Instagram is not a cigarette

I've said for a while now that social media is the new smoking, and I stand by that statement.

Admittedly, I don't have access to read this article so I can't respond in detail, but - no, a warning label is not sufficient for dealing with this. The 'nicotine' of social media is connection. It is wired into our mind and body to look for connection with our peers and the people we care about. Social media commodifies that basic need and turns it into a tool for profit extraction.

Once we learn that we can find connection through a social media application, we learn to hit the button when we're looking to fill a social need. It is quicker and easier than going next door and saying hello to your neighbor, but it also does not provide much substantial interaction. In fact, dangling that 'meaningful interaction' over people and interspersing it with advertisements and unrelated notifications is essentially Pavlovian conditioning to encourage positive associations with whatever product is being advertised - while at the same time building fear and distrust of the real life communities that have the capacity to render social media mostly obsolete.

My vitriol towards social media platforms and their effect on mine and future generations cannot be understated. That said, I'll leave it here for now. We need something better, and I'm doing my best to work on it. I'll make sure that the people on Tildes hear about it when I have something to share.