U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wants to require Facebook, X and other social media platforms to carry a warning label, similar to the labels that appear on tobacco and alcohol products. The label would look like this: SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: This social media platform may cause considerable harm to your mental health. It may cause anxiety and depression. It may make you envious of your online friends, wishing you could have their houses, their cars, their bodies. It may make you wish you could go on vacations like they do, win major awards like they do, raise perfect children like they do. It may make you think of strangers online as close friends, while turning your real-life friends into strangers. It may introduce you to a potential mate, someone who will fall deeply in love with your bank balance. It may take your money to a country you’ve always wanted to visit. It may make your attention span so short, you’ll have trouble reading a long word like “attention.” It may expose you to fake videos and fake news, get you excited about fake likes from fake followers with fake eyelashes. It may collect your personal data and sell it to various companies, causing you to be flooded with ads telling you that “you can make millions by investing in crypto,” “you can regrow your hair in 30 days,” and, even if those things don’t happen, “Russian women are eager to date you.”
Andrew Belfry's column dated today, you do that well, Melvin...
Thank you! I really liked how he explained it and the example he gave.