At last: official recognition that social networks are a danger to public health
New York City is the first city in the world to issue an advisory designating social networks as an environmental toxin, citing the danger they pose to the mental health of huge numbers of young people, who are basically addicted to them, according to the latest Pew Research survey.
City Hall has issued an advisory and a series of recommendations to parents and anybody who works with children and adolescents warning of the danger social networks pose, and designating them as a public health hazard, calling on state and federal regulators to protect young people from the predatory practices carried out by social media companies.
The move is an effort to address a situation that should never have been allowed to reach this point. Social networks are not the problem per se: they were intended as a way for us to keep in touch with family and friends or extend our social lives; but driven by greed, their owners have turned them into advertising formats, filling them with junk content designed to keep their users hooked.
From that initial idea of sharing photos and news with people you only saw from time to time, and who updated you when you met in person, we went to having constant contact, understood in a healthy, reasonable and, moreover, pleasant way. Social…
