Are phones the new tobacco? Social media companies are in the dock for their effect on mental health. Some see parallels to addictive substances.
‘I was a social media addict aged six’
Glossary
Meta - The new name of the company which owns Facebook and Instagram.
Depressed - Depression is low mood that affects someone's daily life, and can last for weeks or months.
Snap - The parent company of Snapchat.
Tobacco - A substance smoked in cigarettes. It contains nicotine, which is addictive.
CEOs - Chief Executive Officers. The highest-ranking person in a company.
Nicotine - The substance found in tobacco that people become addicted to. It can also be made artificially.
Alienation - Emotional separation. It derives from a Latin word meaning foreign or strange.
Dopamine - A hormone and neurotransmitter that plays several important roles in the brain and body, providing us with positive sensations, rewarding us for evolutionarily good behaviours like eating food.