The suggestion that health warnings should be placed on social media platforms just as they are printed on cigarette and alcohol packaging may seem like just another example of government overreach into individuals’ personal choices. However, the recent recommendation by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy that such warnings be added to social media platforms in the US due to their potential adverse effects upon the mental health of youth is also worth considering in Canada.
Growing up has enough challenges for young people, and today’s world is very complicated socially and culturally. Social media only complicates it further. It is one extra conduit for peer pressure, bullying, and sexual harassment for both perpetrators and victims.
Social media, in moderation, is not a bad thing. For many of us, it is also a useful way of keeping in touch with family and friends. Of course, for the media industry, it is also an excellent way of conveying news, information, and advertising–notwithstanding Canada’s Online News Act mess. In this context, social media is more like alcohol. Use it a little, but not too much or too often, and some people are probably at serious risk of addiction and related consequences, just as with alcohol. However, to equate social media with tobacco use is probably a bit extreme because of the overwhelming proof that even moderate to mild tobacco use is unhealthy.
Even for adults, social media use can have negative consequences. Everyone is vulnerable to addiction. The biggest examples of toxicity from social media in recent years are how it has contributed to the decline of respectful, civil discussion on a variety of issues and topics, and how it has been used to denigrate the integrity of facts, institutions, and expertise. Social media became a front line in the dirty war of opinion during the COVID-19 pandemic when many frustrated individuals, both for and against public health restrictions and vaccination, took that frustration and displeasure out on those with whom they disagreed. Political discourse on social media has deteriorated to the point of almost being useless. It is often exceedingly partisan, petty, and lacking in regard for differing opinions. Religious discussion on social media is not much better. It tends to preach to the already converted, worsens divisions using poorly articulated words and concepts that hurt and/or infuriate, or is so vacuous it is of little substance for the soul.
All of that said, were we really more respectful, informed, and civil communicators about significant issues before social media? Or, did we simply better trust most of the big discussions to be had by the experts in various fields, and the people we elect to make decisions? The old social rule of never discussing politics or religion was easier to abide by before social media, which has resulted in some people only wanting to discuss—or more like rant about politics and religion.
Perhaps, as a warning to ourselves, labels cautioning of the mental consequences of social media would help us think twice before doubling down on ideas that take us to negative places mentally, or make it too easy to say things that affect the mental health of others.
