Performing Distress

text by Bridgit PhillipsDo your own research:Strange online behaviors often mirror patterns long present offline, amplified by digital platforms. Phenomena like Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) faking, while a bizarre and excessive symptom of internet life, enacts familiar social logics long observed in historic expressions of the hysterical, including the performance of culturally intelligible distress, the formation of intense social bonds, and the contestation of institutional authority. When considered through the lens of the hysterical—as established in historical, anthropological, and psychological perspectives—what appears anomalous is really a traceable response to the current cultural moment, reflecting the commodification of identity, atomization of community, and suspicion of expertise.Building on interdisciplinary understandings of hysteria and its core social functions, in this essay I use ethnographic material gathered in 2025 from the subreddit r/SystemsCringe to…