Massive Liability: Social Media’s Big Tobacco Moment

Social media once felt unstoppable. Billions of users. Endless growth. A digital world that promised connection and creativity.

...But so did cigarettes once.

Big Tobacco built an empire by exploiting human biology, our craving for nicotine, and packaging it as glamour. For decades, lighting up meant belonging. Until science, lawsuits, and truth cracked the illusion.

Now, the same story might be repeating, just with screens instead of smoke.

The Addiction We Don’t See

This time, it’s not nicotine. It’s dopamine.

Every scroll, like, and outrage-triggering post gives our brain that quick chemical hit. Platforms know it; they engineered it.

Algorithms don’t chase joy or knowledge; they chase engagement. And the fastest way to hook you is anger, shock, or fear. Cute cat videos? Replaced by outrage bait. The longer you scroll, the longer they profit.

That’s not a glitch. It’s the business model.

The Hidden Costs

We’ve all felt it. Hours vanish. Anxiety climbs. Comparison gets louder. Reality starts to warp.

Social media’s constant cycle of performance and validation has turned connection into a form of competition. What’s real and what’s rage-inducing content starts to blur.

Studies show polarization has doubled since social media’s rise. More than half of both political parties now see each other as “a serious threat.”

That’s not a connection. That’s conditioning.

When Culture Becomes Complicit

Cigarettes were once everywhere, in ads, films, and even doctor endorsements. Sound familiar?

Today, “going viral” has replaced the cigarette break. It’s glamorized, rewarded, and normalized, even when it’s toxic.

We scroll for validation the same way people once lit up for relief. Both start as habits. Both become addictions.

The Shift Is Starting

Change doesn’t start with a law. It starts with awareness.

We’re already seeing it: Phones left out of family dinners. Classrooms banning devices. Gen Z is calling out the mental drain.

One poll found that 40% of Gen Z adults wish social media had never been invented. Another says 70% of teens feel worse about themselves after using it.

The spell might be breaking.

What Happens Next in Social Media’s Big Tobacco Moment

When smoking lost its glamor, people didn’t just quit; they woke up. They realized they’d been sold an illusion.

That’s the moment we’re heading toward now. Once we understand that our attention and our anger are the product being sold, the addiction starts to lose power.

Being offline won’t seem weird. It’ll seem wise.

The Takeaway

Big Tobacco’s downfall didn’t just save lives; it saved clarity. Breaking the social media addiction could do the same.

We don’t need another platform chasing clicks. We need one that restores meaning, privacy, and real human connection.

That’s the future we’re building with Socialode, where connection isn’t a product. It’s a purpose that's not a social media big tobacco moment.