Maybe social media should have Surgeon General warning

I’ve got to say that the idea being floated by the Surgeon General recently of putting a warning label on social media platforms might not be a bad idea.

The type of warning we’re all familiar with like the one on cigarettes warning of the dangers of cancer and on alcohol warning pregnant women not to drink is what we’re talking about. I guess they would maybe put up a warning screen when you log on to your favorite platform warning of the dangers of addiction that could lead to anxiety and other mental problems.

They started putting that warning on cigarettes way back when I didn’t care because I didn’t smoke but I knew smokers and I didn’t think that warning would cause them to stop. Looking back, it may have started to turn the tide on that crisis. If nothing else it eventually led to policies, then laws, that kept me from having to sit in a cloud of a coworker’s second-hand smoke.

I think vices come about when we have either too much time or money or both. We might all think we’re poor but we’re all rich enough that our mobile devices and our internet are no longer an optional monthly expense.

We don’t have time to cook a family meal together, but we do have the time to spend 4-6 hours a day keeping up with social media, oftentimes networking with people we don’t even personally know for more hours a day than our own families and neighbors.

Having employed teens for years I didn’t need the Surgeon General to let me know there was something that has slowly changed about our youth. They’ve become inept at face-to-face interaction, but if I need an explanation of the latest thing making the rounds on social media or even the latest platform they’re experts.

In my 65 years I can safely say I’ve never had an addiction to tobacco, drugs or alcohol but right now I can’t completely say it isn’t possible I could fall to social media. At times I’ve spent an awful lot of time scrolling.

Before I retired I was on social media a lot in the evenings but I justified it because that’s when I shared Chamber member business posts and it was where I kept up with news. I did do that but a lot of my time was aimlessly scrolling.

I knew the test would come when I retired. Would I still spend as much time online?

I’ve started reading novels again so it looks like the answer to that is no. I still get a lot of local news and information on social media first but it’s usually through alerts on my phone.

One of my worst habits is to comment flippantly on someone’s Facebook post, then realize later how bad I’d messed up. That happened again just recently and it’s made me realize if something I did in fun and total innocence can strike so deep, how badly are kids who are attacked or bullied online maliciously and with intent suffering?

It’s something our society definitely needs to chew on for awhile.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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