Laws aimed at "addictive" social media feeds suffer from an unpleasant irony
States are regulating teen internet use even as they greenlight online gambling
New York joined a growing list of states regulating children’s access to social last month, arguing that algorithmic feeds are irredeemably, dangerously damaging. Not just damaging, mind you, but addictive — the word’s right there in the name of the bill. And lest you think that just a gambit for a catchy acronym, the text uses “addictive” five times, as well.
Do words … have meaning anymore? Is this meant to be metaphorical? A friend who works in public health put the issue succinctly: “Heroine is an addiction, not social media.” And yet, lawyers, journalists and policymakers are increasingly deploying the language of addiction to talk about things that arguably are not, from smartphones and online pornography to video games and TikTok.
Maybe this distinction is academic — the medical and popular definitions of “addiction” diverged years ago, after all — but it strikes me as both ironic and a little galling that the policymakers decrying “addictive feeds” have also gleefully rubber-stamped the rapid expansion of online gambling, with its myriad, well-documented, DSM-recognized harms. Just last month, the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence — an advocacy group that presumably knows a lot about addiction — warned about the sudden uptick in “dangerous” gambling behavior. And yet, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is out here calling for social media warning labels.
I’m not saying teen social media use isn’t problematic, to be clear, and I’m not saying legislators shouldn’t take it on. But I am suggesting that you can tell a lot about a culture by what it deems “addictive” at any given moment.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) hotline at 1-800-662-4357.
Caitlin Dewey is a reporter and essayist based in Buffalo, N.Y. She was the first digital culture critic at the Washington Post and has hired fake boyfriends, mucked out cow barns and braved online mobs in pursuit of stories for outlets including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Cut, Elle, Slate and Cosmopolitan.