[scotty79]

About as much as telling your kid to not drink beer while you are doing it yourself.

[Gigachad]

Aside from the physical/chemical damage alcohol does to developing brains, alcohol addiction is bad for adults too. We just concede that after childhood you can make your own choice to ruin your life.

Phone addiction is harmful to everyone at all age groups. It's not really the individuals to blame through. The tech companies have broken human psychology and developed something more addictive than drugs.

[dizlexic]

Spoken like someone who hasn't really done drugs.

[airstrafer]

I get what you’re saying but phone addiction has absolutely ruined people’s lives.

[jb1991]

Numerous studies have supported this thesis, that phone addiction is identical to a chemical addiction.

[lucumo]

Which studies?

The claim is usually made without specific citations. The few studies I'm aware of show correlation between mental health issues and phone use, but don't show which way the causation runs. It's just as plausible that mental health causes more phone use, yet these message boards always like to blame the phone for the mental health issues.

[gyomu]

Can you share studies that show they’re “identical”?

You’re not going to overdose from using your phone too much, or die from withdrawal if you suddenly stop using your phone, so that seems like a stretch.

[acessoproibido]

5% of all deaths worldwide can be attributed to alcohol.

Phone addiction is not identical. In some aspects its similar but in most others not.

[philipallstar]

Well, in terms of driving, talking on a hands free phone might be worse for your driving than being over the limit[0]. And that's from pure addiction and distraction; there are no exogenous chemicals physically altering you.

[0] https://www.trl.co.uk/uploads/trl/documents/TRL547.pdf

[jb1991]

> national safety organizations estimate that cell phone use is a factor in approximately 23% of all car accidents, contributing to millions of crashes nationwide

U.S. Government info: https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving

[skybrian]

What’s an example of a study that you think is convincing?

[mystifyingpoi]

The phrase "drink beer" could mean anything from 2 beers on a sunny weekend to 6-pack every night. They are not comparable.

[scotty79]

Don't you think same could be true about the phone use?

[Aeolun]

Do you know any adult that uses their phone less than two hours a day? Hell, do you know any child above the age of 12?

[scotty79]

Who knows of what's equivalent of two beers?

[bowsamic]

Why would I tell my son not to drink beer? He can do so as soon as it’s relatively safe to

[conductr]

“Relatively safe to” is a very official sounding rubric. I guess tell him that and see if you agree on the timing of when that safety threshold has been met.

Telling your kid to not drink beer is giving them the courage to say no to drinking beer. I personally don’t just bark out rules with no context. I also have discussions with my kid about why drinking beer can go awry. We all expect that they will, likely before we’d feel it’s relatively safe. So I want him to at least know what’s in store and how to not make compounding mistakes.

[21asdffdsa12]

Bell curve leveling off right after return-warranty runs out

[bowsamic]

I don’t need to give reasons for my son to follow my orders