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Drownings and ice cream sales also track nicely, but it doesn’t mean it’s the ice cream that’s causing the drownings.

Right, you need a mechanism. (Ice cream makes you fat, fat people can't swim, ergo drownings). Haight clearly outlines the mechanisms by which social media and smartphones have detrimental effects on mental health, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l2TdinWoM8

But ice cream doesn't make you fat. Eating too much ice cream makes you fat.

And if you swim enough, you can't get fat no matter how much ice cream you eat. Ever seen the diet Phelps was on? Guy ate like crap, has over 20 gold medals to his name.

That's not why ice cream sales are correlated with drowning. Ice cream sales generally peak in the summer, and that's also when most people swim.

But if drownings had suddenly increased when ice cream was first introduced, that's a stronger suggestion that there's a relationship.

Kids' mental health went off a cliff at the same time that they started getting smartphones and social media.

Something else could be the cause, but we all know it's not, even if we earn our living from it.

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