(Vox) – When I started getting videos from seriously ill creators on my TikTok For You page, I let myself briefly think that I’d found something Sontag was looking for. If anything can be content, then maybe turning illness into social media posts flattens it within TikTok’s meme culture, rendering it just like anything else. If TikTok’s algorithms can create a custom deck of shuffled cards for each user, then sickness content is just one of the suits.

But these stories — whether held in an archive of personal letters, a widely discussed lecture, or on the For You pages of millions — are all shaped by the expectations of the “well.” Turning sickness into content can get views. And just like any content, not all people, or illnesses, have an equal chance of going viral. (Read More)