Lines up with when the internet started to really take off too. It's a great thing but at the same time allows troubled people to reinforce their issues. Then add on the media constantly going on about it which makes copycats more likely.

A lot of this thinking goes back to the Renaissance. Many of the myths that get parroted to this day are from that period since the people then were trying to portray themselves as being more 'enlightened' than the people that came before them.