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Social media is the new smoking... Widespread adoption before understanding risks - embraced globally before fully grasping the mental health, social, and poli

Social media is the new smoking... Widespread adoption before understanding risks - embraced globally before fully grasping the mental health, social, and political consequences, especially for young people. Delayed but significant harm - can lead to gradual impacts like reduced attention span, increased anxiety, depression, loneliness, and polarization Corporate incentives misaligned with public health - media companies design platforms for maximum engagement, leveraging psychological triggers while downplaying or disputing the extent of harm

RiverCrochet 1y ago
Not an accurate analogy in my opinion, but close. - Smoking feels good but doesn't provide any useful function. - Some social media use feels good and doesn't provide any useful function, but social media is extremely useful to cheaply keep in touch with friends and family and extremely useful for discovering and coordinating events. Fortunately the "keep in touch" part can be done with apps that don't have so much of the "social media" part, like Telegram, Discord, and even Facebook Messenger versus the main app.
- mvieira38 1y ago
  I think most of the social media power users don't connect with friends and family at all through the platforms. Young Gen Zers just scroll Tiktok (or whatever clone they prefer) and share the ones they like through snapchat/discord/telegram/messenger/sms/whatsapp. Some will post stuff for their friends to see through "close friends" or whatever, but it's much less personal than it once was with Facebook groups and whatnot
  - RiverCrochet 1y ago
    Agreed. And it's not necessary when you have so many apps. They're using Tiktok for scrolling and Discord when they actually want to chat with their friends.
- _DeadFred_ 1y ago
  'Smoking get's me taking breaks, going outside more, and makes me more social chatting with my coworkers/others on smoke breaks'
- bookman117 1y ago
  [dead]
- const_cast 1y ago
  Smoking, too, also has useful functions related to socialization. It was a product and drug first, but a social tool second. Half the reason people smoked is because other people did. They wanted to go outside, have a chitchat, and have a smoke. Now that smoking is gone in the US, a lot of that is dead, and for the worse. A lot of places now don't even have balconies or other outdoor sections. Every piece of area is dedicated towards productive activity, whether that be shopping, working, or eating. There's very little "just sit around" places in modern businesses and workplaces. The joy of random encounter has been significantly decreased. Everything is now in passing.
mvieira38 1y ago
This analogy undersells the negative impact of social media. Smoking wasn't a propaganda machine at the hands of a few faceless corpos with no clear affiliation, for example, nor did it form a global spynet

RiverCrochet 1y ago

Not an accurate analogy in my opinion, but close. - Smoking feels good but doesn't provide any useful function. - Some social media use feels good and doesn't provide any useful function, but social media is extremely useful to cheaply keep in touch with friends and family and extremely useful for discovering and coordinating events. Fortunately the "keep in touch" part can be done with apps that don't have so much of the "social media" part, like Telegram, Discord, and even Facebook Messenger versus the main app.

mvieira38 1y ago
I think most of the social media power users don't connect with friends and family at all through the platforms. Young Gen Zers just scroll Tiktok (or whatever clone they prefer) and share the ones they like through snapchat/discord/telegram/messenger/sms/whatsapp. Some will post stuff for their friends to see through "close friends" or whatever, but it's much less personal than it once was with Facebook groups and whatnot
- RiverCrochet 1y ago
  Agreed. And it's not necessary when you have so many apps. They're using Tiktok for scrolling and Discord when they actually want to chat with their friends.
_DeadFred_ 1y ago
'Smoking get's me taking breaks, going outside more, and makes me more social chatting with my coworkers/others on smoke breaks'
bookman117 1y ago
[dead]
const_cast 1y ago
Smoking, too, also has useful functions related to socialization. It was a product and drug first, but a social tool second. Half the reason people smoked is because other people did. They wanted to go outside, have a chitchat, and have a smoke. Now that smoking is gone in the US, a lot of that is dead, and for the worse. A lot of places now don't even have balconies or other outdoor sections. Every piece of area is dedicated towards productive activity, whether that be shopping, working, or eating. There's very little "just sit around" places in modern businesses and workplaces. The joy of random encounter has been significantly decreased. Everything is now in passing.

mvieira38 1y ago

This analogy undersells the negative impact of social media. Smoking wasn't a propaganda machine at the hands of a few faceless corpos with no clear affiliation, for example, nor did it form a global spynet