[chippy]

Perhaps we need to identify a substitute before quitting a certain thing? Something pleasurable and beneficial (not work). Like reading a book.

Simply cutting something out will leave a gap where that something was. We should fill it with things of our choosing otherwise it will be filled up with something of a similar gap shaped thing!

[endemic]

Exactly -- don't resist, replace.

[boringg]

Isnt the best option to never have started using social media and creating that loop in the first place?

[zogrodea]

I think that's true generally but:

- It's possible that social media changes some peoples' lives for the better. (I do have a few friends who married people they got to know on social media, and I know the good things that have happened to me because of social media outweigh the real but less significant harms.)

- It's possible that the thing one replaces social media ("replace, don't resist") with outweighs the harm they received from social media too.

- I think we're mostly trying to work with practical solutions of how to mitigate harm instead of wishing we could change the past.

[cooper_ganglia]

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.

[mdhen]

That's not an option though, is it? Not for those already affected.