this story got started click the link in the description as always stay happy and healthy [Music]

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