Social Media vs. Cigarettes: The Real Addiction Debate

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Cigarettes are way better than social media. Oh, you think I’m crazy. Do you? Well, why don’t you just listen? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

are you know they’re all freaking out over this because they’re buddies with all the heads Mark Zuckerberg‘s and all the social media people out there and ours this is an outrage and this lawsuit that went through yeah so here we go you know you had you had this court case Los Angeles on Wednesday jury found both Metta and YouTube liable for harms to children using their services in New Mexico a jury determined that Metta

knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. Okay, know, gentlemen, start your your, you know, the tort attorneys coming for you at this point in time. Okay, I see that coming. See that coming. I don’t know how they’ll end up deflecting it. And I’m sure I’m sure they’ll get a piece of legislation that’ll put a stop.

to all of this. They’re too big, they’re too powerful, they write very big checks to politicians, they’ll be just fine. They’ll be just fine. I go back in time. Go back in time. This is the infancy of social media, Facebook, whatnot. I was a holdout. Facebook was the big one. You know, after that was what was it was the other ones that were out there, MySpace and a couple others.

And I really wanted to stay away from the entire thing. And, you know, eventually I got talked into it. And then, you know, well, maybe you should post some things here and there. And then I just watched the vitriol and I was like, I’m not going to participate in this. This is nonsense. And I think it was 2005, 2006, one of the founders. I didn’t bother looking at the guy’s name up. You can do it if you want. He lives in Singapore now.

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He left the company left the company had a falling out with Zuckerberg. It was part of the the movie the social network He knew He knew he told everybody this is how we designed it we designed it to be Addictive. This is some of the things that were going to happen As time passed and we had more social media companies, I remember when Twitter Twitter first

came out and I watched this model that they put out. I remember where I was. I remember at the time there was a daily morning show called The Daily Buzz and once a week I was their guest financial, I actually guest hosted the program. This is like 2007, 2008, 2009, into that period of time. And there was like this Justin Timberlake and Austin Kutchner were like going back and forth.

over who’s going to get more followers on Twitter. And I remember being that weekend with a friend, friends of ours, and their daughter was absolutely dismayed because, you know, people who were following her, wasn’t following her, all these various different things. I’m like, what? And I said, this is this is not going to end well. I did a lengthy.

lengthy rant on the radio show back around that period actually before then, because again, this is another awful CI told you so moment. I knew this was going to be awful for the world. I knew it was going to be awful for the world. And actually, I remember I remember being being at it actually was an Orthodox mass I was at and the the the priest talking about, you know,

this and what’s going to happen and spot on. And I was like, I agree with him. And I’m like, this is not going to end well. And I see old, old Ian Malcolm from the movie Jurassic Park. He’s your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, whether they not, they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should. And I use that line often and it gets ourselves in trouble. I did a whole funny bit and I equated social media.

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to the pink slime from Ghostbusters 2. Now Ghostbusters 2 wasn’t very good. Wasn’t very good, but again, I remember they had this negative energy that was this form of this pink slime that was running underneath New York City in the sewers. And the scientists, they figured out that if you got too close to the pink slime,

it would get you arguing and fighting and all revved up and mad at what I mean. And I’m like, that’s social media.

That’s social media. I’m gonna ask a quick question, everybody. I want you to think about this. I want you to actually.

way that I want you in your head to weigh whatever positive things, positive experiences, or what a positive things have come out of social media. And I’m not saying that there isn’t You you may have gotten in contact with some of your friends from high school, some things like that. And I want you to weigh that against all of the negative things and terrible things that it has done to society. Just stew on that a little bit. I, this is back.

In November of last year, there was the 5,800 page filing about these social media companies. And here’s just some of the things that insiders at the company were saying. IG, Instagram is a drug. This is from a meta senior researcher. mean, LOL, mean, all social media, we’re basically pushers.

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And it’s just one comment after another from all of the insiders in the company. It’s interesting is that there was I just want to go back in time to some degree. There was this is back in nineteen sixty five. I think sixty five there was well this guy who was on for lot longer than that. Paul Harvey was a radio guy and he had a very famous

very famous rant that he went on. It was called If I Were the Devil. If I Were the Devil. And he goes, see, he wrote this, I’m gonna read it to you. And then I’m gonna read you the modern version. Okay? If I were the devil, if I were the prince of darkness, I’d want to engulf the whole world in darkness and I’d have a third.

of its real estate and four fifths of its population. But I wouldn’t be happy until I’d seize the ripest apple on the tree, thee. So I’d set about however necessary to take over the United States. I’d subvert the churches first. I begin with a campaign of whispers with the wisdom of a serpent. I would whisper to you as I whisper to Eve, do as you please. To the young, I would whisper that the Bible’s a myth. I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would convide.

that what’s bad is good and what’s good is square and the old I would teach to pray after me, our father, which art in Washington. And this is 1965. Then I get organized. I’d educate authors on how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the devil,

I’d soon have families that war with themselves, churches at war with themselves and nations at war with themselves until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings, I’d have the mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions. Just let those run wild until before you knew it, you’d have a.

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to drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse store. This was 1965, okay? There wasn’t any of that at that time, but we have that today. And again, I’m not gonna read all of Paul Harvey’s. And again, you should go back and read it, because it’s quite good. I’m gonna get back that cigarettes are better than social media. are. There’s no doubt about it. Cigarettes are bad for you. They’re bad for your health. Cigarettes can kill you.

They can. They can kill you. You know what? We’re all gonna die.

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We are, we’re all gonna die. That’s just a fact of life. And I always found it fascinating as well. Some of the places in the world where smoking is most prevalent, actually Japan being number one in the world, they most certainly outlive us here in the United States. So, I don’t know, maybe their diets better. Just throwing that out there. Social media is worse than cigarettes.

You want to do a Paul Harvey style. Paul Harvey style. If I were the devil today.

Fire the devil. 2026 I wouldn’t horns or pitchforks. I just keep doing it’s already working. I’d make sure every human woke up and reached for a glowing rectangle before they ever looked up to heaven. I’d flood those rectangles with endless noise, outrage, lust, envy, trivia so that silence feels uncomfortable. And prayer feels like wasted time.

I’d convince billions that authenticity means indulging every impulse and that anyone who calls an impulse sinful is the real sinner. I’d rebrand gluttony as body positivity, lust as sexual liberation, greed as hustle culture, pride as self-love. I’d make abortion about healthcare, euthanasia about dignity and usury.

about financial freedom. I teach children that their identity is whatever they feel like today and then pump them full of drugs and surgeries. If their feelings and their bodies dare to disagree. I’d keep Christians arguing about politics on timelines while their churches empty and their kids scroll tick tock in the pews and make tolerance the highest virtue but only for everything except the gospel.

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I drown the world in comfort, porn in 8k, food delivered in 10 minutes, AI girlfriends who never say no, credit cards that whisper, you deserve this. Comfort is quieter than chains, but it binds tighter. I’d convince people that evil is always out there in the other political party, the other religion, the other race. So they never noticed the evil they agreed to this morning with one more swipe, one more click.

one more, it’s not hurting anyone and the masterpiece. I do it all while letting them keep the name Christian or Catholic or good person or good Democrat or good Republican. Labels are harmless if the soul is hollow. If were the devil, I would need to invent new sins in 2026. I just make the old ones feel like progress. That’s what I tell them.

Straight, unfiltered, no sugar coating because the video is right. The strategy hasn’t changed. Hasn’t changed since 1965. It’s just, you know, on social media now.

Cigarettes can kill you.

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Cigarette, no doubt about it, cigarettes can kill you, but there are worse things than dying. So cigarettes are better than social media. Watchdog on wallstreet.com.