Is Social Media the New Smoking?

Source: Nathan Dumlao/Unsplash

Australia has recently proposed a ban on social media for children under the age of 16, with the law being introduced to parliament next year. Such bans would receive the backing of psychologists like Jonathan Haidt, whose book The Anxious Generation, argues that social media use among children has inflamed occurrences of anxiety and depression, and leveled self-esteem. Haidt furthers this position with arguments that a twin trend of increased protectionism of children in the real world, with inadequate protection in the virtual, is causing a plethora of psychological issues. In line with this argument, his previous text, “The Coddling of the American Mind,” looked at the harms of excessive protectionism.

Bans similar to the one currently being studied within Australia are being discussed in other countries, with a private members' bill in the UK challenging social media companies to make their products less addictive. Smartphones and social media platforms employ a raft of behavioral insights to make their products addictive.

The relationship between smoking and psychology is an intimate one that includes the famed attempts—apparently successful—of psychological propaganda don Edward Bernays to make smoking more acceptable for women by hiring models to stroll up and down Fifth Avenue while puffing away.

Source: Jakob Owens/Unsplash

Smoking and Scrolling

One of the recurring tropes that have been floated as social media harms are discussed is that it is the new smoking. In 2020, Forbes proclaimed, “Scrolling Is the New Smoking,” while more recently The New York Times asked, “Is Social Media the New Tobacco?” Aligning with this imagery, the Times reported in June that the US Surgeon General called for warning labels on social media platforms, akin to those that now bedeck cigarette packaging in much of the world.

The 2020 Forbes article made some jarring claims: “Big Social also has the same effect on our bodies as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Big Social doubles loneliness. Triples depression. Makes it harder to sleep. Leads to addiction, anxiety, and higher suicide rates.”

If social media is the new smoking, and trends within developed countries (or the Global North) continue inclining towards more regulation against social media companies and protection of children who are deemed most vulnerable to the harms of social media, similar trends that were witnessed with smoking mustn't be replicated with social media. When developed countries began cracking down on tobacco marketing, and making it more unattractive to potential smokers, especially children, tobacco firms infamously shifted their attention and resources to developing countries (or the Global South), unfortunately, with great success. If social media is truly harmful to children, there is a moral imperative that we do not simply try to minimize the harms that occur for “our” children only, as was the case previously with smoking. A truly ethical position would see harm reduction enacted for all children.