[jtc331]

It seems clear you must not believe social media is as harmful to kids as the commenter you’re responding to does. If so, disallowing it (even when the kid desperately wants it) wouldn’t seem excessive.

By analogy I think it’s fairly obvious as a parent you’re right to withhold bottles of vodka from your kids even when they separately want to down them “and all of their friends are doing it”.

[reayn]

Trust me as a teenager who has seen the effect of social media on dozens of his peers and even close friends I can assure you I know far more than both you and the parent comment how dangerous it is for us, but I'm also aware of the possibility of using it and the internet as a whole in a responsible manner as opposed to completely abstaining from it.

>By analogy I think it’s fairly obvious as a parent you’re right to withhold bottles of vodka from your kids even when they separately want to down them “and all of their friends are doing it”.

??

Vodka, or any hard alchohol in general is far harder to get your hands on than social media and has immediate, physical consequences relatively soon after consumption, it's a terrible comparison in this case.

[sorenn111]

Social media has immediate, physical (dopamine levels while presenting a mental phenomenon are also a physical reality) consequences immediately upon consumption. There are no great comparisons to social media because of its novelty, but social media cannot be shielded from comparisons to all vices.

[Cederfjard]

> I can assure you I know far more than both you and the parent comment how dangerous it is

Where does the confidence to make such an assertion come from? Simply by virtue of being a teenager yourself?

[burnished]

Don't you remember being that age? Even without ascribing personal traits like arrogance, its just hard to have had enough experience to understand the potential depths of your ignorance.

[silisili]

Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, attributed to Twain but surely not -

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years."

[jtc331]

Calling it a terrible comparison to avoid the obvious point by analogy is effectively just a way to avoid the discussion.

If you want to engage seriously with it feel free to comment with that.

[midev]

They explained why they felt it was a bad comparison. Why did you ignore that part?

If an analogy is bad, it's bad. The parent explained why they felt it was bad. If you want to "engage seriously", you should address why their points about the analogy are wrong.

[mixmastamyk]

It may not be obvious, but some of the folks most negatively affected by social media are the older set.