🤔 Facebook = smoking?!

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👉 What the fact?!

The fight against tobacco has been ongoing for decades with various strategies employed with varying degrees of success. One solution, however, has been widely adopted through the years and you’re probably already familiar with it; the graphic warning label.

A similar warning label may become a reality on social media platforms as well as recently proposed by United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy.

Murthy made the call for action as nearly half of adolescents have reported feeling worse about their bodies due to social media. These reports are further backed up by similar studies on social media and their relation to anxiety and depression.

🤔 Why social media?

It is widely known that people spend a lot of time online, specifically, on social media. In 2024, people aged 16 to 64 spent an average of 2,5 hours on social media per day.

This comes as no surprise as social media, by design, is made to feel as rewarding (read addictive) as possible while using it. Keeping the user engaged, scrolling, clicking, and watching for as long as possible is the only goal of all major platforms.

This, however, doesn’t mean social media engineers are somehow evil, it’s simply a business model. And when the product of the business model is potentially harmful to its users, a warning label might be reasonable, according to Murthy.

🚭 The connection with tobacco

Murthy made connections with how tobacco saw a steep decline in usage by adolescents after the 1965 law forcing all cigarette manufacturers to put warning labels on their packages.

These labels are now found worldwide on cigarettes. Since then we’ve seen a decrease from 42% in 1965 to 11.5% in 2021 in the United States.

📝 Legislation

Other than warning labels, Murthy also strongly suggested to implement a range of other measures. Some of which include:

• Schools should have phone-free social time and classrooms.

• Parents should reconsider how early they give their kids access to social media.

Ultimately, Murthy emphasized that his proposal is similar to other measures aimed as safeguarding consumer health and safety.

👊 The impact

While too much legislations in an industry can slow growth and make it harder to compete internationally, a healthy dose is often needed.

The two currently fastest-growing industries are creator-led businesses and AI, one of which is evolving faster than legislators can keep up with, and the other is somewhat forgotten about.

Seeing more legislation surrounding the use and creation of social media will likely have a positive impact on the way adults, teens, and kids alike use these mediums. Especially as we know reducing screen time has strong connections with a decrease in anxiety and depression among individuals.

🔥 Our take on it

Social media, in its current format, has only existed for roughly 20 years if you use MySpace as the first. During those 20 years, we’ve seen a lot of big changes happening.

Multiple platforms created, launched, and bankrupt. Monetization systems created, changed, and improved. Jobs we never even could’ve imagined to exist are now a common sight.

During those same 20 years, we have seen very little legislation around the use and creation of both the platforms themselves but also the content on them.

Put like that, it is surprising to say the least.

Social media, whether you love it or hate it, is a massive part of our everyday lives. Some spend hours consuming content, and others make a very healthy living off of it.

As the industry matures and starts getting older than some of the youngest people on it, so does the regulation surrounding it need to as well.

👋 See you next Tuesday!

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