Social media warning (06-19-2024--Hour1)

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[00:00:28] Do we need to be putting the labels, the warning labels like this product causes cancer on social media platforms? Like when you open up your face tube, does it does it show you like a big surgeon general's warning? This platform may lead to suicide or something.

[00:00:49] Well, not all of the platforms just like Instagram and Tick Tock, I think. You know, Facebook would have a warning like warning like this. This platform might make you think that your life is terrible when compared to everybody else's pictures of travel and dining out. Right.

[00:01:10] I don't think Twitter needs a warning because anybody who's there already knows it's not healthy. I kid Twitter. I kid the platform formerly known as X. Yeah, so the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, sorry, Murthy.

[00:01:30] He wants Congress to require a warning label for visitors to social media platforms. And so I'm curious, do you like this idea? Do you think it will help? 704-570-1110, 1-800-WBT-1110, email Pete at thepeatcalendarshow.com.

[00:01:50] Should we have warning labels on social media platforms in order to alert people who arrive there that this is not a healthy environment for you? It could cause all sorts of problems mentally for you and maybe physically as well. I'm not really sure.

[00:02:07] I saw there was a study, I guess it was two weeks ago now. Remember all of the, I don't know if it's actually connected. I was going to say blue light, like the blue screen, the light emitted from the screens.

[00:02:22] It's like this blue light, not like getting pulled over blue lights, but blue light from your tablets and phones and that it messes with your sleep cycles and stuff. And so they tell you don't look at your phone before you go to bed.

[00:02:38] But then they just did a massive study. And about two weeks ago, they determined that, yeah, no, actually it doesn't lead to any interruptions in your sleep anymore so than watching television or doing anything as you lay down to go to bed.

[00:02:54] If you lay down to go to bed and you pick up a phone, chances are you're not going to go to sleep until you're done looking at your phone. Now that's up to you how long you're going to do that.

[00:03:06] But the phone itself is not going to make you not sleep. Anymore so than watching, falling asleep with the TV on is going to make you not sleep. Some people like Christie and Christie can fall asleep with the TV on. I on the other hand generally do not.

[00:03:24] And so like I got the sleep mask and the earplug. No, I'm kidding. But some people can, they prefer to fall asleep with white noise. They have like noise machines and that sort of stuff. Some people are light sleepers and they don't.

[00:03:37] So anyway, the study came out and it said that this connection, this causal relation between people not sleeping well and phone screen use is there's virtually no impact there. But there's a whole bunch of stuff that could be related to use of the social media platforms,

[00:03:58] especially extensive use. And I don't know if it's so much physical as it is a lot of mental. So what do you think? Why is he putting labels on social media platforms as the surgeon general is asking Congress to do?

[00:04:13] He wrote this in an op ed published in the New York Times and he said the mental health crisis among young people is an urgent problem with social media, an important contributor. So what do you think? 704-570-1110 1-800-WBT-1110. Let's talk with Benny here. Hello, Benny.

[00:04:31] Welcome to the program. Thank you, Pete. Yes, sir. I'm just of the opinion that if we're talking about children, that's the parent's responsibility to monitor that. However, if we're talking about young adults and older adults and we do this, in my opinion,

[00:04:51] we're taking away the ability to think critically, to make our own decisions. Society is already dumb enough. We rely on the government to do everything for us. At least some of us do, or some of them do, not me. But that's just my two cents worth.

[00:05:10] So how does a warning label make people dumber? Well, it's OK, the label itself doesn't. But the fact that they're putting this label on anything and everything. I'll give you an example. In 1965, out of California, if I'm not mistaken here in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, when they found

[00:05:37] out that some clear plastic book bags had that label on it, they trashed them because of that label. Well, give me a break. Somebody didn't do their homework. Well, all right, so let's stick with just this example, because he's not talking about the

[00:05:58] state labels, he's talking about social media platforms, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, that there would be a label that basically pops up and says, hey, this might not be the best thing for your health. Warning like this may cause anxiety and depression and stuff like that.

[00:06:19] Have they done studies that prove that? Oh, yeah, I mean, there are tons of studies that the there is there is I would say right now they are still not connecting it as causal, but the correlation is profound.

[00:06:36] I believe my personal belief is that it's just a matter of time before they make the causal link. And I think there's a lot of there is a lot of evidence that already does that. So OK, yeah.

[00:06:47] So so if there's a causal link, people using a lot of social media and increase rates of depression and anxiety, then should there be warning labels? Personally, no. Put the information out there and let an individual make the decision for themselves.

[00:07:03] Isn't that what the warning label is supposed to do is to put the information in front of the person that's using it? Yeah, but it's coming from the government. That's where I have the biggest heartburn. Government's in my business too much already. No, look, no, I'm not.

[00:07:21] You're not going to get an argument from me on that. But like so do you think Facebook is going to put it on themselves? I don't call it Facebook. I call it crack book because it's addictive. Well, there you have it.

[00:07:34] So if you think it's addictive, then and Facebook isn't going to tell people, hey, don't use our product. I understand that, but I've made a decision, a personal decision. I don't do crack book because.

[00:07:47] Yeah, so I don't need someone to tell me that it's not good for me for me to make the decision that it's not good for me. That makes sense. Well, yeah, but how did you how did you come to this information?

[00:08:02] Watching people who are addicted to it become more stupider than they already were. Well, that's OK. Well, that's fair. I did. Benny, I appreciate the call. All right. Take care. Thank you, sir. Hello, Randy. Hey, Pete. Thank you, sir.

[00:08:17] I, you know, look at listen to the last caller. I personally believe that it couldn't hurt. We have if you if you go back years when they first put on the warning label for cigarette packages, how well did that work?

[00:08:33] I think it probably affected some people after they saw it on every single package. I think some people are just can't fix stupid. I mean, it was addictive as well. They have a causal link for that, but it took years and years for that to be shown.

[00:08:49] So I mean, my opinion is kind of like with him, you know, but I really believe that it would probably be a good thing. I don't want the government in my business either. But when you have, you know, young minds that don't know anything from Adam and they're

[00:09:06] being manipulated and they don't even know they're being manipulated on Facebook and these other apps, then I think something needs to be put on there. I know parents are supposed to be monitoring that. But how many parents are actually doing it?

[00:09:21] You know, I have two kids that are grown now. We were anal about it, OCD about it. And they they are fine. They know when to put it down. We we go to bed.

[00:09:31] We don't actually for the last hour before we sleep, we put our phones down and we read or we talk, because that will keep you up till two o'clock in the morning. It's just not healthy. I've done it. I know why I did it myself.

[00:09:44] Oh, talking will keep you up to two o'clock in the morning to Randy. That at least my mood. All right. I appreciate the call, sir. OK, if you're listening to this podcast, you are obviously paying attention to the world around us.

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[00:10:41] Veteran owned Carolina Readiness Supply. Will you be ready when the lights go out? All right. So should we be slapping warning labels on the social media platforms? I imagine that when you visit the social media platform, you would get like a pop up that

[00:10:55] would say, hey, this thing may cause you to kill yourself. Something like that may induce anxiety, crippling fear, FOMO, fear of missing out, depression, right? Hatred of your family members when talking about politics, stuff like that on the warning

[00:11:14] label should the Congress do what the surgeon general recommends. What do you think? Seven oh four five seven oh eleven ten one eight hundred WBT eleven ten. Ralph is up next. Hello, Ralph. Well, Pete, the one great thing about your show is your show is based on solutions.

[00:11:32] That's true. It is the only great thing about my show. That's true. Well, besides content and character and your credit to your community. Well, thank you very much. So are you, Ralph. I appreciate that. Well, you know, we most definitely need this.

[00:11:47] I suggest an app and have snowflakes falling on the screen and then they start melting and then have Dr. Tony Fauci come up and say, below information voters and snowflakes due to the content and screen time of over five hours, you're probably a loser.

[00:12:11] Oh, you need to seek help. Well, that would be that that could be an alert that comes on the phone after you've been on it. This would be a label, I think, that would warn you ahead of time.

[00:12:23] So if you had like Tony the science Fauci on ahead of time or maybe maybe you do the snowflake thing, but the snowflakes like cover up the whole screen and then you have to wait for them to melt in order to see anything on the screen.

[00:12:38] And then in that time, you're thinking, do I really want to be on this social media platform? You know, it's kind of like freezing your credit cards in a bowl of water.

[00:12:46] You know, if you need to get the credit card, you can still get it out, but you're going to have to think about it before you start charging, you know. Hey, one other small thing. You need some intro music for Pam.

[00:12:59] And you remember that old song, Old Black Asphalt, Pam Balam. You ought to start playing that before her intro. That's not black asphalt. It's black Betty. Yeah, well, you know, like old black Betty, but insert old black asphalt.

[00:13:14] Well, now you're talking about production elements and that's where I draw the line here. All right, Ralph, I appreciate the call, sir. These are good ideas. Remember, there are no bad ideas under the cone of creativity here, right? Because we're all about solutions. Let me go to Mike.

[00:13:29] Hello, Mike. Welcome to the show. Hello, Pete. Hey, what's going on? I have a different take on it. Well, I agree with people keeping the government out of things, but here's the reality. That's like putting don't look at this is going to stunt your growth on a Playboy.

[00:13:46] So what does the kid do? Now, hang on, Mike. It wasn't simply looking at the Playboy that stunted one's growth. Whatever. And it's the same thing with smoking. I smoked for a long time and they had that warning on the package, but we all knew it

[00:14:06] caused cancer, but we're stupid and did it anyway. Now I quit, but that's my take. I don't think it'll work. Wait, so you weren't like me when I smoked and like one day you bought the pack and it

[00:14:15] was like, oh my gosh, these things are going to kill me. No, really? I knew it all along and I needed to quit smoking, but I kept smoking and then I finally decided to quit. I just don't think it'll work. Yeah.

[00:14:26] Well, yeah, I think the thing I'm so in the right, the only instance I could see this making a difference is well, two cases. Number one is a kid coming on the platform for the very first time and not knowing anything

[00:14:42] about the platform, just knowing that their friends are there and when they log in and set up a profile or whatever, it then gives them this warning and gives this whole list of stuff that they could suffer from by using it.

[00:14:55] So like the kid who is literally ignorant about any of the negative side effects of social media use. That would be one case where it might be valuable. And then the other might be somebody who is wondering why they're feeling the way they're

[00:15:09] feeling. And it may be one. It may well, it may encourage the moment of clarity, if you will. Right. The epiphany moment like, oh, I do realize I'm feeling way more depressed lately or something. And maybe they say, you know, maybe it is maybe this is actually

[00:15:28] part of the problem. Those are the only two instances I could see. I don't know, but OK. Right. Well, I don't think anybody by the time. Well, so how old are you? I am 70. OK, so you were around before the labels were put on the packs.

[00:15:45] Absolutely. Yeah. And so I remember when they put them on the packs and there was great discussion about it, if I remember correctly, I was young. I wasn't a smoker at that time. But the the.

[00:15:59] There are people that have never known them not to be on the packs, and I think the value is less for those people. Right. Because now it's now it's widely known. But when you started smoking, it wasn't on the packs and there were people still

[00:16:13] denying, right, that there was any kind of connection. Yeah, but but you had the world, you had friends and you knew people with cancer, people's common thought. So it's like these kids, they're going to say, oh, they can't and then the other kids

[00:16:27] that they hang around with are going to say, that's a bunch of crap. Go in and take a look at all that. That's what I think. That's possible. Mike, I appreciate the call, sir. Yes, sir. All right. Take care.

[00:16:37] Yeah, no, it's I I find there to be limited value in the idea, but it's not zero. Let me say it that way. Should social media platforms have warning labels on them? As the U.S.

[00:16:50] surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, called on Congress to require in an op ed in The New York Times this week. So I ask you, should we do this? Should we put labels on social media platforms? 704-570-1110. 1-800-WBT-1110. Let's talk with David. Hello, David. Welcome to the show.

[00:17:09] Hey, Pete, I enjoy your show. Thanks, sir. If there's all this information out there and countless studies showing that it's really bad for especially teenagers, why don't you just wipe them off social media until they're 18? Let's err on the side of caution for our kids.

[00:17:24] So some of the platforms are actually age restricted, although the enforcement of that falls largely to them, to the platforms themselves. I did not know that. Yeah, some of them do have restrictions. Facebook's got one. You're not allowed to. I think it's 18.

[00:17:39] You're not allowed to be under the age of 18 and set up a Facebook page. But how do you then go about proving that? I got rid of all that social media during COVID. It just became toxic and I didn't need it. Yeah, well, I mean, that's the thing.

[00:17:53] There aren't a lot of look, I will say I can quit anytime. I don't but I don't need it either, but I do use and I predominantly just use Twitter. I don't know if kids have the ability to think rationally like that. They think emotionally.

[00:18:11] Right. And I came to Twitter when it launched in well, I came in like 2009. So I've been on Twitter since 2009. But I use it. I use it too much. I absolutely know that. But I also use it for the show prep.

[00:18:26] And so if I wasn't doing what I'm doing, if I was doing some job that did not require me to kind of keep up with all of the different streams of information coming in, then I would I would likely delete all of the social media because it's not really necessary.

[00:18:41] It's it's. But do you think children have that ability? No, a lot of them don't. Yeah, their brains are not fully formed until what age, 22 or something. So what's your guy age? Twenty eight. Well, and even that's probably a little too young for a lot of them.

[00:18:56] A lot of the guys I hang out with. No, I kid my friends. So, yeah. So there are some of those types of restrictions already in place. But it comes down to how do you enforce that?

[00:19:07] Right. Like, do you want the platforms to be taking your driver's license information, that kind of stuff, proofing everybody? And how hard is that to gain that system?

[00:19:16] And and people will use their friend like if they've got a friend and they do this with with some of the gambling apps, you know, where it's not legal in your state.

[00:19:25] To gamble. And so they will place their bets through their friends because they can't yeah, they can't use the apps. So and I don't want to pay a government agency to police this.

[00:19:37] Yeah. I just say you give the social media platform a big fat, huge fine if you catch them and have somebody spot check a little bit. And it should police itself if it hurts.

[00:19:47] Yeah, if the fines are that now that's a that's a fair solution that if the fines are so large and you hold people liable in that regard, then they may make a more concerted and realistic effort to to police themselves. That's that's a good idea.

[00:20:05] David, I appreciate the call. The the op ed was called Evidence from Tobacco Labels Show that Surgeon General's Warnings or he said in the op ed. It's not the headline. He said that evidence from the tobacco labels shows that surgeon general's warnings can increase awareness and change behavior.

[00:20:26] So I find the word can to be doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence, that they can increase awareness. Not that they do, but that they can.

[00:20:36] Right. He did acknowledge that there are limitations and said a label alone is not going to make social media safe. He linked the amount of time spent on social media to the increasing risk that children will experience symptoms of anxiety and depression.

[00:20:51] The American Psychological Association says teenagers spend nearly five hours every day on the top platforms like YouTube, Tick-Tock and Instagram. In a 2019 study, the association found the proportion of young adults with suicidal thoughts or other suicide related outcomes had increased 47 percent over this 10 year period. Basically, 2008 to 2017.

[00:21:18] And that's when social media use among that age group exploded. Let's go over to Joe. Hello, Joe. Welcome to the program. Hey, hey, how you doing? Good. How are you? Just wanted to doing well. I just wanted to say that social media is today's vaping pen.

[00:21:35] Which one is worse? Social media or vaping? Yes. I don't know. I think probably social media, because it's way more prevalent and easier to access. Both are.

[00:21:55] When you look at the oxygen centers, just like you have dialysis centers going around, give it about 15, 20 years and you're going to see a whole lot of young people in their 30s walking around with oxygen packs so they can breathe. We just need better parenting in the home.

[00:22:17] Everything starts in the homes. We say that kids brains haven't developed. Whether two more or should be two more brains in the house. And they should have control of the situation.

[00:22:27] Well, but if that's the case, then I mean, like, how do you explain the fact that I started smoking? I had two parents that told me about all the dangers of smoking. I tried to get my godmother to stop smoking.

[00:22:40] She smoked until she was in her 80s and eventually died of COPD. But when I was a kid, I tried to get her. I knew that it was not good for you.

[00:22:50] So that's what I mean. So even if you've got parents that are telling you not to do those things, it's still it's still the kids do stupid stuff. I wish I had never started it. Yeah, they do. But smoking never caused the kid to commit suicide.

[00:23:07] No, that's yeah, that's probably accurate. I mean, there have been times I've been wanting to kill other people. When you're down to your last six. That's right. Exactly. Right. So, yeah. Or when I'm quitting. Yeah. Yeah. Great conversation. All right. Thanks, Joe. Appreciate it, buddy.

[00:23:26] No, that's and that's fair. It's just it's. Yeah, I don't know. And there are there are different kinds of vaping also. And people obviously.

[00:23:38] People are doing like homebrew vaping stuff where they vape with like these little cartridges and it's like these I mean, you see in the plumes of smoke and all of that. And people use it for the THC delivery system as well.

[00:23:51] And they're you know, they've kind of hot wired these things to to burn weed in them. And they smoke them a lot more, you know, because after like you smoke a couple of cigarettes like that'll do you unless you're a chain smoker at that point. But yeah.

[00:24:07] Got a message on Twitter from the hellion who says I would never have smoked cigarettes had I not worked third shift. Network support with my boss's secret cigarette stash in his desk, he hid it from his wife. I decided to try to see what the big deal was.

[00:24:30] And that's how we got hooked. Right. That's. My first cigarette was in the bathroom of a Burger King on Long Island. A guy named not kidding. Last name Christ. And I figured surely this person would not lead me astray. No, but his last he.

[00:24:57] Christ, he pronounced it, but he would always joke, no, that's Christ, you know, but whatever. So, yeah, he that was the first cigarette that I recall. It may have actually been on senior cutout day, but I don't even remember. But it was high school. So and I was 18.

[00:25:12] Which still, yeah, you were allowed to buy it 18, right? Is that what is it? Is it 21 or 18? It's not sure. I haven't tried to buy any in a long time. Well, you wouldn't even be carded now. Yeah, I get carded for the senior discount. Yeah.

[00:25:30] A surgeon general's public health advisory on social media is mental health published last year cited research finding that among its potential harms are exposure to violent and sexual content. And to bullying, harassment and body shaming.

[00:25:45] The US surgeon general also focused in the 2023 advisory on what social media does not seem to do, which is that it does not always enhance mental health through the proven method of face to face interaction. That's a that's a more beneficial interaction face to face.

[00:26:05] He has been careful to note that research on the matter is not conclusive yet, with much of it, much of it finding correlations between time spent on social media and negative mental health effects. But without establishing a firm cause and effect at this point.

[00:26:21] But there is correlation now. Correlation is not causation, as we all know. Right. But. You've got this advisory that's already been out, and one of the things on these social media sites is. The violent.

[00:26:38] And violent sexual content and sexual content right there, like all three of those things. And you can't stop some of this stuff from getting through. I have. I have two Facebook accounts. Well, when I started, I only had one.

[00:26:55] And then when you hit the 5000 friend limit, humblebrag, when you hit 5000, when you hit the 5000 mark, they automatically roll you over into a was a public page, I think is what they call it. They turn you into like a public figure.

[00:27:12] And you lose some stuff, some some interaction abilities when you are now this public person page or whatever it was. So there's that one. But then and they used to just delete you as a personal profile, but they stopped doing that.

[00:27:29] And so now I ended up with two pages. I didn't want them, but they're basically the same page. One is the public page and one is my personal Facebook. And that's about a 5000 friends also.

[00:27:39] And I get friend requests dozens like every single day, and I don't even really do anything on Facebook anymore. But I still get all of these friend requests and like, I don't just approve them. They're just like I have no mutual friends. I get all these requests.

[00:27:57] And when I look through some of the avatars, little profile pictures like, oh, that's spam and that's porn. I don't want that. But. Like, what do you think an 18 year old is getting and do you think they may make different decisions there?

[00:28:13] All right, let's go to Peggy on line one. Hello, Peggy. Welcome to the program. Hey, listen, I just have one thing I'd like to mention that I've always thought was so unusual.

[00:28:24] My parents, I grew up back in the 50s and 60s, and my parents were chain smokers, unfiltered cigarettes, camels, back to back smoking.

[00:28:36] We were up in a four room house with eight children and we were in the house all the time with these parents that were smoking nonstop. In the car, we'd go every place with all of us in the car. The windows rolled up and smoking.

[00:28:51] Do you know out of all these eight children that came from that environment, not one of us smokes? I believe they're all active and in our 70s and 80s.

[00:29:05] I just think that's unusual that not one out of the eight of us smokes at all and has never smoked. I don't know. I mean, I think there are people. I mean, I think that goes both ways.

[00:29:14] I think you've got parents that smoke and then their kids pick it up as acts of rebellion or whatever. But because usually parents are not encouraging their kids to smoke, but also the kids like you, you had this direct experience.

[00:29:29] And I've got cousins who, like I mentioned, my godmother, who has now passed, but all of her kids, none of them smoked. They hated it. Right. So because both her and my uncle both smoked, she and her husband. So they both smoked and chain smoked at that.

[00:29:43] And and so the kids that grew up in that environment, they were not fans. And all the secondhand smoke, you know, people talk about it, but we breathed it our whole life. Yeah. None of us have lung cancer. You know, it's just kind of odd. Yeah.

[00:30:00] Well, well, congrats on not getting the lung cancer, Peggy. I appreciate the call. No. And look, that's everybody's experiences are different like that. Some kids that grow up in those homes, they end up with, you know, asthma, breathing problems, bronchitis and that sort of thing.

[00:30:15] That was one of the things I would get often when I smoked, especially when I smoking heavily like a pack a day, pack and a half a day, you know, 25 years ago, it was I would get bronchitis, not bronchitis, earaches and stuff. Yeah.

[00:30:30] And coughing and I guess, yeah, bronchitis, but also like swelling of the uvula, that little thing that hangs down in the back of your throat there would swell up and it would get so heavy, it would start falling down. We like it like block my my airway.

[00:30:44] Very, very uncomfortable. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast.

[00:30:55] So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the peak calendar show.com again. Thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.