<story><title>Smartphones and social media are destroying children’s mental health</title><url>https://www.ft.com/content/0e2f6f8e-bb03-4fa7-8864-f48f576167d2</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>SketchySeaBeast</author><text>The problem is that smoking is pretty much 100% bad (excluding a brief period of being more alert) - social media has some good sides in that it allows you to keep in touch with family and friends who may be far away.  It was fun and exciting to catch up with people I&amp;#x27;d moved away from. And then it became a vile sludge of toxic positivity mixed with outrage.</text></item><item><author>13years</author><text>We might even look at all social media by all participants the same way we now look at smoking. It is isn&amp;#x27;t healthy for the adults either.</text></item><item><author>recursivedoubts</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ll say it again, and I&amp;#x27;ll take the downvotes: in the future we will look back on allowing children access to social media and smart phones the way that today we look back at smoking ads targeted at children.&lt;p&gt;Maybe even more incredulously.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mikrl</author><text>&amp;gt;The problem is that smoking is pretty much 100% bad&lt;p&gt;Bad FOR you, yes; bad as an experience, no. It tastes good and facilitates socialization.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;social media has some good sides in that it allows you to keep in touch with family and friends who may be far away. It was fun&lt;p&gt;Again, this speaks more to the experience than the health effects. Note that you said ‘it was fun’ in the same way that I can say the cigs I’ve smoked were fun.&lt;p&gt;I don’t think the comparisons are too wrong to be honest. They are both activities that can facilitate ‘fun’ social interactions but with a deleterious effect on one’s health (cardiovascular and mental)</text></comment>
<story><title>Smartphones and social media are destroying children’s mental health</title><url>https://www.ft.com/content/0e2f6f8e-bb03-4fa7-8864-f48f576167d2</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>SketchySeaBeast</author><text>The problem is that smoking is pretty much 100% bad (excluding a brief period of being more alert) - social media has some good sides in that it allows you to keep in touch with family and friends who may be far away.  It was fun and exciting to catch up with people I&amp;#x27;d moved away from. And then it became a vile sludge of toxic positivity mixed with outrage.</text></item><item><author>13years</author><text>We might even look at all social media by all participants the same way we now look at smoking. It is isn&amp;#x27;t healthy for the adults either.</text></item><item><author>recursivedoubts</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ll say it again, and I&amp;#x27;ll take the downvotes: in the future we will look back on allowing children access to social media and smart phones the way that today we look back at smoking ads targeted at children.&lt;p&gt;Maybe even more incredulously.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>halfnormalform</author><text>Smoking also has a strong social component. Smokers socialize around the ashcan.  It&amp;#x27;s fun and exciting to catch up with the other smokers in your building or at your work.&lt;p&gt;It does become a vile sludge, you&amp;#x27;re not wrong about that.</text></comment>