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Social media seemed poised to permanently alter the way humans communicate when it started to gain steam a couple of decades ago, and while it’s definitely lived up to that promise, whether or not it’s changed the world for the better is a topic that is very much up for debate.
Now, the Surgeon General of the United States has chimed in on the matter, and his stance is pretty obvious based on the proposal he outlined in an op-ed that made waves after it was published on Monday.
You could argue social media can be traced back to the message boards, forums, and chatrooms that allowed people across the world to communicate with each other when the internet was in its relative infancy, but most people associate the term with the websites that the likes of MySpace and Friendster ushered in the early 2000s.
Nowadays, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok are used by billions of people on a daily basis who harness them for a wide variety of purposes. They may play an invaluable role in facilitating numerous aspects of modern society, but there’s also mounting evidence that suggests they’re slowly but surely making life miserable for many of the people who use them.
On Monday, Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy, who has served as the Surgeon General of the United States since 2021, highlighted that sobering reality in a piece in The New York Times that pushed for the introduction of social media warning labels akin to the ones that were originally added to packs of cigarettes back in 1965.
He noted the particularly concerning impact social media has had on young people who’ve reported higher instances of depression and anxiety after spending an average of 4.8 hours per day on various websites and apps while arguing the companies that run them should be forced to fork overall internal data concerning the impact their platforms have on mental health.
Murthy, a Harvard grad who earned his doctorate at the Yale School of Medicine, acknowledged the warning labels would only do so much to address an issue he asserts requires a concerted effort among parents, medical professionals, and government officials, but believes it would be a vital step toward tackling a growing crisis.
The labels would need to be approved by Congress before being rolled out, and while overcoming that particular hurdle is certainly easier said than done, this is probably something that needs to be taken into serious consideration sooner rather than later.