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Comment by worldsayshi | Hacker News Reader

I think it's easy to believe that something will eventually go away just because we feel that something is not good in some way. But things only go away if people change their behaviour around those things on mass.

There's a growing sentiment that a lot of social media is more bad than good for us. But people don't just stop with a behaviour that they know is bad for them. We need a lot more to change a behaviour that has become established.

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This is a good point. See alcohol and tobacco. People are smoking less though, aren't they?

I think people are starting to drink less too. Now doctors are starting to ask patients how often they drink and advising them to drink less and less frequently.

Imagine doctors routinely asking their patients if they spend too much time on their phones. Would feel a bit intrusive but for some vulnerable populations like kids it might be a good thing to ask about.

This is absolutely the responsibility of the healthcare system tbh. It feels intrusive right now, but discouraging smoking would have felt intrusive once too.

Yes, press the play button on the world map here:

https://ourworldindata.org/which-countries-smoke-most

Yes, see the sugar industry. I find it quite similar how both use brain hacks. It makes behavior extremely hard to change once people are hooked.

Why are we calling it anything other than what it is, addiction. You mentioned sugar. Others mentioned alcohol/tobacco. In the end it is just addiction. If we can't talk openly about the actual problem, then it will never be solved. Just like the war on drugs. As long as people want it, others will provide it regardless of legality or self harm

Yes, and now I will argue against myself a bit but it's also important to remember that addiction is not inevitable. It can be fought on a population level over time. Just take a look at this graph. Press the play button on the world map:

https://ourworldindata.org/which-countries-smoke-most

I think social media lands somewhere between tobacco and sugar. We don't need tobacco. We need carbohydrates but not refined sugar. Social media can be useful sometimes, but is often a disservice. The feeling of usefulness probably makes it more addictive than smoking. At least for me.

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