I was thinking of some kind of tobacco company parallel here.
this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
267 points (100.0% liked)
Mental Health
6424 readers
296 users here now
Welcome
This is a safe place to discuss, vent, support, and share information about mental health, illness, and wellness.
Thank you for being here. We appreciate who you are today. Please show respect and empathy when making or replying to posts.
If you need someone to talk to, @therapygary@lemmy.blahaj.zone has kindly given his signal username to talk to: TherapyGary13.12
Rules
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
- No promoting paid services/products.
- Be kind and civil. No bigotry/prejudice either.
- No victim blaming. Nor giving incredibly simplistic solutions (i.e. You have ADHD? Just focus easier.)
- No encouraging suicide, no matter what. This includes telling someone to commit homicide as "dragging them down with you".
- Suicide note posts will be removed, and you will be reached out to in private.
- If you would like advice, mention the country you are in. (We will not assume the US as the default.)
If BRIEF mention of these topics is an important part of your post, please flag your post as NSFW and include a (trigger warning: suicide, self-harm, death, etc.)in the title so that other readers who may feel triggered can avoid it. Please also include a trigger warning on all comments mentioning these topics in a post that was not already tagged as such.
Partner Communities
To partner with our community and be included here, you are free to message the current moderators or comment on our pinned post.
Becoming a Mod
Some moderators are mental health professionals and some are not. All are carefully selected by the moderation team and will be actively monitoring posts and comments. If you are interested in joining the team, you can send a message to @fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Yep, and some oil company in the 80's.
And getting dragged onto social media because your friends are on 'latest cool app' is like passive smoking.
Or Exxon and climate change. (who uses the same PR people Big Tobacco did to spread their lies)
You'd think the tobacco industry would be researching how to make cigarettes heal you while still being addictive so they could literally create customers that live forever buying cigarettes. What's the point of killing them so they stop buying your product?
Each Cigarette Contains 1 CRISPR dose!
Guess deleting my facebook in 2009 was a good move.
This was years ago, IIRC.
They've always known their shit was fucking with people's heads. They've always known it causes problems. They don't care. They just want their money so they can buy more politicians and make more money.
Everything is about money, except money, which is about power.
Well, it's cool that they studied the effect of their products. But then: why not improve on it instead of shoving it under the rug? Then again, if it's their entire business model and they are not clever enough to improve that one, I guess capitalism is doing its thing again.
But then: why not improve on it instead of shoving it under the rug? Then again, if it's their entire business model and they are not clever enough to improve that one, I guess capitalism is doing its thing again.
You just answered your question. Tech moguls know that 70% of engagements in social media is induced by anger. And engagements is all that matters to make money for these oligarchs.
They can't fix it. Social media, isn't what the brain wants. Social media isn't actually being social. Most of it is talking to the void that doesn't really respond. There's no conversations, no friendships/community, no connections, or experiences. There is, however, ads, bots, misinformation, etc.
Like, I can read about a roller coaster. I can see photos of it. But that doesn't replace riding it. Replace roller coaster with whatever.
The only way they could modify social media to be better for people is to shut it down. It's like alcohol, realistically there's no amount you should consume. And some people can't self manage (alcoholics). That's social media. But they want you addicted, they want you engaged all the time. Because money.
The things that make it harmful to people, is the things that keep people on it and drive ad revenue.
They could try to address it, but they would earn less money.
Because it's a feature, not a bug, right? I left Facebook because it made me not like people, made me angry, sad. All those things made me interact with it more, I had far more negative things to say than positive.
"Yeah it's bad for you, but people can make their own decisions!"