this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2025
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I often think about what the 2025 equivalent of this is. What are we doing today that we think is helping, but is actually taking us out?
Social media.
"Oh my god, grandpa! You were just on that all day?! And you let kids use it??! Didn't you know it was bad for you?!"
"Y... Yeah. We kinda knew."
"Our grandparents lied to themselves about the harm of smoking as they called cigarettes 'coffin nails', we spent all day on social media telling ourselves it's fine and that its how we keep in touch as we saw our cousins and childhood friends lose their damn minds."
But for real I think the fact that it became difficult to live a social life without social media around the time the dangers became difficult to deny is very reminiscent of what it must have been like for my parents and grandparents as non-smokers in the mid-late 20th century.