If you’ve ever purchased a pack of cigarettes in America, you’ve likely seen a variation of the bold printed surgeon general’s warning plastered on the side of each and every box.
The warnings describe the risks of lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema, as well as the harmful impacts on pregnant women and fetuses.
The goal of these warnings is to make us painfully aware of the harm we are letting enter our bodies when we smoke a cigarette. The message is inescapable.
Though some choose to smoke regardless, is it almost impossible for anyone who purchases cigarettes to be unaware of the associated dangers.
When former President Joe Biden’s Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy held office, he made a daring proposal: Social media should be the next product slapped with a compulsory warning.
“The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor,” Murthy wrote in an op-ed published by The New York Times in June.
Not only does Murthy call for a surgeon general’s warning on social media products, but in his 2023 health advisory on the state of adolescents and social media, he called for policy change through both congressional legislation and accountability from technology companies.
Social media has not been around since the dawn of time. It initially gained prominence in 2004 when MySpace — a throwback for any older readers — reached one million active users.
After this, social media as we know it rapidly expanded into modern society, with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Tumblr and countless other platforms.
Generation Z, or those born between 1997 and 2012, is the first generation to truly grow up in the age of social media — without ever knowing what life was like without it.
Therefore, Gen Z has become the guinea pigs for the rest of the world, as we ask: How will social media affect our growth from children to adolescence to adulthood?
After reading the surgeon general’s warning, the results are looking grim.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University revealed that teens who use social media for three or more hours a day doubled their risk of developing depression and anxiety disorders or symptoms, even when results were adjusted for a history of mental health.
The implications of this are massive.
We are seeing an unprecedented rise in mental health issues among otherwise perfectly healthy teens, and many health professionals are pointing to social media as the main cause.
But while healthcare providers and researchers condemn social media usage, the teens themselves seem to think differently.
According to research from the Pew Research Center, teenagers report more positive experiences on social media than negative ones. They feel a sense of support and acceptance through social media usage that they rely on to get them through the tough teenage years.
Most of us understand that just because cigarettes make us feel good doesn’t mean we should smoke them. The health risks presented far outweigh any fleeting feelings of relief they could offer.
Social media is this generation’s cigarette.
When you click the post button to Instagram and the flood of likes and comments start rolling in, you feel a rush of love and appreciation from friends and followers. But in the long run, our scientists are telling us — screaming at us — that this temporary emotion isn’t worth the comedown.
While Murthy admits many of the effects of social media are unknown — due to a lack of long term research and little cooperation from technology companies — he warns us that its use isn’t worth the risk to our youth.
Although many of us feel social media usage isn’t a choice, we make a decision every time we scroll through the Instagram Explore page or the TikTok For You page.
And at what cost to our bodies and our minds?
There’s only one way to find out.
