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Comment by tathougies | Hacker News Reader

I feel comparing big tobacco to a service that lets you talk with your friends and keep a timeline of your life is a bit disproportionate.

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Most of my friends that still smoke will straight up tell you the only reason they do it is for the social interactions that happen while smoking. I don't think it's that different.

Except smoke kills you

And addiction to Facebook causes depression and robs you of your abilityvto focus. Both measured and proven.

Wouldn't any addiction do this? I think the better argument to make would be that Facebook is addictive.

Everyone knows it’s addictive. But unlike tobacco and alcohol, it is not regulated and children are exposed to it.

So I guess it’s treated just like sugar.

So do video games. So does the internet in general. Too much of any thing is almost always bad

I don't believe you. What you say doesn't match my experience, and the few studies I've seen on the topic have been very low-quality.

Wait until you discover television.

I've heard this about smoking weed, but never tobacco. I guess it's just a cultural thing that varies from place to place ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

>I don't think it's that different.

Regulating tobacco requires regulating the sale of a substance. Regulating facebook requires regulating speech (that is what advertising and a like button are) that happens to incite an emotional response. I'm very uncomfortable with regulating that.

I hear most people only attend book clubs for social reasons too — are book clubs also as bad as tobacco companies?

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