I never thought I would say this...but I have to wonder if cigarettes and alcohol may be healthier options than social media, simply because they usually accompany real social lives?
EDIT: To be clear, any addictive substance is a bad choice. Please entirely disregard this analogy in that sense.
Do you remember anything more about the essay that would help me find it? There is so much information and blogspam about their for the {nicotine, addiction, cigarettes, voluntary, chooses, sociability, constraints} results.
Some other things:
- might have been the Atlantic
- he talked about etiquette around things like flicking ash and smoking circles
- he talked about asking his doctor about starting smoking
It was definitely an interesting one
I really want to read it now. But can’t find it by Google.
Search terms I used were: starting smoking at 40 cigarettes
It was the sixth google result for me.
During a period of high stress due to major life changes I was experiencing, I took up smoking. It became a habit. I did experience the social aspect that the essayist described. I found that the best way to meet new friends at anime or gaming conventions is to find out where all the smokers are and hang out there. I've found a few new very good friends this way.
PS: I don't smoke cigarettes anymore.
The relationships I established with fellow smokers, whether it was at work while stepping out from the office, standing outside a pub, stepping outside on a balcony at a party, etc. were almost always stronger than with my non-smoking friends. You immediately become part of a social circle with people you at least have one thing in common with, and are standing around with a limited number of minutes to chat about almost anything.
I haven't had a cigarette for nearly five years and the thought of lighting one up disgusts me, but I miss the carefree banter during smoke breaks with other smokers.
The best part about having to go outside for a smoke is you end up standing next to people outside of your normal work hierarchy. You get to have 1v1 conversations with OTHER managers, and people higher than you - whoever at a very casual level. The benefits of this is enourmous. I certainly talked more to our director of IT by smoking than I ever did with my own boss.
The smoking was terrible--don't get me wrong--and I'm glad its much more rare now than it was 25 years ago.
Social media, untamed and untempered, tends to influence in the other direction: piping you into a predefined ideological box—and largely dominated by materialistic influences to boot.
I also have to wonder if the scientific community even wants to know if cigarettes and alcohol correlate with less covid deaths given their great hex on it. It's interesting to think what level of gain/detriment will bring them to get a mention, let alone advise increased uptake. Imagine a world where they dish out wine & ciggs at the hospital as often as they do other drugs of dependence.
In a cursory survey [1] of the alcoholics I've known (both recovering/acknowledged and not), for 80% social drinking hasn't been the problem. The problem was what they did when they were alone with a bottle.
[1] Not an SRS, clearly anecdotal and entirely in my head, so all caveats apply, etc.
Used to do the same thing with gaming. Encrypted windows and whensend.com the key to me in the future. Can't game on the linux drive.
I’d rather have someone tell me about the last cigarette they had than the last social media post they wrote.
Social media changes its addictive by tailoring it over time for every individual user.